What's In My Bag

My blog version of the ever popular "What's In My Bag" videos on YouTube. Although I feel that despite what the "gurus" say about not bragging about the Chanel/Givenchy/Gucci/Louis bags the banks allow them to use, it's ALL about bragging.

I don't know if you'll find this post interesting, but I was certainly fascinated by the contents of my own bag.

My Friis & Company 2-3 year-old bag that I bought at Zando. It's a bottle green bag that goes with maybe one thing in my wardrobe, but because I'm too lazy to change bags with every outfit, it's become my everyday bag.

It's soft and poofy and comfy to carry around. Other that what I emptied out there's usually a phone or 3, an iPad or 3 and water bottles living inside there too.

Who walks around with this many nail polishes in their bag? 3 are now and not been used yet. 

1) Sparitual Lacquer in French Tip Creme

2) essence effect nail polish in 21 Icy Fairy

3) essence colour & go 186 Polka Holga

4) LA Girl Metal in Sterling Silver

5) LA Girl 3D Effects GNL307 Sparkle Ruby

6) LA Girl Matte GNL530 White

7) Passion Nail Lacquer - This is one of those Dischem Bargain Bin special polishes so it doesn't have a colour name or number. It's a dark navy base with emerald/turqoise/gold duo chrome fine, fine glitter.

8) Compact mirror - gift from hubby from China

9) Mr Price Home notebook

10) SuperRubgy tickets for the Blue Bulls vs Stormers match from a couple of weeks ago.

11) El cheapo headphones from Primark

12) Cerruti wallet - gift from hubby from Switzerland

13) Nu Health Food Cafe menu

14) Pen swiped from a hotel.

15) Empty Catrice brush pouch. I don't remember the reason for having this in my bag, if there was a reason at all.

16) Cotton pads. I had a grand plan to do my nails in the car while waiting for the kids at school.

17) Happy Valley menu. We've been going to this little Chinese takaway since we moved to Joburg. 

18) Receipts that should have been thrown away.

19) School AGM agenda.

20) Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me (Can be bought here online.)

21) Tear drop hoop earrings from Woolworths. (Not available online but check out others here.)

22) Clinique Superbalm Moisturising Gloss sample in Currant

23) Catrice Ultimate Shine in 060 Teddy Brown

24) essence studio nails sweet mini file

25) Sheraton Hotel nail file 

26) essence kajal pencil in 04 white

27) smashbox Always Sharp Waterproof Kohl Liner in Raven

28) Clinique even better dark spot correcting hand cream SPF 15 sample

29) Revlon Ultra HD Lipstick in 899 HD Snapdragon (Just been released. I don't think it's available online yet. It's not even on the Revlon SA website yet.)

30) LA Colours Chunky Lip Pencil in CCL588 Wine - Don't bother with this. It's horrible. I bought it because I thought it was LA Girl which I much rather prefer. Bought at Dischem.

31) Botanical Collection Tropical Hand & Nail Cream with Vitamin E Oil. Excellent! Buy this!

32) Elastic hair tie from a pack of a lot form Clicks. I don't like the type with the metal piece. I think I bought this because it was all that was in stock at the time.

33) UVLAB High Performance Sport Screen SPF 50.

34) essence crystal eyeliner in 07 Blue Heaven

unlabelled - Clicks Sensitive Baby Wipes (10 pack) Very, very necessary if you have kids. And a husband.

The reason there's not a lot of lippies is because I was looking for a few lipsticks and glosses so I dug around all of my bags, took them all out and put them where they belong. Then these made an escape and found their way back into this bag. The Revlon HD lipstick in Snapdragon was bought on yesterday and it still has the seal on. Review up soon.

Hope you found this voyeurism somewhat interesting. I like watching these types of videos, even though I'm convinced that it's done more to show off the bag than anything else.

Anything else you'd like to see...?

rubybox September 2014

I was really late in posting my review of the August rubybox. Like the-day-before-the-new-box-arrived-late! I lose track of time like that all the time. Isn't a stay-at-home-mom's life supposed to be less stressful? Long, languid breakfasts that turn to brunches that turn to lunches before the kids need to be picked up... Spa days... Chilling in sweatpants on the couch in the sun with a book? No?

Haha! Ja, right!!!

Yesterday morning the hubzster left home early because he was going to site about an hour's drive away, so there was no morning overlap. (Morning overlap = I take the kids to school > he opens up for the maid > he leaves for work > I get home.) I get a call while I'm still at school from a courier company to say their driver just left my place because there was no-one at home to take delivery of a package. It wasn't even 8am yet! Turns out the courier company is a few roads away from us and I was first on the list. Fortunately he was still in the area and could come back just in time to find my maid at home so I still got my surprise box. And I proceeded to have a 4-hour long breakfast with some friends.

Methinks we need to employ a package receiver! I often miss deliveries when the maid's not there and I'm out running errands. It's frustrating.

But wait, that's not what this is about!

My first thought when I picked the package up as that it was heavy! September was billed to be rubybox's 3rd birthday and boxes would be filled with full-sized products and a collector's bracelet.

The promise.

Pretty fuchsia slip cover.

I'm not familiar with the format of the boxes, whether they come with lids loose, hinged or slip covers because this is only my 3rd box. The first two came with loose lids and as handy as they are, they're functioning as holders underneath the open boxes used to store little bits of stuff in my wardrobe. Safe to say I won't be missing the loose lid.

Cover slips off to reveal...

But wait, where's the collector's bracelet?

Oh, what do we have here?

What exactly is this?

This, dear friends, is the free collector's "bracelet". A string and a washer with a stamp on it. Oh rubybox, you shouldn't have. No really, you shouldn't have. I wasn't expecting a Pandora, and this wasn't necessary.

The rest of the box made up for the disappointment of the whatchamacallit.

R119.95 at rubybox

The brush comes with a brush guard that is handy for when you're carting it in your bag and to retain its shape but won't work to shape while drying as it's a plastic sheath that doesn't have holes for ventilation. 

Not bad quality for a R119.95 brush.

The bristles are soft because it's not cross cut and is loosely packed for soft blending and although I haven't used it much yet, I can't comment too much on how well it performs. It's sized perfectly for blush application. I tried it with a brick red Inglot blush which is intensely pigmented and I liked that it gave a sheer application. I think this brush would be perfect for those highly pigmented blushes although I don't know how it will apply blushes that are not as richly pigmented. It would be perfect for bronzing because you need a light hand with application, if you don't mind the size.

Notice the fine tips of the brisles. It makes for a very soft feel.

I think rubybox is genius in pairing products, like adding this brush cleaner with a brush. 

Brush cleaner

This is the perfect size for travel. The nozzle spritzes out a fine, consistent mist and a little goes a long way. I use this brush cleaner on denser brushes and it takes more than the recommended 3 sprays to clean the brush, but it's way better than me leaving a dirty brush that's just been run over a face cloth or tissue without any cleaner. I wash my brushes once a week anyway and with using the brush cleaner I find that the deep cleaning isn't as laborious anymore. It also makes traveling with fewer brushes possible because you can use one brush for a variety of applications. I don't have anything to compare this cleanser to and getting this one has allowed me to think about trying other cleansers too. For now, I'd repurchase this one.

 

I've used Dove Invisible Dry roll-on in the past and I don't have anything bad to say about it. Is it invisible? I think so. Is it invisible on 100 colours? I haven't tested it myself. This one has been tested on 100 colours and is proven to be invisible on all 100 colours. Well done. It claims, like most other antip-perspirant deodorants to work for 48 hours. This I can refute. You won't smell too offensive after 48 hours, but after 24 hours you'll definitely want to take soap and hot water to your pits. I'd buy it if I was in a pinch, but I'm back to old faithful Mitchum Gel for now. These things are nice to have extra stock of because deodorant is something you NEVER want to be caught without.

R29.95 at rubybox

I like this hand cream. It's a car hand cream. Only the best hand creams live in the car. (This is maybe not a good idea in our summers.) I keep fast absorbing hand creams in all our cars because you don't want to have greasy hands when you're driving. And when I'm driving is sometimes the only time that I really look at my hands. This one is light in texture, fast absorbing and has a pleasant light coconutty scent that doesn't linger. If you don't like coconut scents, still give this a try because it fades after 5 minutes. Your hands feel not only moisturised but protected as well. It's locally manufactured and at R29.95 I think is a brilliant buy. It would make an excellent gift pack gift for teachers (which is what I'm putting together at the moment).

And that, I think, is it. Except for the bracelet that really shouldn't have happened, I think the box would've been just perfect with the full-sized products as a birthday bonus.

Confession time: I started this post in September with the best intention of posting it "on time". Life kinda took a turn and now that I'm getting into posting again I thought it would be unjust to delete the draft and make as if it never happened. I'd like to still give my honest thoughts on some of the products I've been using these past months even though I wasn't posting. I have a lot to keep me busy in the next few weeks.

Catch you on the flip side...

E