In the Bag

What’s in the bag? See for yourself..

Yes this is the Hayden-Harnett Conrad bag from this post! I luurrrve it; it works both as a classic black bag for the office, AND dressy enough for meeting up with friends afterwards. The leather is super supple and soft (look at the shine on this baby!), and now I completely understand girls’ love affairs with purses and handbags because I am officially OBSESSED. This marks several milestones – my first HH, and my first black bag.

The lining is gorgeous! I love peeking into my bag.

Compared to other girls’ purses I’ve seen, I consider myself a light packer O.O Inside, I carry:

• small notebook with weekly to-do list and for jotting down random notes, + pens
• Lacoste wallet from Century 21
• Longchamp makeup bag with 1) Prescriptives Virtual Matte pressed powder, 2) Lancome Juicy Tube in Fruity Pop, 3) MAC Hello Kitty lipgloss in She Loves Candy, 4) MAC SlimShine in Ultra Elegant, 5) Kiehl’s #1 lip balm, and 6) sample size of Prescriptives Virtual Matte foundation which are for emergencies but I’ve never used. I bet you can’t tell I love lip stuff =)
• Neutrogena handcream
• 3G iPhone (I waited 4 hours in line the 2nd day it came out)
• elbow-length gloves to keep my phalanges warm, essential for NYC winter
• earmuffs – useful in theory but I don’t like how they mess up my hair since they go around the head

Not shown but still in the picture is my Blackberry, which fits perfectly into the right external pocket, and my Metro card which lives inside the left outside pocket. When it comes to bags, I still need function in addition to fashion, so I love that this bag has so many pockets. Along with my building keycard and work keycard, sometimes I transfer my phone into the ingeniously magnetic (!) back pocket for easy access.

I must say, my first foray into the realm of purses was a success, and converted me into a believer.

Hands Up for Moisture

Because without it I would be a molting, flaking reptile. Because dry skin makes you more susceptible to papercuts. Because hands most easily give away one’s age.

Whatever the reason, hand cream has a permanent place in my purse this winter. It has been incredibly drying in NYC, and without it, I am scaly, itchy, flaky, and any other adjective used to describe a snake shedding its top epidermal layer. Particularly, the skin around my cuticles and the webby part between the thumb index finger are the worst looking. So I picked up some Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream in the Fragrance-Free Version.

Love it! The clear gel/cream is thick enough that you only need a little bit to hydrate both hands, and absorbs quickly so you don’t have to wait around. The fragrance-free formula is perfect for work too, because I don’t want to attack my coworkers with strong-smelling girly lotion (the fragrance version is fairly intense). I got mine for $5 at a local drugstore.

Another option for hand cream, a more expensive luxurious alternative, is L’Occitane’s hand cream, available in many formulas and scents. I gifted my aunt one of the trio sets for Christmas, which contained the Shea Butter, Cherry Blossom, and Lavender mini-versions, perfect for sticking in the handbag and finding your preferred smell. These are supposed to be best-selling hand creams on the market, and keep your hands supersoft. The price is $25 a pop for a 5.2oz, so a bit pricey, but there’s a sale going on at the website right now!