At 62, I realised I had never once chosen a make-up bag
At 62, I realised I had never once chosen a make-up bag
Six things the Azure Skies gets right that the free one you were given gets wrong, from a woman who is not a beauty writer.
Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and I have never in my life sat down to write about a make-up bag. What happened is that I stayed at my sister's a fortnight ago, unpacked, and put mine down on her lovely clean shelf, and saw it properly for the first time in about nine years. A cloudy plastic pouch that came free with a perfume set one Christmas, gone yellow at the seams, with a zip that only did up if you asked it nicely.
The one I have now is called the Azure Skies, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly making the ordinary things a bit lovelier for a few years now. A quilted bag with a great green dragonfly across the front, sitting on a circle of cream and gold knotwork with a border of little flowers round the edge. When the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition that I could be completely honest in it.
Three different women asked me about it that weekend. Read on.
How it happens
Here is the part I want to say properly, because I do not think it is any of our faults. Nobody buys a make-up bag. You are given one. It comes free with a perfume set at Christmas, or inside a toiletry gift box, or it is the one that came with a suitcase in about 2011. And because you never chose it, you never think about it either.
The old one. Free with a perfume set, and nine years of service. I had genuinely stopped seeing it.
Then the shops sell them as an afterthought, down the end of an aisle, so you get the impression that a make-up bag is not a thing a person is allowed to have an opinion about. And it is only a make-up bag, so doing something about it is permanently the next thing on a list that never comes up.
What I had wrong
I thought a make-up bag was a container. Something to hold the other things, and therefore not worth thinking about. What it actually is, is the first thing I open every single morning and the last thing I shut at night, and the one item of mine that sits out on somebody else's shelf when I stay away.
And I had assumed the nice ones would be the impractical ones. Fabric, fiddly, no good once it is in a bag. That turned out to be exactly backwards. This one stands up on its own, it has a proper zip that shuts, and when it needs it, it goes in the machine.
Practical and pretty were never a choice of one. I had simply never been offered the pretty version, and I had never thought to go looking.
I ordered it expecting something flimsy. It arrived and I was rather quiet about it for a minute, and having used it every day since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The day it came. In a proper box with tissue, which for a make-up bag I had not expected at all.
IT IS THE FIRST THING I OPEN EVERY MORNING
I want to start with this because it is the bit I had never worked out. Whatever else is going on, I open this at about half past seven and again at ten at night. Nothing else I own gets picked up twice a day, every day, without fail. Once you see it that way, the idea of using something you were given by accident nine years ago and never liked starts to look rather silly. It did to me, anyway.
It is smaller than it looks in photographs. Mine is the medium and it sits in one hand.
I did not expect to care about a make-up bag at 68 and yet here I am, pleased with it every morning.
Kathleen S., NewarkIT IS WORTH LOOKING AT UP CLOSE
Mine has a dark green dragonfly with its wings right out, sitting on a circle of cream and gold knotwork, and round the edge there is a border of little flowers and scrolls in olive and dull gold. The whole thing is quilted, so there are stitch lines running through it and the design has a bit of depth to it rather than being flat. It is the sort of thing you keep noticing new bits of, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write about something that lives next to my toothpaste.
The dragonfly close up. There is more going on in it than you see at arm's length.
Far prettier in person than on the screen. My daughter picked it up and asked where it was from straight away.
Irene T., Mansfield WoodhouseIT STANDS UP, SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT IS IN IT
This is the practical one and it is the one I would have told you about first if I were being sensible. It is quilted and it has a bit of structure to it, so it sits up on the side rather than collapsing into a heap. Unzip it and it stays open, and you can look in and take out what you want. No holding it in one hand and feeling about in it with the other. No tipping the whole lot out on the bed to find one thing.
What goes in the medium. Rather more than I had expected when I first picked it up.
Stands up by itself on the bathroom shelf and stays open when you unzip it. Sounds like nothing until you have it.
Barbara P., RetfordIT GOES IN THE MACHINE
I always ask this now, because I have been caught out by something lovely that turned out to want careful hand washing, and a thing you have to hand wash is a thing that slowly stops getting used. This is a cotton and poly blend and it goes in the machine, cold, on a gentle cycle, and then dries on the airer. Which matters rather a lot for something that lives with a hand cream that leaks and a mascara that does not always shut properly.
Something leaked in mine, it went through the wash and came out fine. That sold me on buying a second.
Lorna M., WorksopTHREE HONEST SIZES, WITH THE MEASUREMENTS GIVEN
There are three, and the boutique prints the measurements rather than leaving you to guess from a photograph, which I wish more of them would. The small is about 18 cm across, the medium about 20 cm, and the large about 28 cm. I have the medium for every day and it takes what I actually use. If you keep more than that, or you want one that will take a hairbrush and a wash bag's worth, take the large and do not think about it again.
Took the large on their measurements and it was right. I would have guessed wrong from the pictures.
Glenda H., BaldertonIT IS THE THING I NOW PACK FIRST
This is the one I did not see coming. It used to be the last thing I threw in and the thing I would rather nobody saw at the other end. Now it goes in first and it sits out on the shelf wherever I am staying, and twice now somebody has picked it up and asked about it. My sister has one on order. That is a very strange thing to be able to say about a make-up bag and I am saying it anyway.
Took it away for a weekend and two people asked about it. Nobody has ever asked me about a wash bag before.
Norma W., EdwinstoweThe Azure Skies, against the one I was given
For nine years I used a pouch that came free with something else. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
You never chose it, so you never liked it
Clear plastic, gone yellow and cloudy at the seams
Collapses in a heap, so you feel about inside it
A zip that does up if you ask it nicely
Hidden away the moment anybody might see it
You pick it, out of dozens of designs
Quilted cotton with a dragonfly and gold knotwork
Stands up on its own and stays open when unzipped
A proper zip that shuts, and a machine wash when it needs it
Left out on the shelf on purpose
About the price
The small is £28.95, the medium £34.95 and the large £39.95, down from £58.00, £70.00 and £80.00.
I will be straight with you, because it is the thing that made me hesitate. That is a lot for a make-up bag, and I sat and thought about it. Then I worked out that I had never paid a penny for one in my life, and what I had to show for that was a yellow plastic pouch I hid when people came. I had spent nothing and got exactly what I paid for. This is the first one I have ever actually chosen, and that turned out to be rather the point.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
Packed for two nights at my sister's. It goes in first now, which it never used to.
What I would tell you if we were friends
If you and I were sat in the kitchen and you asked me, this is what I would say. Go and look at the thing you keep your bits in. If it came free with something else, and it has gone a bit yellow, and you would rather nobody saw it, then you have simply never been offered a nicer one and now you have.
And do have a proper look through the designs before you settle, because there are dozens of them. Mine is the dragonfly, but there are cats and little dogs and hummingbirds and all sorts of flowers, and the whole point of this is choosing one rather than being handed one. There will be one that is properly you.
It is a small thing. But the small ordinary things you use twice a day wear on you more than you notice, and this is a cheap and cheerful one to put right.
The sale is on now and the popular designs go first. Go and have a look while the one you want is still there.
Caroline
AZURE SKIES | Quilted Make-Up Bag
- Quilted cotton-poly, with a dragonfly on a circle of gold knotwork
- Stands up on its own and stays open when you unzip it
- Proper zip closure
- Machine washable, cold on a gentle cycle
- Three sizes: small about 18 cm, medium 20 cm, large 28 cm
- Dozens of designs in the collection, from cats to hummingbirds
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, half price. The popular designs go first.