Ever wondered what you should be carrying around in your handbag? Find out which beauty essentials are actually needed!

My BFF is a bag-lady and by this I don’t mean she’s homeless, or that she’s daily dragging half of her belongings with her, far from it. Judging by the size of her handbag though, you’ll be forgiven for thinking so. The beauty of her Olsen twin’s handbag tendencies is that she’s never caught unprepared. Ask for painkillers, a wet wipe, a sweater, an umbrella, an energy bar, bottled water, a book or handcuffs — umm– maybe not handcuffs, but the rest will be on your lap before you can say pretty please. And if I was to be stuck in an island and I had to choose between her with her handbag and Channing Tatum… let’s just say I would need glasses of red wine to make such a decision.

Be a chic bag-lady without throwing out your back:
Your daily handbag needs to be able to meet your lifestyle needs. Mine is for a girl-about-town who has no time to put on makeup before hitting the morning traffic, let alone have breakfast. The war paint gets slapped on between the first cup of coffee, rebooting my PC and pretending to be deaf to my phone’s insistence ringing. So, I had to learn from my BFF to tailor my handbag with essential items relevant to me. Namely, a wallet, accessories, a cosmetic bag, a Mini First Aid Kit and some items I cannot live without.

Wallet:
A wallet makes a handbag, that goes without saying and a wallet can be a life saver should you be in a medical emergency and you’re not in a position to speak for yourself. Thus it must have your driver’s licence, medical aid card, and the telephone numbers of your next of kin, without fail. Cell phones can get lost or stolen; their batteries get flat and some are password locked making them of no use to the medical staff or to some Good Samaritan.

Accessories:
Sunglasses and my chandelier earrings are my accessories of choice. The sunglasses protect my eyes and give me instant style credibility. Sexy earrings certainly are not boardroom appropriate but they upgrade any office look to a date worthy one in a snap, and effortlessly so.

Cosmetic bag:
1.SPF cream
2.A nude and a red lipstick  
3.Day & Night mascara
4.Face powder
5.Wet wipes
6.Hand cream
7.Tissues
8.A mini deodorant spray
9.Nail file
10.Hair brush
11. A quick drying nail polish – matching your current nail colour
12.Breath mints and/ or floss thread

This bag offers essential items to keep a girl immaculately polished throughout the day and can easily upgrade her from boardroom boring to a sexy vixen. And there is no need to carry full size items when the refillable travel containers are a dime a dozen. The key is to keep all your cosmetics compact. As for girls that like to keep it simple, go for double duty cosmetics such as Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour cream, cheek and lip cream etc. to keep your cosmetic bag on the light side.

Mini First Aid Kit:
•Sanitary pads
•Painkillers
•Plasters
•ENO

Raging hormones, headaches, paper cuts and tummy aches happen, ready or not. A girl has got to be prepared.
Optional item:

1. Note pad and a pen
2.Extra battery charger
3.Memory stick
4.USB cable
5.A travel sewing kit
6.A travel size lint remover &
7.A handbag hook

The optional items are exactly that, optional, but I swear by a sewing kit and a USB cable. They have saved me from a wardrobe malfunction, provided me with hours of entertainment and storage facility, they no longer optional in my life.

Bag-lady bye-bye:
I’ve embraced the bag-lady lifestyle because the benefits are just stupendous.  Now I fully appreciate the benefits of a handbag that can take me from a boardroom, to lunch in the sun, and dinner or nightclub without breaking into bullets of perspiration.
By the way, Magic Mike, moa and a deserted island does not sound all that bad, does it?

Article by: Ncomeka Mpofu http://www.beautybulletin.com/blog-directory/our-bloggers/ncomeka-mpofu