What’s in My Handbag

Earlier this month, while I was in London, the sexy cool girls from the UK site: What’s In My Handbag dropped by my suite on assignment for the production of yours truly. I found them sitting on the couch in my suite as I flipped through the most recent issue of UK’s Clique magazine, where the fabulous US model (and super hot cook, and plus-size swimsuit line designer) Robyn Lawley is on the cover alongside their cover story by yours truly. I love working with Robyn, and it’s always a nice treat when I see her beautiful mug on a glossy magically appearing on a newsstand here, there and everywhere.

I happened to be in the UK for the opening and was invited to help Burt’s Bees launch their gorgeous new colour lip line in Europe. We had a great time with hundreds of editors, beauty bloggers, make-up artists and Burt’s Bees distributors from all over the place. I did all the lip makeovers (I think I did 70 or 80 in one day!), showing everyone how to layer and which products to use together.

It was a quick trip, but I had a precious almost-hour of down time, and I went for a walk around a shopping district not far from the hotel. I stopped to tie my shoe at some point and when I stood up, I realised I was standing in front of the UK’s best all-natural beauty product mothership: Content. It was one of those ‘I can’t believe this’ moments, and that feeling only escalated when I went inside the store and found so many of my favorite green brands, and green brands I had no idea existed. And that wasn’t where the ‘Wow’ stopped for me: one of the shop keepers asked if she could help me and when I said I was just so excited to be there, since I was a make-up artist from the US, interested in the world of green beauty, she replied: ‘is your name Katey?

It turned out that this was the landmark of the first ever green beauty shop in London, and the jolly shopkeeper turned out to be its owner. My lady friend Imelda then toured me around the shop (in a real and adorable London accent), introduced me to locally made, sold-in-the-UK-only products, and then the wonder businesswoman actually walked me over to the first ever organic juice shop that was just opening up down the road.

Here you have also the hand cream, the eye cream and lovely glass nail file that I bought while strolling in her gorgeous boutique, which offers a selection of the best products and on top of that you can make an appointment to have a beautifying and relaxing treatment – massage or facial – in the tiny treatment rooms in the back.

Also here are some new purchases, and your favorite products kept at hand, especially if I’m travelling. My favorite utensils made from bamboo by Togo ware and my body (actually hand and sometimes hair) cream by Pai Organic Skincare which is thick, luxurious and easy to travel with.

I’ve always loved discovering what other women are carrying in their handbags and toiletries bags, so I was keen to give you the same insight into mine.