What’s in Koda’s Bag? It-Girl and Off-Duty Essentials

The Lip

Clinique Almost Lipstick

I’d want a lip product that doesn’t require a meeting with yourself in a mirror first. Clinique Almost Lipstick is sheer and lightweight, which is exactly the sort of formula that makes sense in an everyday bag. (I’ve compared the Honey shades properly in Black Honey, Pink Honey or Nude Honey?)

#OffCampus gives the deeper, moodier colour I’d choose without turning it into a full lipstick commitment at eleven in the morning. It’s the difference between nothing on my lips and perhaps I’ve made an effort. Useful distinction.

Shop: Clinique Almost Lipstick — Amazon →

The Mascara

Clinique High Impact Mascara

Mascara earns its place because plans change. You can leave home intending to have coffee and somehow it’s seven o’clock and the lighting has become considerably less forgiving.

For a bag like this, I’d choose something straightforward: length, definition, volume, done. High Impact fits that brief without turning a quick touch-up into an entire makeup routine.

Shop: Clinique High Impact Mascara — Amazon →

The Powder

Clinique Superpowder Double Face Powder Foundation

I’m not interested in looking powdered. I’m interested in having the option to remove shine from the exact place I didn’t ask it to appear.

That’s why a compact makes sense here: touch-up rather than transformation. A little where you need it, leave the rest of the skin alone, move on with your life. There are very few situations improved by applying progressively more makeup simply because you happen to have brought it with you.

Shop: Clinique Superpowder — Amazon →

The Sunglasses

Saint Laurent SL M137/F Amelia 001

Not strictly necessary in London for large parts of the year. That has never really been the point of sunglasses.

I’d choose the Amelia because the black lenses and fine gold frame are strong enough to change an outfit without becoming the outfit. They’d work with a coat, a slip dress, a sweatshirt, yesterday’s makeup and the expression of someone who would prefer not to discuss how late she went to bed.

Possibly the closest thing in the bag to a genuine It Girl cliché. I’m comfortable with that.

Shop: Saint Laurent SL M137/F Amelia 001 — Pret-a-Voir →

The Hand Cream

Molton Brown Delicious Rhubarb & Rose Hand Cream

Hand cream is one of those deeply unexciting things that suddenly becomes quite important when you don’t have any.

I’d pick something that makes the practical bit feel slightly less practical. Rhubarb and rose has much more appeal than a tube chosen purely because it fits in the side pocket, and 40 ml is small enough to belong in a handbag without becoming luggage in its own right.

Shop: Molton Brown Delicious Rhubarb & Rose Hand Cream — Amazon →

The Perfume

Versace Eros Pour Femme Eau de Parfum, 50 ml

Perfume in a handbag isn’t entirely about needing more perfume. Sometimes it’s simply nice to have the option.

Eros Pour Femme would be one of the more overtly glamorous things I’d put in here, which is exactly why it works beside all the practical objects. At 50 ml, it also feels plausible for the bag rather than like something that should have stayed on the dressing table.

Shop: Versace Eros Pour Femme 50 ml — Amazon →

The Power Bank

Anker Nano Power Bank, 45W, 10,000mAh

The fantasy handbag contains only beautiful things. The useful one contains a power bank.

If I were building an off-duty bag for London, this would be non-negotiable. Between photographs, messages, maps, music and trains, portable power has a stronger claim on the space than another lip product.

There’s nothing very model-off-duty about standing beside a plug socket in Pret guarding a phone on four per cent.

Shop: Anker Nano Power Bank — Amazon →

The Earphones

Apple AirPods Pro 3

London is better when you can turn it down occasionally. For an off-duty bag, noise-cancelling earphones make more sense to me than almost any glamorous accessory. They’re for the train, the walk, the coffee shop and those brief moments when you’d quite like the city to stop contributing to the conversation.

Not the most photogenic luxury in the bag, perhaps. One of the most convincing.

Shop: Apple AirPods Pro 3 — Amazon →

The Wallet

Bellroy Mag Wallet in INNOVERA™ Black

For the wallet, I’d go in the opposite direction to the Saint Laurent sunglasses: quiet, black and almost invisible until you need it.

The Bellroy Mag Wallet keeps the shape clean and avoids adding another loud designer moment to a bag that already has one. Cards, perhaps one receipt you should’ve thrown away three days ago, and very little else. Not everything you carry needs to announce itself.

Shop: Bellroy Mag Wallet — Amazon →

The Kindle

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, 16 GB

The Kindle is the optimistic choice. Putting one in your bag assumes London might eventually give you twenty uninterrupted minutes. Sometimes the Victoria line has other ideas.

Still, I’d make room for it. There’s something appealing about deciding that a spare half-hour doesn’t automatically belong to your phone, the same instinct behind Before the Day Gets Loud. A book on a screen is still a book, and disappearing into one for three chapters feels considerably more luxurious than another half-hour of scrolling.

Shop: Kindle Paperwhite 16 GB — Amazon →

On Duty, Off Duty

Model off duty has always made ordinary life sound much more cinematic than it actually is. The better bag has room for both versions: the sunglasses-and-lipstick one and the headphones-and-charger one. That’s what I like about this edit. Nothing needs to pretend practicality and glamour belong to different women.

An It Girl may have the bag. She still needs a charger.

Further reading
The Makeup Bag, Edited →
Clinique Almost Lipstick: Black, Pink or Nude Honey? →
Before the Day Gets Loud →
The Beauty Edit →