Last month when i was in London, the very cool girls from the UK’s well-known site: What’s In My Handbag paid me a visit in my hotel room.  They arrived just as I was thumbing through the latest issue of the UK’s Clique magazine, featuring the beautiful US model (and amazing cook, and plus-size swimsuit line designer) Robyn Lawley in their cover story. I love working with Robyn and seeing her beautiful mug on the cover was such a nice treat.

I was in the UK  to help Burt’s Bees launch their beautiful line of color lip products in Europe and had such a wonderful time meeting countless editors, beauty bloggers, makeup artists, and Burt’s Bees distributors from numerous countries.  I loved doing lip makeovers (I think I did nearly 80 in one day!), and introducing everyone to my favorite layering techniques.

It was a whirlwind trip, but during the one hour of down time I had, I took a little walk around a shopping district not far from the hotel. At some point I stopped to tie my shoe and when I stood up, I noticed I was standing in front of the best all-natural beauty product store in the UK: Content. It was one of those: ‘I can’t believe this’ moments, and that feeling only intensified when I entered the store and found so many of my favorite green brands, and green brands of which I’d never heard. That’s not where the ‘wow’ stopped for me: one of the shop keepers asked if I needed any help, and when I told her that I was just so excited to have stumbled upon her store, seeing that I was a makeup artist from the US, interested in the world of green beauty, she said: ‘is your name Katey?’

It turns out that the shop keeper was actually the owner of this, the first ever green beauty store in London! The lovely Imelda  then showed me around the shop, introduced me to locally made, and sold-in-the-UK-only products, and then the amazing entrepreneur even walked me to the first ever organic juice shop that had just opened up nearby.

In the photo above, you’ll see the hand cream, eye cream, and pretty glass nail file that I picked up while in her beautiful boutique (that not only sells the best products, but also offers beautifying and relaxing services in the little treatment rooms in the back).

In addition to my new purchases, in this pic  you’ll find my favorite products I keep close at hand, particularly while traveling.  Also pictured are my favorite bamboo utensils from togoware, and my go-to, easy to travel with, thick and rich body (also serves as hand, and sometimes hair) cream from Pai Organic Skincare,

I love knowing what treasures other women are toting around in their hand bags and toiletry kits, so i felt it only fitting to share what I had in mine.

Click here to see the full piece on the whatsinmyhandbag.com site.

Thanks again, What’s In My Handbag, for snooping through my purse. It was so much fun! x