When mum of 2 and blogger Sophie Le Brozec contacted us to tell us how thrilled she was to take her new Victoria Green wash bags on her European trip, we asked her to write this guest post and tell us all about it. Read on for all the details...
I was ridiculously excited. Nearly 2 years ago our little family left the UK for a new life in Mauritius, and we hadn’t been back since. Then this summer we were booked on an 8 week trip back to Europe. A holiday that would include visits to our families and friends in the UK, France and Ireland.
A flight back to London from Mauritius for a family of 4 comes at a certain cost so we decided that if we were going to do it, we were really going to do it!
We put together an itinerary that saw us taking in cities, hamlets, beaches, mountains and more. With a mix of accommodation too. From friends’ spare bedrooms to hotel rooms, from AirBnB's to caravans, it wouldn’t be monotonous.
Now I’m a little bit OCD and a bit of a control freak. And usually when we go anywhere I have to fully unpack and put everything away. But I knew with 13 different places to stay this wasn’t going to be possible and I would have to come to terms with living out of a suitcase.
So I started to research my holiday essentials: packing, suitcases and wash bags. If I wasn’t going to be unpacking I needed these to really work for me.
I quickly found a suitcase solution as a friend shared her love of Marie Kondo and her method of packing. Once I watched a couple of videos online I knew I could tick packing off my holiday checklist. I would pack the Konmari way and I would get suitcases that open in the middle. Easy.
The rest of my holiday packing list was pretty simple. The only thing that I still needed to resolve was my toiletry bag issue, or rather issues.
- I wasn’t going to be able to unpack my wash bag, so it needed to be easy to get at everything in it.
- I needed a lot of stuff with me, so it had to be a bit Tardis-like - anyone who’s travelled with kids will back me up on that one. Oh and my crazy curls take a couple of products to tame, so I definitely needed to squeeze them in too.
- It had to fit easily into my suitcase - space was obviously at a premium there too.
- It must be solid - having had a conditioner disaster in a wash bag once, I have this huge fear of finding the contents of my wash bag smeared all over my clothes.
- Last but not least if it could hang up in a bathroom it would be a bonus. But at this stage I wasn’t sure I’d find any toiletry bags that ticked even half of these boxes.
Now let me give you a bit of background. In 2003 I started travelling for work and I HATED my wash bag, until I came across this fab one that opened out fully, making it easy to find all my bits and bobs.
But years of travel finally killed that toiletry bag. And I genuinely had the fear I would never find something even half as good.
Cue evenings spent googling “wash bags that open out fully” and poring over websites and blogs, unable to find anything at all.
Until I finally landed on this website. Victoria Green. I was initially attracted by the lovely looking beauty bags, and I had a teeny tiny hope that they might make it onto my holiday packing list. But by now I was pretty certain that what I was after was the holy grail.
Charlotte Traveller Hanging Wash Bag
I read the descriptions of all the different wash bags. I watched the videos. I got out a tape measure and tried to visualise the size of the bags. I re-read the descriptions. I re-watched the videos. Could it be…?
It felt a little bit too good to be true. Also I’d be buying online from Mauritius, getting the wash bags I’d chosen sent to my mum and dad’s in the UK. I wouldn’t be touching them until I started using them.
The price sat comfortably with me and seemed right for the products (I didn’t want to pay a fortune, but equally I wanted something made of decent quality that wouldn’t fall apart the first time I (over) filled it.)
I bit the bullet and hit “Buy” and hoped for the best.
A few weeks later, after a 12 hour flight, we got to my mum and dad’s house and I eagerly (and a bit anxiously) opened up my parcel.
I LOVED the style - I’d looked at two different versions of the same two hanging wash bags which seemed to have my name on them, and I was delighted to see that in real life these toiletry bags were even nicer looking than on screen.
I went for two different wash bags - a hanging wash bag, and a wash bag with handle that looked like it could hold the kitchen sink. I decided the Charlotte Hanging Traveller would be a good hanging wash bag for all the essentials I need in the bathroom, and the bigger Iris Carry All bag would be for throwing everything and anything else in.
I was a bit nervous when I saw the size of the hanging wash bag. It looked really little. My heart sank. My master plan was foiled. There was no way I’d fit all the bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, curl spray, moisturiser and so on into that one.
But I’m not a quitter so I emptied out my trusted old 2003 hanging wash bag - that was literally falling apart at the seams - to see just how much I could fit into the new travel toiletry bag.
Happy Days!! It might look titchy but that hanging wash bag really is a Tardis in disguise. I managed to get everything in it. And I mean actual bottles of shampoo and conditioner, not just the smaller, travel versions.
That Charlotte hanging wash bag went on to grace the hooks of a gîte in the Loire Valley, a hotel at Disneyland Paris, a friend’s bathroom in Normandy, a cottage in the Cotswolds, an AirBnB in Somerset and another in Cornwall, another friend’s bathroom in London, a hotel in Reims in the Champagne region of France, a chalet in the French Alps, my mother-in-law’s bathroom in Avignon, a caravan on the French Riviera, a cottage in rural Ireland and finally my old childhood bathroom at my mum and dad’s house.
It was a one-of-a-kind trip and those wash bags got pushed and shoved in and out of suitcases, on and off planes, in and out of cars. But they still look like new. After I used them the first time I realised there was no risk of leakage as they were seriously sturdy, whilst still looking beautiful.
The larger wash bag I went for really did fit everything but the kitchen sink in it, but be warned it does take up space, both in the suitcase and on a bathroom shelf. However if you have a family then you will get EVERYONE’s stuff in it, no problem. And it’s so pretty too!
Carry All Large Wash Bag The hanging wash bag though is the one that really stole my heart, as I told everyone in every place we visited! So much so that my mum, who never buys stuff, asked me for the link so she could get one too ;-)
I don’t have one negative to say about the Charlotte hanging wash bag, it really did tick all of the (many many) boxes. It was so perfectly thought out, super easy to use, incredibly well-made and oh, it also looked beautiful. It worked perfectly in every single place we stayed. It would appear that there really are hooks in every bathroom!
Last but not least I want to make something clear. I’m not a beauty blogger and I don’t do reviews on my blog. I am not being paid to write this blog post. So why bother? Because I like to give credit where it’s due. These wash bags are fab, and they made our trip so much easier, that if just one person reads this and gets the same benefit I did then I will be a happy bunny. Oh and also I do love to support an independent too :-)
You can read more about our 2 month trip to Europe over on my blog, but make sure you check out the Victoria Green wash bags too - especially the Charlotte hanging wash bag which massively gets my thumbs up.
About Sophie
Sophie Le Brozec is an entrepreneur and mum of two who is passionate about helping women to love the life they live. Check out her website, blog and free resources at www.SophieLeBrozec.com