you know how when you have like, daytime plans and you have to dress up like a lady, and you can't really take a backpack with you? like, say you were going to ascot for the day, and you had to take a smallish bag with you so that your dress wasn't all drowned out by some hideous satchel that doesn't really go, and then you realise you can't fit your charger in there and - well, smartphones man. am i right?
so you've got your dress and your shoes and maybe you've got your hair all did nicely and your make up is on point, and then there's the bag dilemma again. the bag needs to fit in your phone, your purse, some lippy, a back up lippy, probably some make up or something too, right? then there's like, the cookies you need to smuggle in, the gin-in-a-tin you picked up from m&s at the station, and -oh, your keys! you have to get those keys in there too, and if you're anything like me, then tissues and nasal spray too. that's.. well, that's a lot of stuff for a small bag, and yeah, there's no way you're getting your charger in there too... or is there...?
check this bad boy out! it's a freaken rechargable bag! well, i mean the bag doesn't have secret recharging powers, no. what it ~does have is a detachable battery bank inside the lining that - once full, can then charge your smart phone twice over before it needs plugging in again. to test this bag's claim, i threw caution to the wind at the weekend and left both my beloved hot pink battery bank ~and my charger cable at home, and put all my trust in the h butler mighty purse.
i made 100% sure that the battery on both my phone and the bank were fully charged before i left the house. then, in true smart phone style, by the time i'd reached waterloo station (half an hour, maybe), i was already down to 85%; the worry had already set in by the time i boarded the train to ascot that my phone would die in record time, and the bag would fail me. i am a worrier in my nature, and i was so distracted by this scenario that i barely took photos of my time at ascot. fool! such a wicked fool!
but, ok so not only did this bag's secret battery power take my silly phone from a low 50% to fully charged in about an hour at the event, then a quick top-up when we were back on the train (i can't bear when it drops below 80 i'm saaaach a weirdo), but it also quickly topped up milly's phone on the way home too ~and still has three of the four lights clearly lit up on the board, meaning there's still a whole 'nother charge in there for another day!
oh ~and, check out all the things i managed to fit in there comfortably too! after that middle picture was taken i ~also added to the bag two full containers of foundation (somehow!); it somehow was like a clown car but as a handbag. at the event i just kept pulling stuff out, and adding stuff back in, and that's all taking into account that the battery bank itself does take up some room of it's own. it's flat, sure, but it's large. i had to use a narrow purse (kate does come in handy sometimes!) to slip in alongside the battery, which freed up a ton of room for all my other junk. it was perfect!
ok, so it's a tad pricey. it's 100% suede though, and a neat bit of technology. i've had some shit battery banks in my time though, that have barely lasted one charge, and this one obviously does charge way more than that. so, considering the function it performs and the quality of the actual bag, i'd say it's definitely worth the above-average price tag. i know i'll definitely be getting loads of use out of it, so if you're one of those weirdos like me who attributes cost per wear, then you'd only need to use it a handful of times for it to be the great value for money. at least that's how it works in my head...
but what do yoooou think? tell me how you get around taking a charger everywhere you go?
