Little Black Bag 5: part I (September)

WARNING: This is a long and picture-heavy post.  Be prepared to drool over pretty things.

Since I want to be a bit more detailed about my LBB and this one was pretty big, I'm splitting it into 2 parts: part I will be bonuses and bags, part II will be everything else. :)

My 5th Little Black Bag just came in and its the biggest one so far, thanks to 11 Benefit bonuses!  Living so close to where they ship out, it only took 2-3 days to receive my bag once it closed, which was super awesome.  Let's take a LOOK. :)

So this time around, I wasn't super in love with any one item and I was starting out with 5 jewelry credits, so I played around with opening with different items to see what they would offer me.  I ended up choosing a Benefit They're Real! mascara bonus as my first item, haha, because the exchange items they were offering me were much better when I did that.  Plus I really like that mascara, so I made it my goal to get as many as I could this bag.

So let's start out with the bonuses, shall we?

9 They're Real!, 1 Watt's Up!, 1 Porefessional, and a Porefessional card sample
that comes with the comic.

 So like I had mentioned, They're Real! was my first pick, so I was able to start with 2 bonuses.  During the week I only traded away 3 bonuses and started hoarding the ones I really liked (obviously mostly mascara). When I finally shipped, I took 9 of the available 49 They're Real! with me. (!!)

The reason I wanted so many is that this mascara is a full size at Sephora of this mascara is $23 for .3oz.  This sample is .1 oz, and I got 9 of them, equaling 3 full size mascaras.  BUT the bonuses will last longer because they will stay fresh.  It is a great mascara....it stays on, it coats evenly, and the wand has pointy bristles at the top that is great for detailing my teeny asian lashes.

One gripe I do have with them is that on the LBB site they are shown as being the larger .14oz size.  Now, that may not be a HUGE deal to some people, but its the difference between being a half size and a 1/3 size.  So its a the difference of like 1.5 full tubes for me.  Sad times.  Both the specs and the pictures were wrong on the LBB site, so there was no reason to doubt what they were showing me.  Since they are bonuses, I won't pout too much, but its just another example of how there can be inconsistencies on the LBB site.

For your info, the Porefessional sample is .1oz (1/3 of the full size) and the Watt's Up! is .08oz (full size is .33oz).

On to the bags!

I. Love. My. Pilar.  The Pilar was released on Tuesday mere HOURS after I opened.  Obviously, this really pissed me off, haha.  Luckily, the lovely Kelly opened with the bag to trade with me, since I had a few things she liked.  Definitely an instance where the chat has helped me out instead of being somewhat useless, like it can definitely tend to be. o_O

My black Vieta Pilar satchel.  Gorgeous!  Retail $83

My attempt to show a little more detail...hopefully you can see the faux
leather and the hardware better.

A peekie at the inside.  The lining is of good quality, too.

This bag is gorgeous and veryyyyy well made.  The synthetic leather is some of the best I've seen from LBB, its smooth, thick, and has a nice texture.  It would be big enough for a small laptop or an iPad, but anything larger probably wouldn't fit.  I've been looking for an inexpensive black satchel for fall, so getting this crosses something off my checklist!

Bag features: it has a top handle and a long crossbody strap that is adjustable with a belt-style buckle.  The back of the bag has a magnetic slip pocket, which is where my iPhone shall live (love having at least one accessible pocket on a bag for my phone!).  Inside is the standard 2 pocket/1 zip pocket style.


Onto the black Nila Anthony tote with studded handles.  This is my first Nila Anthony bag and I was a bit apprehensive to get it since they are notorious for being a bit smelly and having minor quality issues.  This bag as a last minute trade for me...as in, I traded for it in my last 20 minutes of trading for some jewelry I didn't really want.  While a teeny bit smelly (kind of like a tire?  A little bit?) it will air out in a few days and be just fine.  I'm already using it, so it doesn't stink that much!

Simple with spiky details.  What's not to love?  Retail $74

Love that the lining is a pop of color.

 This bag is SUPER simple, but is a great "don't want to match my bag to my style/outfit today" bag for me.  The short handles are just long enough to get on my shoulder, but I will most likely use them for carrying or elbow-crooking.  The crossbody strap is long enough to use as a crossbody (so many bags have short straps!) and has the same spiky studded detailing as the front of the short handles.  The material is a really soft pleather.  I was worried it was going to be stiff, so I'm really glad its not....I wanted the handles to fold or flop over nicely if I wore it as a crossbody, and I wanted a casual style bag so this is just what I need.

The lining is the typical Nila Anthony lining (from what I can tell by other people's product photos) which I really like...I am not a fan of dark lining, I can never find what I need in my bag as it is!  Also, the hardware on this bag is a kind of in between gold/silver, which will be great for mixing and matching with whatever jewelry I am wearing.  I still have a slight mental block on clashing my bag hardware with my jewelry....but I'm working on it!


My super-random love from this bag is the Fydelity Ice G Stereo Bag in yellow/lime green.  I had randomly gotten this while trading and couldn't let it go...and am super glad I didn't!  It was the only Fydelity speaker bag that wasn't animal print or checked, and I've been curious about it for awhile.  If I let it go, I wasn't going to get it back, so I'm glad it exceeded my expectations.

Why hello, my love!  Fydelity speaker bag!  Retail $50

Cute zipper pulls.  You can see the strap is almost a limey yellow here.

This bag will be PERFECT for taking to the beach, the park, or camping!  I like that if its damp or it gets dirty I can just wipe it clean.  It uses 4 AA batteries to power the surprisingly loud and clear speakers.  I really like the transparent yellow color, I have pretty wallets and pouches and you can never see them in my bag.  The bag only has one little pocket to hold the controls/battery pack, but since its transparent PVC I'd rather keep my things in pouches in the bag anyway.


Finally, the Street Level Envelope Clutch Wallet in pink.  Crazy bright pink.  After unwrapping this and the Fydelity bag, my guyfriend asked me if it was the 80s. :P

Pretty, pretty pink. Retail $52

Pretty lining and lots of pockets. Has 8 credit card slots.

Isn't it gorgeous!?  I saw the blue and the green on someone's blog and was worried the pink wasn't going to be bright enough, but no worries!  It is as close to neon as it can be without glowing in the dark.  It has wayyyy more compartments than I thought.  There's a slip pocket in the back, the 2 compartments with the credit card slots and a pocket in the divider (which you can see the lining of behind the divider set of credit card slots in the pic above), and then the 2 side snaps that you can see in the first picture actually open up another 2 pockets.  Lose count yet?  I just hope I can remember where I put everything in here.  And of course it also has a long chain strap so you can use can wear it hands free.  Loving this on my wallets lately!

So there, part I is complete.  Part II to come!  If you would like to open a new LBB account, please consider using my referral code!  Thanks! :)

Images: 1-10 my own