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Kipling Creativity S
by rolandrat
===The Product===
Kipling Creativity S (small) purse.
From their Basic range.
Made form nylon and ultra lightweight.
Kipling originally come from Antwerp since 1987 - this product was made in China.
Has small monkey keyring fastened to outside.
Fastens with zip across the top - size is 4 x 5.5 ... inches.
Consists of three separate sections inside and the Kipling logo on the front.
Central pocket also is zipped inside.
===Cost===
Full price is £18 but often on offer with Amazon. The lacquer finish and prints are priced at £21.
===My Opinion===
This purse is extremely lightweight. It is made from the same outer material as the Basic Kipling handbags, but the purse is not lined at all. The fabric is wipeable and also washable if you use a low temperature wash - but please remove the monkey first. The monkies do not like in washing machines but I have washed them occasionally gently by hand.
Personally I don't keep the monkey on my purse when it is in use - but he is a cute monkey and slightly smaller than the ones that come with the handbags and he does not have such long flappy arms as the handbag ones do.
There is a vast array of colours to choose from with this purse and I settled for Peony (shown above) which is a new colour this year and is vibrant pink - a bit like Barbie Pink - so its easy to find in your handbag.
This purse has a pink Kipling label inside. One of the benefits of this purse, apart form the lack of weight and the lovely colours is that it is practical and hard wearing.
Its structure is like some Kipling handbags in that if looked at from underneath it shows it is three little purses sewn into one structure. When you open the top zip you have an open section either side and then the third central pocket has another zip to keep some things separate. The outer zip has the black Kipling round rubber pull end to it but the inner zip is just an ordinary one - presumable for space and weight. This central pocket can be used as you wish - either to keep cards in, for coins or for notes. I like to keep my cards in there so the is no danger of them falling out when I open my purse, I can then keep receipts on one side of the purse and my notes and coins on the other. I try not to carry too many coins around with me anyway, and if you are careful and keep your purse tidy it will weigh next to nothing.
This is a great everyday and useful purse - I like it being so lightweight as I have other large purses which I never use as they are just too heavy before you even put anything in them.
The full price is £18 but I managed to pick mine up on Amazon for around £12 which I thought was real good value as they are so strong that, like the handbags, they will last for years.
Amazon currently sell eighteen different colours and they are nearly all lower than the full price. The lacquer finish ones and those done in prints originally cost £21 but you can pick up a plain brown purse for £12.20 at the moment.
Kipling also sell this purse in a larger version which is only a couple of pounds more and can effectively be used as a small clutch handbag for evening use.
===Star Rating===
5 stars.
===Would I Recommend?===
Yes.
===Website===
www.kipling.com
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Tula Mallory Small Zip Top Purse
by koshkha
~ A Distress Purchase~
The Tula Mallory small zip top purse is - as the name suggests - a zip-topped purse although it's probably larger than you might expect for a so-called small purse at 12 cm wide and 9 cm deep. I bought mine from the Radley shop at Cheshire Oaks Outlet village in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. The RRP for one ... of these is £15 and I was happy to pay just half of that for mine.
I've been a fan of Tula for about 20 years. I used to live in a suburb of Manchester which had an excellent Saturday market and one of the traders always managed to get really good Tula bags and purses. Consequently, it's a brand I always think of when I need these type of items. I had been using a really good Tula purse which had everything I needed in a small purse but after many years, the leather had started to split alongside the zip so I went looking for a replacement. The old purse was on its last legs and I was anxious to get something more secure but unwilling to spend a lot of time searching.
Sadly the type I had liked so much is no longer made and my options were quite limited. Strange as it might sound, I usually carry three purses or wallets. One is a Cross pink leather case for all my credit cards, another is a mid-sized Radley zip top purse for all my Euros and the last was the now obsolete Tula coin purse for my English cash. Ideally, I want something large enough to carry notes and coins and possibly one or two cards but I wasn't willing to invest too much time or effort in trying to find something.
~Tough choices~
The Radley shop had quite a wide range of purses but most were too big and too fussy or were too tiny to take more than a few pounds. My purchase of the Mallory was one of those 'I suppose it'll do' buys - not something I felt strongly about but it seemed to be fit for purpose. Over the weeks since I bought it, I suppose you could say we've got to know and tolerate each other.
The Mallory small zip top purse is very simple. It's just an oblong purse with a single zip and no internal divisions. The lining of mine is mid-blue fabric and the exterior is a pleasantly textured plum-purple leather. The fun part - and Tula is a brand that likes fun - is in the striped highlights around the edge and in the pull-tab. The purple leather is contrasted with the bright yellow stitching and the edge is trimmed in narrowly striped leather in purple, yellow, red and blue. On the front of the purse - if it could be said that a purse HAS a front and back - there's a striped multi-coloured leather button in the same colours as the trim. The pull tag has an inset of the same striped leather. On the back, the name 'tula' is embossed in yellow and blue.
~ It's not you, it's me. And this relationship isn't working for either of us~
I don't love my Mallory purse but I don't hate it either. The colour is a good one, bold enough to stand out inside my over-stuffed handbag but dark enough to not get dirty or grimy in use. The size is large enough for notes and coins and a few cards but the lack of internal structure or anyway to keep the coins separate from the paper and cards frustrates me a little. I can't afford to let the contents get too stuffed with receipts and odd notes or it quickly becomes unmanageable and I can't find anything I need without emptying the whole thing.
I've given it a couple of months to get used to it but this isn't going to be a long and happy relationship and I think I'm quickly reaching the point where I'm ready to go hunting again for something that suits me better. As a distress purchase, something bought in fear of its predecessor splitting and shedding coins all over the place, it's filled a gap in my life but it's not really what I want or need. It may take over as a holiday purse or find another use, but for carrying mixed cash and cards, it doesn't work for me.
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Kipling Brownie Wallet
by EmilyWrites
My Kipling Brownie Wallet is a versatile part of my wardrobe. As with most Kipling products, this is available in a variety of colours, but I chose mine in good old fashioned black. Because of this colour choice, I find I can use it a both as an every day purse and in place of a clutch bag for nights out or a quick dash to the shops. ... I love that I can stash everything away in here without needing to take a handbag with me every time.
Inside the purse when you first open it up there's a photograph holder on the inside lip. I have pictures of my babies here of course but you could use this for conveniently locating important cards or even medical information if preferred.
If you fold the bottom lip down when the purse is undone, it reveals ample storage space for every card you could possibly need to carry! If you're anything like me you have at least ten different loyalty cards on top of your credit, debit, breakdown service cards - and then some more after that. This is one of the first purses, or rather purse/wallet, that I've had and found I have enough card holding space inside of.
Then the inside bits include a zip up pouch along the middle of the purse, which I use for storing all my cash, and two open storage pouches either side of this. This is the bit that makes this purse suitable for using in place of a clutch bag - the extra storage spaces. I can easily fit my mobile phone, backdoor keys, lip gloss and mirror in here and still get my purse done up just fine. Some people might think it inconvenient to hold a purse all night on an evening out but to be honest you end up doing that with your clutch bag anyway for fear that someone might be away with it! The soft fabric outer makes this comfortable to hold anyway, and the shape fits neatly in my hand.
I've had my purse for at least a year now and absolutely love it. It's still in excellent condition thanks to the nature of the hard wearing fabrics used and is looking likely to last for years to come. I had my reservations initially about spending £30 for a purse, but I already owned a Kipling bag that I absolutely loved so it definitely swayed my decision to go for this. It's a decision I have not regretted!
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