By Z. from Boston & Downeast on 01/14/2012
Pros:
Compact, Many compartments
Bottom Line:
Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
This is an excellent bag, and for me it is probably a 4.5, in between 4 and 5. The areas of improvement for my needs:
It might just be a tiny little bit too compact, I can not fit my regular size hairbrush flat in the large compartment, I have to put it in diagonally in all 3 dimensions. In that regards the picture of the outfitted bag is a little misleading - I don't think they would be able to close the bag with the hairbrush in there as pictured. Same with my toothbrush which is regular size - it would be cool if I could put it in where the rubber straps are in the cover, but it is too long for that if you want to close it that way. If the bag was just a little more than an inch wider, it would probably all fit in well.
Also, the rubber/elastic straps spacinfg is a little too wide for my tweezers or scissors, a little tighter spacing there would work better for me. It would also be cool if it had a build in space for a standard size mirror, so that you could just hang it and the mirror would be right there, though I did find a mirror that I was able to fit well into the cover compartment pocket and then clip it in with it's stand into the pocket.
I still gave it 5 stars because it is a nice bag - my advice would be though buy the bag first and then take it with you when shopping for mirror, hairbrush, toothbrush case etc..
Since I couldn't give it 4.5 stars, I rounded it up to 5 factoring in that I bought it on a sale here at just a little more than $20.-. At some level in the pricing I would have rounded down, not sure at what level, probably above $40ish somewhere. Having said that I didn't find a better bag at any price, quality and such are great, the only issue I have is the too-compactness, which one may be able to compensate for when equipping it. I looked around at other bags before buying this one, the larger ones often don't really have compartments inside etc., so when I say this is a 4.5 for me, I didn't find one that I would rate higher, this was as good as I was able to find.
