What In Your Purse? Winter Edition

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It's been a little bit since I shared with you what's in my purse. And the last time I pretty much only had lipsticks, lipbalms and lipglosses. The nice people over at Ricola asked me to share with you what I keep in my purse to cope with the winter! I was all for this, especially since I was already revamping my essentials (the temperature has dipped like crazy here in Michigan!), and they wanted to send me their new Extra Strength drops. Which works for me because I usually keep an entire bag (yes) of their original drops (those ones in the yellow bag) in my purse. It's a good thing that I have a huge bag!

I've pretty much dumped it out and you can see what is in there currently down below. I also keep a hat and extra set of gloves in there for myself and my 2 year old, but they were pretty big so I kept them out of the picture. My mom made my hat, it's a dark grey merino with cables on it, my mini-me has Hello Kitty.



1. For winter, I usually upgrade to a bigger cosmetic bag. I'm mostly keeping extra cough and cold items in there, and I don't want my cough drops all over the place! CoverGirl sent me this super cute one over the summer, but you can buy it on Etsy.

2. Here are the previously mentioned Ricola drops! This winter I'm going to have both Extra Strength and Original in my pouch. The Extra Strength are similar to the original in flavor, but with a bit of an overlying menthol and peppermint. As well, it has a liquid center, and all of those #swissherbs that we're used to with Ricola. I'll keep the original around because sometimes I just need to have something in my mouth to help prevent coughing, so having the solid originals (which last longer in my mouth) will be better. Yes, I just totally justified having 2 bags of cough drops.

3. Kleenex. Obviously.

4. Minty Tums, I'm a tummy problem girl.

5. Nivea Extended Moisture Hand Cream: I'm trying to be really, really good about hand cream. 10 minutes outside can dry my hands out (and make them very sore) for days! Lotion a few times a day helps a lot.

6. CoverGirl Powder, I'm not sure they even make this one any more. I like it because it has a nice big mirror.

7. A girl needs to take care of her smile! I'm great at getting things stuck between my teeth, so I have floss. The other little white and blue canister there is Hello Breath Spray, though I often have Altoids in Wintergreen as well.

8. A barrette. I usually have a selection of colorful ones for my 2 year old as well (we're at a bit of an unruly hair stage), but I cleaned those out of my purse a few days ago because too many had collected in there.

9. Lippies! I've mentioned previously how obsessed I am with the L'Oreal Colour Caresse Wet Shine Stain, this is my go-to shade of Lilac Ever After. It's a pinky-nude that is a great neutral for me. The other 2 are CoverGirl Smoochies Lip Balm, which I'm really loving right now! They are hydrating and have a nice amount of color, but aren't sticky. I have Text Me and Tru Luv in my bag. That's basically another pinky-nude and a red.

10. Epi-pen, I'm allergic to mushrooms.

11. Mirror!

12. Germ-X Hand Sanitizer (Not Pictured): So, you'd probably think since I'm a peds ICU doc, and I spend most of the winter dealing with very sick little ones, that I'd be harping on hand sanitizer. In fact, I'm one of those people that uses old fashioned soap and water whenever I can. If that's not available, I'll use Germ-X or a similar hand sanitizer. It's not great for your skin, but I only use alcohol based hand sanitizers.

Here's a great article on CNN about why you should use alcohol based hand sanitizers instead of triclosan. In addition to the bacterial resistance issues, most illnesses that we worry so much about in the winter are viruses. So, you'll need alcohol to kill them. And I trust Alison's advice (our daughters are in ballet class together!), this is one of her main areas of expertise. So, buy the cheap alcohol hand stuff and when you can, wash instead! I don't have any to show you in this pic because I just ran out, so it is on my shopping list.


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