I am 63 and the first thing I have ever written a letter about is a makeup bag shaped like a little camper van
I am 63 and the first thing I have ever written a letter about is a makeup bag shaped like a little camper van
Six things the Sunrover makeup bag gets right that makeup bags always get wrong, from a woman who does not review makeup bags.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
I will tell you plainly who is talking. I am Peggy, I am 63, I live in Austin, Texas with my husband Frank, and in forty-five years of purses I have never once had a single thought about a makeup bag worth writing down. Makeup bags were the black zipper pouches at the bottom of the purse, invisible until you needed them and invisible while you were looking for them too. So this is not a review. It is a woman who thought a makeup bag could not possibly matter, saying she was wrong.
The bag I am writing about is called the Sunrover, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly making the ordinary things a little lovelier for a few years now. It is a quilted makeup bag shaped like a little retro camper van. Bright orange, stitched windows along the top, a big golden sun and little flowers on the side, wheels and headlamps and all of it, with a zipper running the length of the roof. It comes from a whole collection of these little vans, in florals and sunflowers and daisies and mountains and rainbows, and in three sizes.
I first saw one at Tuesday bingo at the senior center. The woman at the next table opened her purse for her mints, and out came this little orange van. Glasses, lipstick, the mints, half her purse by the look of it, all standing neatly on the table next to her dauber. I spent the whole of the next game looking at it instead of my numbers, and during the break between games I asked her about it, plainly. When the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Here is what forty-five years of makeup bags taught me. They come in two piles. The boring pile, black and beige zipper pouches that vanish into your purse and slump into a heap the moment you fill them. And the silly pile, novelty things bought for a laugh that hold three cotton swabs and break at the zipper by spring. I had done my years in the boring pile, and I had settled, the way you settle for anything you have stopped noticing.
A makeup bag that works but bores you to tears, or one that charms you and holds nothing. Those were the options, and I had stopped arguing with them.
The Sunrover is the first one I have owned that is neither, and having carried mine every day since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The day it came. I ordered it expecting a bit of nonsense with wheels on. I was wrong about that too.
It makes you smile every time you open your bag
Start with the reason everyone asks about it, because everyone does ask. It is a real little camper van, done right. The quilted stitching goes around every window, the sun has its rays picked out, there is a peace sign on the front and daisies scattered down the side, and the wheels sit on the bottom edge as if it might drive off the vanity. It should be silly. Somehow it is not. It is the sort of small, deliberate cheerfulness that catches you at the checkout, in the camper, at the bingo table, on an ordinary gray Tuesday. The woman who showed me hers said everyone asks. She was right. They do.
The sun on the side, stitching and all. The reason every conversation about this bag starts.
I have had more comments on this little van than on any purse I have ever owned. It comes out and somebody smiles, every time.
Margaret H., RockportIt holds more than it has any right to
The shape is the clever part. It is boxy, like the van it is pretending to be, so it stands up on its own and everything inside stands up with it. Lipsticks upright, glasses flat along the top, the little odds and ends down the side where the wheels are. My old pouches held plenty in theory and delivered a jumbled heap in practice. This one keeps its shape whether it is half full or packed, and things come out of it in the same state they went in. On the vanity it simply sits there, tidy, looking pleased with itself.
On my vanity, where the black pouch used to hide. This one you can find.
It swallowed everything from my old pouch with room to spare, and it all stays standing instead of sliding into a heap.
Jean W., RefugioThe zipper runs the whole length of the roof
Small thing, until you have lived with the other kind. The zipper goes along the full length of the roof, so the bag opens wide like a real case rather than through a mean little slot. You can see everything at once, get your hand in without knocking half of it over, and when it is zipped, it is properly shut. Nothing worms its way out into the bottom of the purse. In forty-five years I have fished more lipsticks out of purse linings than I care to count, and since this van arrived I have fished out none.
It opens right up so you can see the lot at a glance, and once it is zipped nothing escapes. My purse has never been tidier.
Dorothy F., Port LavacaIt travels properly
We have a little travel trailer, Frank and I, and the Sunrover has already done a weekend away. It packed flat into the case without complaint, sat on the little shelf all weekend looking thoroughly at home, and came back with everything still in its place. The boutique sells it as travel friendly and for once the label is honest. It is the right sort of shape for packing, it does not mind being wedged, and there is something quietly funny about a little camper van coming along on a camping weekend in a real one. It got a comment from the woman at the next campsite within the hour.
Packed for the trailer. The little van travels better than most of the family.
It has done every trip since it arrived. Packs flat, keeps everything together, and comes out of the case looking cheerful.
Sylvia M., BeevilleThere are three sizes, and each one has a job
It comes in a small, about six inches, which is the purse one. A medium, about eight inches, which lives on the vanity. And a large, about ten inches, which is roomy enough that it has taken over as the toiletry bag entirely. For years I forced one sagging pouch to do every one of those jobs and it did none of them well. Buy the size for the job you actually have, is what I would say now. Or do what I did, start with one and discover the others follow.
I bought the small for my purse and went back for the large within two weeks. The big one is the best toiletry bag I have ever had.
Pauline T., KenedyThere is a whole fleet of them
Mine is the sunshine one, orange with the sun and the daisies, and I would argue it is the pick of the fleet. But there is a whole collection of these little vans, florals, sunflowers, daisies, mountains, rainbows, even a Christmas one, all the same little van in a different mood. Which makes it the easiest present I have found in years, because there is a print for every woman you know and none of them will already have it. The sunflower one is on its way to my sister Sue as I write this, because I know better than to let her see mine first.
Bought one for myself and three as presents, all different prints. Every single one was a hit.
Bonnie L., Karnes CityThe Sunrover, against the makeup bags you have been buying
You can pick up a zipper pouch for a few dollars anywhere, and I have spent forty-five years doing exactly that. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Black pouches that vanish in your purse
Slump into a jumbled heap when filled
Mean little openings you dig through blind
One sagging bag forced to do every job
Nothing anybody has ever smiled at
A little quilted camper van you can spot at once
A boxy shape that stands up and keeps order
A full-length roof zipper that opens wide and shuts properly
Three sizes, purse, vanity and toiletry bag
The most asked-about thing at bingo
About the price
The Sunrover is $38.95 for the small, $44.95 for the medium and $49.95 for the large, down from $78.00, $90.00 and $100.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that this is the sale run before the first fall stock, and once a print is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and after a month of daily carrying, a trailer weekend and one very thorough inspection by the bingo table, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them across the collection, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
On the bathroom shelf, on toiletry bag duty. The most cheerful thing in the room, including Frank.
If your own makeup bag is a black pouch you have not properly looked at in years, this is the little van I would stand on your kitchen table myself, while your print is still there. Quit stalling and go look at the fleet.
Peggy
THE SUNROVER CAMPER BAG
- A quilted little camper van, stitched sun, daisies and all
- Boxy shape that stands up and keeps everything in order
- Full-length roof zipper, opens wide, shuts properly
- Packs flat for trips, campgrounds and weekends away
- Three sizes, small, medium and large
- A whole collection of prints, one for every woman you know
- Free shipping
Sale on now. The first fall stock is already going.