Bellroy Hanging Toiletry Kit Review

It’s really fascinating how adding one simple feature can spin off an entire sub-category of travel gear. Case in point: hanging toiletry bags. You take a toiletry bag, add a hook or strap of some sort, and voila! You have a toiletry bag that scoffs at the lack of usable surfaces in your hotel or Airbnb.

One such example is the Bellroy Hanging Toiletry Kit. With its “self-centering” hook and well-organized interior, is it above other toiletry bags? Or does it fall short in areas not immediately obvious? Let’s find out.

External Components

The main material on this particular Bellroy product is their Seaweave fabric. It’s a fairly slick material, befitting the moist environments where you’d use a toiletry bag. It has a less crinkly appearance than the brand’s Baida nylon, which gives the impression that it’s less abrasion-resistant. However, given the use case, we’d take the slicker texture over better abrasion resistance any day. As for composition, it’s made from 50% recycled fishing nets and 50% recycled industrial nylon, so that’s a huge plus if you’re the eco-conscious type.

As for the aesthetics, the Hanging Toiletry Kit still looks and feels like a proper Bellroy pouch. The Sea Kelp colorway is a bit beige for those looking for more eye-catching tones, but it’s still classy, in our opinion. If you decide to go with a different colorway, just keep in mind that it’s likely to come with a different fabric. For example, the Black comes with Dura polyester, while the Clay comes with Baida nylon.

There aren’t many external features, such as loops, slots, or pockets. At the top is a grab handle, though that’s kind of a given for most toiletry bags. It’s a simple, low-profile nylon strap that gets the job done without additional padding or cover.

At the back is the aluminum hook mounted on a sizable paracord loop. There’s just enough slack for the hook to settle in a stable fashion. Without this loop, the entire pouch can be more prone to leaning in whatever direction the weight takes it. So, while “self-centering” sounds kind of gimmicky, we understand what Bellroy’s trying to get across.

Inside The Toiletry Bag

The main compartment opens with the entire front folding out after you unzip the single YKK zipper. It’s a clamshell design that presents the entirety of the interior neatly from a hanging perspective, like a medicine cabinet but vertically oriented. Most of the pouch’s depth is allocated to the top half, though a decent chunk of space remains for the folded-over lid.

On the top half is a shelf for the majority of your bulky toiletries, such as travel-sized bottles of lotions, deodorant, powders, and such. You can arrange about five of them in a row. The best thing about this shelf is that Bellroy thought ahead and reinforced it at the front.

See, we’ve found that the fabric tends to sag once there’s weight to pull it down in hanging toiletry pouches with similar shelf setups. In this case, though, a plastic insert helps keep the shelf straight and the toiletries inside aligned. Unfortunately, there is no plastic insert along the top, so there’s still some sagging in that area.

On the shelf’s front is a zippered pocket with semi-see-through mesh fabric. It doesn’t have much space, so it’s mostly suited for slim items. In our case, those were contact lenses, nail clippers, and a few other small-ish grooming tools.

The lower half houses a dedicated zippered pocket for your toothbrush. It has the same semi-see-through mesh as the zippered pocket above it but with slightly less depth. That said, it definitely does not lack in length, as we were able to fit a quip electric toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste. The inside of the pocket is lined with a slick-feeling fabric that’s easy to wipe clean of toothpaste residue.

The entire lower half is an entire compartment unto itself, with its opening situated just below the toothbrush compartment. A magnetic closure seals it just to make access a bit more convenient. The available space inside is quite generous since we could fit an assortment of makeup items and brushes. However, there is some trickiness to getting everything sorted. When it’s closed, the gear inside sits fairly arranged. But, once you open it, everything starts to collect at the bottom.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge issue since you can easily rearrange everything with some shaking and fiddling around. However, you’ll have to do it every time, especially as you pack more and more accessories inside.