Solgaard Trio Hanging Toiletry Kit Review

Wherever you travel, if you’re staying overnight, you’ll need a good spot for your hairbrush, soap, and toothbrush. That’s why (after a suitcase or travel backpack) a toiletry bag is usually one of the first pieces of travel gear you’d consider buying. What do you look for in a pouch to hold your grooming supplies, though? Do you want an open space, water-resistant materials, a lot of built-in organization, or all of the above? Some of the best Dopp kits have some of everything, while others dial in the organization to create a smaller footprint.

On the other hand, the Solgaard Trio Hanging Toiletry Kit combines plenty of organization in a larger footprint, albeit one that folds up and can hang. So, how does it stack up? We packed it full of makeup, soap, sunscreen, and more to find out.

External Components

Whether you prefer Baltic Black, Galway Green, or Beige/Satin Gold, the Solgaard Trio Hanging Toiletry Kit is made with recycled materials, specifically Shore-Tex™, a proprietary material used by Solgaard made entirely of recycled plastic. Solgaard says that the materials used in this kit save 6 pounds of ocean-bound plastic, though we’re not sure how that adds up since the kit weighs 0.6 pounds, or 0.4 kilograms, empty. Clearly, some of that plastic waste is still going to waste, but we’re not materials engineers, so we’ll take them at their word.

Whatever you call it, the exterior looks and feels like durable polyester, though, unlike your favorite backpack, it has a built-in structure to protect the items stored inside. We’re happy to see that since we’re traveling with glass makeup bottles and pocket mirrors that could otherwise be in danger of breaking. However, that means you can’t compress the rather large footprint of this 2L bag if you’re carrying less. If you do so regularly, you could downsize to the Solgaard Duo instead and save about an inch or so around the bag, but you’ll sacrifice the removable 3-1-1 bag if you do.

Regardless of size, there’s just a little branding on the outside of the bag, centered at the bottom of the front and across the carry handle. We appreciate the bag having a carry handle, as we’ve tested other large toiletry bags without one in the past and missed it. This one is a shallow strip of smooth webbing, and it gets the job done without being too obtrusive.

There are two zippers to open the main compartment and a third to enter an exterior pocket. They’re not from a brand we recognize, but the pulls are stamped with the Solgaard name and feature hexagon-shaped holes at the ends that match the Solgaard logo. Despite not knowing who made them, we’ve had no issues, and they seem like they’ll hold up to heavy use.

Inside the bag is a large metal hook to hang the kit and snaps to hold the 3-1-1 bag in place. Again, we can’t identify another brand on the hardware, but it’s all working as expected, so we think Solgaard has chosen well.

Inside The Toiletry Kit

Before we dive into the main compartment, there is one external pocket to check out. It’s hidden beneath a fabric welt on the back side and is for gear you might need to access while traveling, like lip balm, tissues, sanitizing wipes, or feminine products. That sounds great in theory, but in practice, it’s a tight squeeze to stick your hand into this pocket. So, while we didn’t use it much in our testing period, we think it’s nice to have if you need it.

When you unzip the main compartment, you’ll see exactly why Solgaard calls this the Trio Hanging Toiletry Kit. First, there’s a large hook at the top to hang it, and second, there are three compartments to fill.

We’ll begin at the top. The hook hangs into the bag from a triangle of material and can fold up and hook into a loop stitched onto the material to keep it from catching on your gear if you’re not using it. The hook has a very wide opening, so we have no problem hanging it on towel rods, shower bars, or hooks like those on the back of the bathroom door. Doing so puts all of your gear on display and within easy reach, and we appreciate the option to get this large bag off the countertop (Especially since it won’t fit in smaller bathrooms. We should know. Our primary tester lives in such a space).

Flip up the hook, and you’ll find a nice little note from Solgaard to tell you you’re “looking good” and two large horizontal zippers. The top one opens a liner pocket spanning the entire front panel. It’s a huge space, and we filled it with a travel hairbrush, a travel pill container, earplugs, and bar soap. How much you stick inside here will impact how much you can stow in the next pocket, which is adjacent to the front of this one. It looks like it’s made of mesh, and you can see the gear inside as if it were, but it includes a spill-proof coating to hopefully contain spilled liquids or dust from the rest of the bag.

The rest of the pockets on this bag feature the same spill-proof-coated mesh, which we appreciate in a kit that will hold sunscreen, makeup, toothpaste, and other gear that will make a mess if they accidentally spill. The one against the back of the bag is as large as the first pocket we mentioned, but it includes two stretchy slip pockets to hold items you want to keep from jostling at the bottom of the large space. Our tester found them the perfect width for her eye shadow and powder palettes and used them to keep the plastic cases from banging up against each other. They stayed put quite nicely in transit, even though the pockets could turn upside down when you close the bag. They’re right side up when you use the carry handle, though, so you can use that as a guide to what’s up and what’s down when packing this in your carry on luggage. There’s more space outside those slip pockets to fill in the large zippered pocket, whether you want to use it for a toothbrush, razor, comb, or anything else.

The third member of this trio is a built-in, removable 3-1-1 bag for liquids. It’s made with the same spill-proof coated mesh as the other pockets but includes a webbing handle that snaps into place at the bottom of the bag as it hangs. It folds up into the back side of the kit when you want to pack it up, or you can keep it separate if you know you’ll have to pull it out as you go through the security line at the airport.

There’s a lot of space to fill in here, and we had no issues stocking it up with enough 3.4-ounce (100 ml) TSA-approved travel bottles of toiletries to last a few weeks, from makeup to sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, makeup remover, and more. Tabs at either end of the zipper track make it easy to open and close, and we like the option to contain all our liquids in one place without grabbing a separate zip-top bag.

Between the two sides of the clamshell is a piece of elastic where you can tuck tweezers, a skinny tube of mascara, a nail file, or something else skinny. However, there are so many other places to put gear in this kit that even our overpacking tester didn’t need to use it.

Finally, there are four slots of liner material against the bottom of the first two mesh pockets. The openings face upward when you hang the bag on its hook, so we assume they’re a place to stand up your toothbrush to dry at your accommodations. A full-size toothbrush will be too tall to close the bag with it here, but you can use the holders for a razor or a travel toothbrush or simply move your toothbrush into one of the pockets when it’s time to go.

If you’re traveling for a long time or like to bring along a lot of gear like our primary tester, there’s a good chance that you’ll love having all the available space to fill. We like having the capacity of a large dump space with all of the different pockets to keep things organized. However, if you’re a more minimalist packer, you’ll likely find it overkill and not worth the space it occupies in your travel backpack. In that case, we have a ton of smaller toiletry bags to recommend that you might find a better fit for your style.