Rachel Bilson emptied her black Clare V purse onto a coffee table and showed off the contents in a TikTok video posted Monday, May 11, giving viewers a look at the kind of everyday carry that can only come from someone who actually uses the bag. The 44-year-old actress pulled out a stray $5 bill, Dr. Pepper-flavored Tic-Tacs, an old UPS slip, a pack of gum and multiple pens, then laughed at how much had fit inside the tiny bag. “It’s kind of amazing how much can fit in a tiny bag,” she said.
The clip, posted to the account for her podcast Broad Ideas, kept getting more specific from there. Bilson said she had a small bottle of Aesop hand sanitizer that she had “splurged on,” a full-size tube of Ilia Limitless Lash Mascara, Rel Beauty’s No Duh Lip Balm, “so many random individual packets of Advil,” a small bottle of the pain reliever and even a squishy duck. She also showed off 20 raw sugar packets, explaining that she only likes raw sugar in her coffee and always makes sure to have some in her purse if it is not available. “I only like raw sugar in my coffee, and if there isn’t raw sugar, I always make sure I have some in my purse. Why do I have 20?” she said.
When asked what three essentials she would pack, Bilson answered, “Lip, wallet, hand sanitizer,” and added, “I’m that crazy.” That answer, more than the beauty products or the stray paperwork, gave the clip its appeal: it sounded less like a curated celebrity confessional than the sort of purse dump plenty of people could recognize. TikTok users reacted by calling it relatable, with one writing, “This is the most realistic what’s in my purse purse I’ve ever seen!!! Haha. You. Me. SAME 🥰” Another joked, “You guys couldn’t get vogue?”
The reaction fit the moment. Bilson’s video landed as a small, sharply observed slice of personal routine, and the response suggested that the value was not in glamour but in how ordinary it felt. For a celebrity with a podcast audience and a public image built partly on easy, self-aware candor, the handbag contents were the point: practical, a little chaotic and familiar enough to keep people watching to the end.
