Best Toiletry Case: Icy Bag

On her wedding day, in the summer of 2002, Kathy Cohen reached into her makeup bag to freshen up and found a red, slimy mess of melted lipstick. Cohen, then a human resources executive at a university, got the idea for a bag designed to chill cosmetics on the go. Cohen sold the first batch of bags at a trade show in 2006 and hired a manufacturer in China. Since then, her Clinton, Connecticut, company, IcyBag, has sold about 10,000 bags at small retailers, on QVC, and at IcyBag.com. Cohen plans to roll out more styles this summer.

COST: $15 to $20 at IcyBag.com.

Issie Lapowsky is a reporter at Inc. magazine. She has covered lifestyle and entertainment for the New York Daily News, and her work has been published in BlackBook magazine and The Brooklyn Rail. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.