Gossamer Gear Clear Cube Review

When you want something to carry your liquid toiletries, you’ll likely look for a TSA-approved clear bag. Sure, you can use a Ziploc, but those can rip over time and don’t have the best aesthetics. That’s why we like when brands like Gossamer Gear make toiletry bags to carry your gear through security and make it easy to access on a trip.

But is the Gossamer Gear Clear Cube actually TSA-compliant, and will it work for more than shampoo and soap? Let’s find out.

External Components

If you go by the capacity listed on Gossamer Gear’s website, the Clear Cube is not TSA-compliant. The brand states it’s a 3L bag, which doesn’t mesh with the allowable 1 quart (or 1 liter) limit. However, when we got the cube in hand, it sure looked like the right size, and the dimensions were quite close. Our tester also took it through a TSA checkpoint without being asked to remove it from her bag or told it was too large. Maybe it was a more relaxed checkpoint than others, and maybe not. However, it seems like there’s a good chance you’ll be OK if you want to use it for your 3.4 ounces (or 100 ml) of liquids when you fly carry on only, but it’s not guaranteed.

Most of the bag’s exterior is transparent, PVC-free polyethylene-vinyl acetate (PEVA). The top, bottom, and sides are 70D PFAS-free, recycled Robic nylon, and the internal dividers are 150D polyester grid mesh.

A small webbing loop at the top gives you something to grab when you need to pull it out of a bag, or a way to carry it to the bathroom to get ready in the morning. There are webbing loops on either end of the zipper track, too, so you have something to hold as you open or close the cube.

YKK makes the reverse-coil zipper, and a cord with a heat-shrink end is woven through the metal pull. That makes it easier to grab when you want to get into or close the bag, and we have no issue with the zipper.

There is a small Gossamer Gear logo on a tab on the front of the bag, and that’s it for branding and external components. Let’s head inside.

Inside The Cube

The interior is equally simple. Whether you peer through the transparent PEVA or open the YKK zipper, you’ll find a 150D polyester isometric grid mesh shaped like an X. It’s connected in the middle at the bottom of the pouch so the dividers don’t shift around, and gives you a way to organize your gear.

Items can still shift around in transit when you’re carrying less. We found that bottles wouldn’t stay upright, and wall chargers shifted around when we were just using it daily during testing. However, that all changed when packing makeup and toiletries inside for a 10-day trip. When you stuff it like that, with Cadence Capsules full of lotion and face wash, makeup palettes and brushes, mascara, perfume, a toothbrush and toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, you come to recognize the beauty of the cube.

Longer items, like an eye shadow palette, eyeliner, makeup brushes, and a toothbrush, fit well along the front and back sides of the cube. The center two sections worked best for all of our tester’s liquids, whether in travel-size bottles or capsules. Of course, you can organize it how you wish; that’s just what worked for our trip.

Our primary tester took it on a land and sea vacation involving a Walt Disney World hotel room with a lot of counter space and a cruise ship room with much, much less counter space. It doesn’t have a large footprint, especially when it comes to depth, and the pouch stands on its own. If there’s a nearby hook, you could even hang it by the carry handle to free up more space.

In each location, when packed to the gills as described, our tester found it easy to grab whatever she needed, and everything stayed upright in the cube when packed tightly. The dividers keep bottles and other gear from falling into one another when you pull something out, so at most, you only have to shift one item out of the way instead of an entire pouch’s worth. Plus, the clear material makes getting ready in a rush easy since everything is visible from the top or sides instead of hidden in a dark dump space.

So, if you have a lot of small toiletries or a lot of small tech that you want to keep visible and slightly organized, the Gossamer Gear Clear Cube should work well for you. You’ll just have to realize that the organization only goes so far to keeping things neatly sorted, and gear can still fall around willy-nilly if you don’t bring enough.