You've all heard the saying, "We all have the same 24 hours in a day." However, when you look at all the things you want to achieve during your day, both at work and in your personal life, it always seems like there's a lot less than 24 hours.
Whether you're busy trying to figure out your own version of work/life balance, earning your degree, taking care of your kids, or just living life, your beauty routine is the last thing you want to spend time figuring out each morning. You've got deals to make, and rummaging through your drawer organizers and multiple cosmetic cases for that one eyeshadow is not something you have time for.
You need an organized and simplified makeup routine that can carry you through any day or occasion without a second thought — cause who's got time to second guess that stuff?
At Subtl Beauty, we have made it our mission to make makeup accessible, easy, and busy-person-friendly. We offer a simple, concise makeup routine meant to fit in the palm of your hand, your backpack, your work bag, or your belt bag because we know — you need that extra storage space.
1. Busy at School
A new school year brings a new schedule, new challenges, and total readjustment all around. Even after you've had a minute to settle into your new routine, that doesn't mean the days ahead will be easy and leisurely.
From class to homework and group meetings, school can easily take up 12+ hours of your day — especially if you’re working towards your master's or doctoral degree. If you're supposed to sleep for eight hours, shower, eat, and (dare we say) relax for a little bit, makeup can be tough to fit into your schedule.
Plus, if you're on-campus, you may not have been able to bring that big clear acrylic makeup organizer with you to school — you might be working with just a little storage organizer box full of your favorite makeup.
Even if you aren't involved in a ton of club activities, school just starts too early to sit down and go through a 20-step makeup routine. With lots of classes starting between 8 and 9 a.m., it's just too early to deal with a full makeup routine.
A little concealer, some translucent powder, blush, and lip balm can be dabbed and swiped on within a few minutes, taking you from super sleepy to wide-awake. Plus, this way, you don't need a giant rotating makeup organizer with a ton of dividers and drawers to hold all the supplies you need.
2. Busy Working Out
Physical activity is a big part of many of our lives. If you’re involved in sports, like a community volleyball team or company baseball team, a part of your week will be dedicated to practice and games. Maybe working is one of your bigger hobbies, or perhaps you teach fitness classes on the weekends as a side hustle. Whatever your reason for being physically active, you likely want to look good while doing it.
However, lengthy cosmetic makeup routines don't always mix well with intense physical exercise. Not only do they take a lot of time to apply, but once you start working out, your makeup often will just melt away as you sweat. Even if you do have time to shower or re-wash your face, your body may still be too hot to handle a large portion of your makeup collection on your face.
Applying a full face after the gym also means toting your entire toiletry bag or makeup train case with you. While many gym bathrooms are equipped with shampoo and shower gel, none will be equipped with makeup. It might seem easy just to bag everything up and take it with you, but it's tougher than it looks to keep everything clean and organized on the go.
In these times, you'll want a small, compact makeup case that can provide everything you need. Grab a small bag, like our Subtl Cosmetic Bag, and add your favorite Makeup Stack essentials, a brush or two, and a mascara, and still have room to spare. It all fits in your gym bag easily and won't weigh you down all day long.
3. Busy at Work
If you're a corporate queen, you've probably come to realize your morning routine is now a little tougher than it might’ve been when you were in college. Not only must you be awake and physically present somewhere in a timely manner, but you're also expected to look a more put together than before. After all, it's now part of your livelihood.
They don't call it "the grind" for no reason — days can be long, weeks can be longer, schedules un-adjustable, and some weekends may be spent lounging and recuperating at home as opposed to brunching with friends or going out for 48 hours straight like you previously fantasized about.
If you’re busy with your career or building your own empire, your attention is required in a lot of different places. There’s pressure to be great at what you do and look the part. If you're working a nine-to-five or longer, have a side hustle going, or are constantly meeting with others to build your business, you've got a lot going on,and may not be taking care of yourself. This can leave you feeling tired, especially if you're dehydrated, which will start to show on your face.
You're busy, so your solution to a tired, bare-faced look may be to lay that makeup on thick to cover flaws up. After all, you've got all the makeup in the world — why not use it?
However, applying heavy makeup might be the last thing you want to do. When your skin is tired, a face of full coverage products can make you look dull, washed out, and weighed down. When you're chasing bigger goals and aspirations, time is money, and you need all the time in the world — so don’t lose time doing your makeup.
Makeup Transportation Concerns
Accounting for all of your eyeshadow palettes, eyeliners, lipstick, water-resistant setting sprays, makeup sponges, makeup brushes, and other tools you might need can lead to a pretty full cosmetic case. If your makeup bag isn't large enough to hold everything, you can't bring it all into the office (or you simply don't want to). This means possibly having to leave tools like your palette organizer and brush holder in your car throughout the day.
It's not a good idea, in general, to leave your belongings in your car unattended and susceptible to thievery. Also, the temperatures in your car can fluctuate greatly and ruin the composition of your cosmetics. For example, a hot car sitting out underneath the Texas summer sun can get as hot as 130 degrees and even higher during extreme heat waves.
This can cause your formulas to separate, creams to melt, perfume scents to change, and can even melt the plastic from your packaging components in extreme cases. All in all, you leave yourself open to messy situations and may be forced to toss out a few items.
Even if you don't have a car and rely on public transportation, this is also not a place you would want to lug around a large cosmetics bag or acrylic cosmetic organizer in addition to whatever work bag you may already be bringing with you. For obvious reasons, you’ll want to pack light for your commute — no one want to show up at working sweating from lugging around a massive makeup bag.
Keep It So Simple
So how does the busy business-minded person keep their looks top-notch with little time? By keeping it simple.
The best makeup case is ready to move and is customized for your needs. If you know you tend to look tired in the mornings, make sure your makeup case can handle that. Throw in some under-eye patches or cooling eye gel to ease any puffiness. Use a high-quality Cream Concealer or foundation that’s easy to spread and hide dark circles without exaggerating any tired fine lines. Add a bit of a blush and highlighter for color, and you're set.
Keep your makeup routine quick, easy, and streamlined. The right makeup routine can be done at your mirror or with a compact Travel Mirror in a few minutes. Fool everyone into thinking you got a full night of sleep with just a few simple touches of makeup. And with a compact makeup case organizer, you can easily reapply your makeup in no time, so you always look fresh and put together.
4. Busy With Kids
Few things bring as much joy into your life as the arrival of a new baby. However, one thing you'll endure from the moment you find out you’re expecting is a major change in your routine across all areas.
Early on in pregnancy, you may find your energy levels are just not what they used to be. Even when it’s time to fall asleep, you might be tossing and turning while your little one relentlessly kicks you from the inside. As you progress further along, the sheer discomfort can exhaust you.
Nine months later, every bit of your schedule will revolve around your little one's need to feed, nap, and be kept busy. If you've ever spoken to anyone, mother or father, who has ever had a newborn baby, you'll know how exhausting (but rewarding) this is.
An effortless, all-in-one, stackable makeup storage system will be a lifesaver on mornings when you literally don't have the time, are running low on energy, or simply want to feel a little more refreshed than you did before. You don't have to be a makeup artist to keep it simple and get the look you want.
Getting out of the house with a little one, whether they're a newborn or school age, is already difficult enough. From the diaper bag to the stroller, not to mention the little ones themselves, you’re going to have your hands full. Luckily, you don’t have to leave yourself and that necessary self-care behind.
Sacrifice Shouldn't Be Your Middle Name
While it's important to take care of your children and their needs, this shouldn't mean totally sacrificing yourself. If your daily makeup routine can easily fit into the palm of your hand or be dropped into your travel bag without taking up too much space, you'll be better able to take a few moments each day for yourself.
Whether you just want a light dusting of translucent Shine Control Pressed Powder to soak up excess oil on your face or are dedicated to doing a fuller routine, no matter how simple it may be, at Subtl Beauty, we have options for everyone.
If you're not quite sure where to start, consider reaching for our Starter Stack, consisting of five of your biggest essentials. Just pick your concealer shade, and we will put together four other complementary additions to enhance your skin tone and bring out the best in you.
If you need to go even simpler, our Tones Collection lets you do just that. Bronzer, Lip and Cheek, and Cream Concealer are all you need to brighten, define, and bring refreshing color to your face, no matter how much sleep you did or didn't get.
5. Busy Traveling
We all look forward to getting out of town, but it's not always a completely stress-free process. The biggest issues we come across when heading out of town are:
- Weight limitations
- Fitting in lots of items when you don't have a large-capacity bag
- Different size constraints with luggage
- A limited amount of liquids
- Keeping things organized and looking for storage solutions
- Dealing with messes and trying to declutter your travel bags
- Needing easy access to certain items
As big fans of travel ourselves, we made it our goal to keep every travel challenge in mind while creating our minimalist Makeup Stacks. We wanted to have the best makeup organizer possible, which fit all the basic travel needs and would save space that was needed for other items, like your nail polish or moisturizer (or all those souvenirs that you’ll be bringing home).
Subtl Beauty Travel Makeup Solutions
Those who may travel multiple times a month, especially business people, look for longevity in their travel products so they aren't constantly spending money on new travel-ready options. So we made sure our products would be long-lasting even though they’re small.
Unlike other travel-sized products that may only last a week or so, each of our Stacks contains enough product for at least 60 applications. And some products, like our Lip and Cheek, contain enough for up to 80 applications, giving other minis a run for their money.
In addition to being great value and requiring less frequent trips to the store, our Makeup Stacks are simple enough to fit anywhere efficiently. They take up minimal space on any hotel vanity or desk, and they make packing, unpacking, and repacking quick and easy.
6. Busy Trying Just Living Life
Life gets messy. Even when we're not specifically focused on earning a degree, building our career, traveling across the world, or taking care of kids, —there's a lot going on in our lives.
Holiday seasons come and gotake away any sense of personal time as we rush to buy gifts or prepare for family gatherings. Life events like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and births happen at any time of the year, as do social events or obligations (depending on how you look at them), like concerts, weekend soccer tournaments, book clubs, and music recitals. Plus, there are just basic adulting tasks you have to stay on top of — paying bills, buying groceries, maintaining a decently clean living space, and taking care of your pets.
It's a lot to balance and handle every day throughout the year, and it can make the prospect of a long routine in the morning one of your least favorite parts of the day. But putting on your favorite makeup products doesn't need to be another chore and item on your to-do list.
Concealing red spots, absorbing oil, adding definition, and lightening up your cheeks can be done within mere minutes and can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your confidence in handling your busy life. You just need an organized makeup kit that makes things simple and has all your basic essentials.
No matter how easy some other beauty brands or retailers claim their makeup kits are, quite often, they’ are often missing one or more of the key makeup items you need for a daily routine. You might get hydrating moisturizers, palettes of eyeshadow options, or a handful of colorful eyeliners, but you’re lacking items like blush or concealer.
Along with an incomplete kit, you may also lose the battle of the bulk by having to supplement your routine with a large number of additional products. When you need to take these with you, they take up more space in your luggage, briefcase, or tote.
Luckily, if you choose a Subtl Beauty Makeup Stack, you won’t have to deal with those issues, considering everything you’ll need will sit in the palm of your hand.
Subtl Beauty Is Makeup That Works for You, and Not Against You
We designed our Makeup Stacks to make makeup easier and help everyone feel gorgeous through every part of their life. Just because you’re busy or not feeling 100% doesn't mean you need to sacrifice looking or feeling good.
With a true all-in-one design unlike anything else out there, looking refreshed and feeling your best requires minimal time, little-to-no effort, and is easy to take with you out the door, on the road, and beyond.
Sources:
Bad Chemistry: How Heat and Sunlight Can Affect Your Makeup | Vogue Australia
How to Get Rid of Tired Eyes | Healthline
What Really Happens to Your Body When You Exercise With Makeup On | Livestrong
Dehydrated Skin: Symptoms, vs. Dry Skin, Test, Treatments, and More | Healthline