You've probably been wondering how the idea for the Subtl Beauty stack came to be.
Well, I'm not gonna lie, the story is a little weird, and probably not what you'd expect, but I thought it would be important to share the realness with you...as embarrassing as it is.
It was the summer of 2016 and I was in a fairly new relationship with a boy I liked. I was also traveling for work every week, so I was only spending about 1-2 nights/week at my house. I pretty much just lived out of bags that summer lol
Here is where it gets weird
I was being super coy. Even though it was never "planned," sleepovers were fairly typical because, well, dating. So since I was playing it off, I only ever took my crossbody bag. I wasn't trying to be all presumptuous and rock up to his car with an overnight bag for a dinner date 🙄
Here's where it gets awesome
A small bag meant getting creative with packing. Aside from the obvious sleepover necessities, I also wanted to pack a little makeup and skincare so I didn't look crazy the next morning. After scouring the internet for a solution (with no success) I settled on buying empty contact cases and filling them with some skincare and makeup basics.
Subtl Beauty started as a very basic solution to a very common problem - my products were way too big to take with me in my teeny tiny bag. After filling three empty contact cases with products I started attracting attention from other women who were struggling with solving the same problem. This is when I decided to build Subtl Beauty for real, for realz.
"Ho On The Go" was born
Yes. We actually called it that.
For a couple of months, it was this inside joke among friends where we would text each other every time we were in need of some ho on the go. I didn't realize the true need for a product like this until I noticed just how frequently we were texting about needing this silly contact case solution, and not just for adult sleepovers, either.
Since it was more compact than my real beauty products, I found myself packing my ho on the go into my carry-on, and throwing it in my tote for touchups at work. My friends were also expressing interest in needing it as a flexible solution for their inflexible schedule; using it in their office bathrooms, airplanes, cars, etc.
Subtl Beauty Was Built
After months of interviews with over 100 women, I decided to build a real solution. This meant renaming, rebranding and, of course, finding a better packaging solution. It's been a little over 6 years since I filled my first set of contact cases and it's incredible to look back on how far we've come with this.