I’m not traditionally one for a makeup bag – I don’t carry a purse and therefore if something comes with me, it has to fit in my pockets. At the office, I used to just leave makeup bits and pieces in my desk drawers…. but, about a month ago, my office moved into what is called an active work environment, which means we no longer have our own desks. It’s a fluid workspace – you pick and choose what desk you’re going to work from depending on the hour, the meeting, or the work you’re going to be doing for the day. I’m still adapting to it (and after 15 years of having my own desk, it’s very discombobulating!), but one thing I knew I needed to figure out was how to carry my laptop around with me (I’ve got a cute, chic backpack I use for the office now) AND what I was going to do with the makeup I normally kept in my desk drawer.
I don’t usually need much makeup throughout my workday – I usually bring the lip colour I’m going to be wearing in to work with me and bring it back home that night and that’s it. However, there have been instances over the years where something goes wrong and my mascara flakes off, my eyeliner or brows rubs off, or a patch of foundation disappears around my mouth when I’m having my lunch, and that has necessitated having some backup makeup at the office in case of emergency. So that’s what’s in my makeup bag – emergency makeup.
All of it is housed together in a monogrammed makeup bag from Sephora Collection with the letter “R” on it. While my full name is Rachelle, I prefer going by the nickname Chelle – however, I have never associated myself with having the initial “C”, so the “R” on the bag makes much more sense to me, even though it may seen a bit bizarre to people who know me only as Chelle!
The item I definitely have the most of in my makeup bag is lip products. Why I have so many lip products in here is actually a bit of a mystery since I’m more likely to grab my lip colour for the day at home and bring it in to the office with me. But these sit here in case I NEED something… which is funny because I don’t generally feel like I NEED lip colour.
Anyway, since I usually wear a bright eyeshadow look, I have a bunch of “safe” lip colours that fit most occasions. Bite‘s Glace and Fig, alongside Charlotte Tilbury‘s Bitch Perfect are the kind of shades that will suit nearly any eye look. Fig is my most used colour I’d say, as I’ve finished a full size bullet of it in the past and have a few minis and another full size sitting in my collection at home.
MAC‘s Russian Red is sitting in my bag because I’ve made it a point to wear this particular lipstick at least one day a week because I’m trying to finish it up. The Paul & Joe Limited 003 shade is a fun juicy red/pink that wears just like a balm, so I love popping that on for an easy look (usually if I’m wearing a neutral eye look). And lastly, I’ve got the Clarins Lip Oil in Tangerine in my bag. I absolutely LOVE those lip oils (I’ve gone through two other tubes before of various flavours) and having one on hand for the cold winter months always feels like a must.
Perhaps the most important thing in my work makeup bag are my liners. If anything is likely to go wrong with my makeup on any given day, it’s either my eyebrows disappearing off my face because I wore a toque in to work (seriously – I often lose the entire tail of my brows to my freaking hats), or my eyes will tear up due to the wind on my walk in to the office and my liner will start to dissolve – wreaking havoc on my eyeshadow look. So I keep two brow pencils in here – the Revlon Colorstay Brow Pencil in Blonde, and the It Cosmetics Brow Power Waterproof Perfector 5-in-1 Waterproof Eyebrow Pencil in Universal Taupe. These are adequate products, although not my favourite brow items ever, but they are primarily kept in here because they’re so bloody LONG that they don’t actually fit in my acrylic drawer at home! They work well in a pinch, so I keep them at the office for emergencies.
As for liners, I have the Jesse’s Girl black liquid liner (it’s a brush tip, and lovely to use), as well as the Annabelle Skinny Gel Eye Pencil in case I need something that isn’t in a liquid format.
I was hesitant to even photograph these two because I have no idea how old they actually are… I’m fairly confident Covergirl no longer makes their Simply Ageless Eye Concealer, and I’ve likely owned it for… 7 years? Maybe 8? It doesn’t smell funky though, so I continue to use it. I’m not much of a concealer person, and heck I don’t even actually use this under my eyes – this is solely here in case my foundation decides to patch off anywhere on my face. Usual culprits are my nose or my chin, and I just dot the concealer over those areas and blend it out with my finger.
The mascara has also lived a very long life. It’s a mini size of the Smashbox Full Exposure mascara that I think I got with my PR sample of the Double Exposure palette back in the day. Oddly, this is my least used product in my makeup bag, but it does come out to play every now and then if I’ve missed a gap in my mascara, or, heaven forbid, I’ve completely forgotten to put on mascara that day. (It happens! I have no idea how, but it does!)
And lastly, these are what I call “my tools”. I’ve got a Sephora Collection set of blotting sheets (something I reach for frequently in the summer), a small Real Techniques mirror, a pair of tweezers (because you just never know when you’ll need a pair), a Sephora Collection lip brush (which also has a lid so that it stays mess free in my bag) and an ARTDECO Lip Primer which works really well to keep my lipstick in place.
So that’s what’s in my bag at the office. All laid out it looks like a freaking ton of product, but it actually all fits rather loosely in the makeup bag I have it in.
Do you keep makeup at the office like me? Or do have a makeup bag in your purse that you bring with you everywhere? Let me know!
Some of the products in this post are PR samples that have been mentioned in posts in the past. Post contains affiliate links.
