To do my make up on the train?

[northchesterforest]

Does it bother you when you see people doing this? If so, why?

Me too!

Doesn’t bother me at all and I get a busy commuter train so see it fairly frequently.
Once a woman was applying it so expertly on quite a wobbly train I was just utterly mesmerised! Eyeliner flicks and all.

Go for it!

I do it every week. Make up bag on my lap and in 10 minutes I look alive. Every second is accounted for in the mornings. If I am inexplicably early I do prefer to start or do it in the car or in the waiting room at the station but don't fret about doing it on the train

I reread my post and can't see where I implied that you couldn't answer?

It doesn’t ‘bother’ me, but I do question why the person couldn’t make time to do it at home because it seems illogical to do it on a moving vehicle, never mind somewhat lazy.

I just think its a bit lazy. Someone can be bothered to choose and pack makeup and spend time unpacking it at home, risk it all smashing up through travel but can't be bothered to get up 15 mins earlier to put it on. It's personal care, do it in a personal space.

Sprays or powders bother me because I am extremely allergic to certain ingredients. Just flicking something with a brush can release particles into the air.

My own teenager can’t even buy whatever makeup she wants because I can’t risk it being in the house. I have to subsidize her budget so she can afford allergy safe products.

It bothers me that women (maybe a few men) lack the confidence to be at work or in other situations without any make up. That they are judged or feel judged without it.

Where it is applied, less of an issue.

I suppose it could be seen as being vain. But on the other hand I kind of admire them for not caring what people think. Plus it’s making good use of their time.

My goodness, MN can be such an unnecessarily nasty and judgemental place sometimes! 🙄

I sometimes do my make-up or part of it on a train, not because I'm lazy, self-absorbed, performative, slutty or lacking in class but because I'm extremely extremely busy and it's something that can give!

I'm a mum of 3 (including a toddler and 2 primary school aged kids), a mature full time student on a very demanding course and have to run my mornings like absolute clockwork to get everyone dressed, fed and to the right places on time, including myself. I have a 10-15 min walk to the train station, a long commute to uni and at least half hour gaps between trains so I have to make the one I need. If I've rushed then my part done make-up may need a touch up or I may just have run out of time to start or finish it in the first place. So I spend 5 mins or so putting on a little bit of confidence boosting foundation, concealer, eyebrow pencil and mascara, nothing over the top or wafty/spritzy. My skin isn't wonderful and it just makes me look a bit more put together and ready for long day of study and placements.

You just don't know what people have going on in their lives to judge them as lazy and vain, when it doesn't even affect you in any way for goodness sake.

I'd just say it's not the applying of make up that I find unhygienic it's the train or public transport itself that pretty gross. Just think of all the people who sneeze and cough and put their feet on the seats and clip and file nails 😷 why would you want to do it is more the question?

Shaving would leave a mess. Not equivalent

Krumblina I disagree I had powder/foundation all over my clean top and shoulder from a lady doing her make up on a train.

Everyone calling people who do this lazy; what part of waking up mega early (4.45am some days) to catch the first commuter train to go and work all day until I catch a train home ten hours later, if I'm lucky, is lazy? The bit where I don't want to wake up at 4.30am?

used to travel into work on the Bakerloo line - very juddery ride between Paddington and Charing X. Often would sit opposite a woman doing her makeup. Was in awe of her steady hands doing her mascara & eye makeup

It’s interesting how many people’s main complain it it’s lazy. It’s interesting how people view productivity and free time.
Imagine getting wound up that someone else is lazy because they choose to use a free window of time already in their day rather than wasting it and getting up earlier on top. Seems completely counter intuitive.

Do the same people take issue with a coffee and croissant on the way into work because the person may have had an extra 10 mins to chill before they left??

It doesn't bother me, in that it's not something I spend lots of time thinking about or worrying about. But I don't much like it when I see it and it makes me feel quite uncomfortable.
A number of reasons:

1. To me it seems like an intimate act of personal grooming that is inappropriate in a public situation. Obviously lots of people don't see it that way, so could just be my age and upbringing.
2. Make up is essentially subterfuge and disguise, so to see someone creating the disguise is discomfiting.
3. If it bothers you how you are seen, and you think make up improves it, why do people on the train not exist for you? It seems somehow discourteous and makes the applier seem obvlivious to social norms, while at the same time caring intensely about themselves and their appearance.
4. Why are you doing that to your face anyway? Someone earlier in the thread said: 'No one wakes up beautiful'. I dispute that, and I certainly disagree that a full face of make up makes you look beautiful in a way I recognise.
5. Why are no male commuters putting make up on on the train? Why do women spend valuable time in their lives doing this? So many people talking about time saving and not having time before you leave the house. Just don't do it. It's immensely liberating.

I used to regularly commute on the train, with a journey of an hour. I was already getting up at 6.

Doing my makeup on the train meant I didn't have to get up at 5:15. I was doing absolutely nothing else with that hour - so I'd actually argue that this is a more productive use of time.

I'm actually about as far from lazy as it is possible to be - at the time I was working 8:30-4:30 then studying 6:30-9.

If doing your makeup on the train is comfortable/convenient for you OP, do it. It impacts exactly no one else. The judgement says faaaar more about other people than it ever will about you!

For those calling it intimate... you'll know when I get intimate on the train
💋 🍆

It's possible for more than one sort of stink, and make up really does stink (especially when being applied).

Not particularly, it's somewhat entertaining wondering if they're going to smear their lipstick or poke their eye out with a mascara brush if the train jolts. I much prefer it to seeing women do their makeup while driving.

Only if you have room, though. I once spent a commute being elbowed by some obnoxious cow doing her eye makeup in the seat next to me. Yes, I could have said something, and that's on me, but there's no way she didn't know she was doing it.

PLEASE EVERYONE DO NOT DO YOUR EYEMAKEUP ON THE TRAIN WITH A MASCARA WAND.
FRIEND WAS SEVERELY INJURED NEARLY BLINDED WHEN TRAIN STOPPED SUDDENLY AND WAND WENT INTO HER EYBALL.

because I know this it makes me feel sick when I see women using mascara wands on trains. they are very hard and sharp and some of them are fairly pointed

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest. When I used public transport all those years back, I loved watching people apply make-up.

I don't like it.

I personally believe that personal grooming should be kept to the privacy of your own home. I can't really tell you why I find it icky. It just is.
I think maybe some of it is that I find it a bit "look at me!" Like, "I'm so busy and important, I didn't have a single moment to do this at home, so I'll do it now and you can all sit there and think about how pretty I am and how busy I must be!"

So if it's just 5 mins, can't you get up 5 mins earlier?