Looking for beauty tips from the business women here...
 

So I'm bored... I got a job in a real estate office as an assistant, so I've started caring a bit more about my appearance... so I painted my nails (properly) I'm waiting for the top coat (4th coat) to dry.. why is that beauty takes so darn long.

I'm a get ready in 10 minutes kind of girl, all of a sudden, doing my nails, make-up, steaming my office clothes, doing my hair... takes for freakin ever...

So... how long do you take to get ready? This dressing up stuff seems really overrated. like I had no idea you're supposed to put a base and a top coat on your freaking nails?!?!?! lol I can say that they actually look nice.

The best tip I can give you is to plan your wardrobe a week in advance. I plan the outfit for each day and then on Sunday I make sure everything is pressed and ready.

Also if you can get the easiest wash and wear hairdo, so much easier.

As far as my nails, honestly I do not get manicure anyloner, I just keep my nails short and filed. I got sick of painting them and touching them up.

Used to take me 10 minutes, and that includes a shower and shave. Now Margeto quite a bit longer. I could usually watch a feature film waiting for her!

Just a couple of little tips. I used to get all my outfits ironed and ready and hung up for the week every Sunday. As much as I hated it , it certainly made getting ready easier. I hung them in outfits and could switch them around a bit if it were warmer or colder each day. I cant tell you how much easier this made things. I also put the shoes under each outfit. I also used hot rollers which I left in all morning till I was walking out the door. ;)
Black Pants, black skirts always make things easier!! My office was freezing so I was still able to wear light weight sweaters all year long :D
Once you have been working awhile it may be easier to run out and get a quick manicure as a treat.. for some reason when the salon does it , it can last a couple of weeks and manicures are fairly inexpensive.

I have always worked in an office environment. I don't paint my nails, I just keep them clean and trim. If you want to paint something, paint your toes because it lasts a looooot longer!
I don't usually wear a lot of makeup either, just mascara and powder. Unless the company is extremely controlling, they won't care that you don't have a face full of makeup on.
I have naturally curly hair so it usually does itself. If not, it takes me 5 minutes to put some cream in it or to throw it into a cute ponytail.
Other than that, my clothes are already separated in my closet into "work" and "casual" so I can go into my closet and pick out something that matches in 1 minute.

Hope that helps!

Get your nails done! LOL (I'm kidding really) but if you want to save time, then doing the nails with the topcoat and basecoat is a good idea because they last longer, so you'll be doing them less often. :)

My work is business casual at best. My hair is curly and for work I usually just throw some gel in it, throw it up in a ponytail and that's it. I do wear makeup everyday though. I don't wear face makeup or lipstick. I wear eyeliner, shadow and mascara. I have problem skin and sometime I spot cover up spots, but I don't smear on foundation or powder, its bad for my skin. I hate lipstick but I do wear lipgloss.

My worse habit is not ironing! I hate ironing with a passion! Usually what happens is something wrinkles, it needs to be ironed. I make a pile. 5 years later I donate the pile to goodwill!!! LOL Soooo bad, but I absolutely HATE ironing and Im soooo bad at it that I get frustrated and things always end up looking worse than they did, its such a waste of my time! BF is a good ironer. Sometimes he'll iron something for me plus he really likes the iron I bought. I bought a stainless steel shark iron about 6 years ago and really I think Ive used it twice. I had it more than 3 years before my girlfriend came over one night, used it for a blouse for me for the first time it was ever used! LOL

Picking out clothes the night before does save time in the morning. Early sat morning nail painting lets you go all week w/o doing it again. I straighten my hair (which takes an hour) on sunday evenings and it lasts until saturday morning so I go all week with it, which saves me time.

Your post made me giggle, I have a lip gloss obsession!! I have like 5 tubes in my purse! Have you tried the Victoria Secret lip gloss?? They have a banana flavor, its really pretty when it goes on its like a goldish glittler color. Really pretty!!

Oh no I haven't tried that. I love lipgloss... I have a bunch of them also. Is the VS kind stick at all? I hate sticky lipgloss that my hair sticks to. I am loving the Co Bigelow Mentha lip shine from Bath & Body Works. Its shiny and it tastes like mint so it gives you good breath when you lick your lips! LOL

I take foreeeeevvvver to get ready in the mornings! I never paint my fingernails because I really can't go a day without getting a chip, so I usually just leave them as they are. If I feel like painting them, I'll do a clear coat or a very light pinkish color so it won't show so badly when they chip! I don't have the time to do my nails every week :rolleyes:

Most of my work clothes are pretty easy to mix and match. Grey or black dress pants/capris/skirts, and then any color top will go with them! I have my closet organized too wtih casual tops and work tops. Sometimes I will pick out my clothes the night before, but honestly, I get lazy a lot and just throw something on in the morning.

My hair is straight, with a slight wave, but not enough to look good without work! I usually will shower in the morning and blow-dry it. If I'm up late and know it will be tough to get out of bed in the morning, I have a bath, wash my hair, and put it in a few buns or braids overnight. Then in the morning I can either leave it wavy, or put it up.

Overall, I take about an hour every morning from the time I get out of bed to the time I'm out the door. I should be more organized, but I'm not lol. I used to work in a materials testing lab and I would be out on construction sites all day, working with soil and concrete, smelling like dirt, covered in filth... all I wanted was a job where I could actually look pretty all day! Now I have it, and sometimes I wish I didn't have to care so much lol!

I have tons of VS lip glosses too, and they do get sticky if they're the same ones I'm thinking of! I have the ones that come in little tubes. In my case, I don't worry about the stickiness too badly, because they taste delicious and I can't stop licking my lips when I have it on :D

I am not a working women at this time but when I was I kept it simple: Nice comfortable pants and top must be pressed/no wrinkles. A light coat of makeup nothing too dark or over loaded and Lip Gloss. :2pucker: Hair was always kept natural but well groomed.

The less time you spend on getting ready in the morning the better you will feel about going to work! But than maybe thats just me...

A good tip to nail: use rubbing alcohol to clean your nails before applying the polish. The rubbing alcohol remove all the the natural oils from the nail and allows the polish to stay on longer without having to touch them up as often.

If you dress comfortable but not sloppy you will be more comfortable in the work place. Nothing too revealing or loud prints.

Congrats on the new job !!

Thanks everyone... so by the time I got to work that morning only 2/10 nails survived. I will definitely do my nails on a saturday this time.

I just went for a make-up consult at a fundraising event and learned the art of make-up, I personally hate wearing it, but figure I want a little bit to just polish off the look, I can't wear a lot of things because of my skin, so usually just some blush and eye shadow and a lipstick.

It takes me about 2 hours to get ready, that includes all of my morning ritual (doing dishes, feeding fido, and checking YT while I eat, plus dress and make-up). I'd ideally like to get that down to 1.5, I definitely need to start planning outfits.

Keep your nails short and filed, Save all the "dry" time between coats. Use cuticle oil daily it gives them a shine.:)
I am so get ready in 15min kinda girl (for work) going out is different...
I wear makeup, I learned how to apply it in less than 5 min, i don't wear eyeshadow to work (time saver there)
My hair, requires no work, pull the sides up, pony tail or just use the blow dryer to fluff it up. ( i wash it every night and it air dries) When i shower in the morning, i put it up on a pony.
Keep it simple-buy clothes you don't have to iron:D

GOOD LUCK

Lol yes the VS is very sticky, ( i use to hate the sticky kind) only if you are in a windstorm is when ur hair gets all up in it.. I hate that too but I'm willing to deal with it bc its looks really pretty on. In fact my bosses wife told me today how pretty it was! It is def something to get use too, but I would def try! Plus it stays on like forever!!

Oh wow girl! I get woken up at 6ish, get up at 620 and I'm out the door at 710. So about 50 mins. I shower, get ready, feed and take the dogs out and make a lunch in that time. If I could get up at 530 I'd work out for a 1/2 hour, but I can't do it! LOL

I do my cleaning in the morning when I'm alseep, so dishes etc. that's part of what takes so long.

wow am I ever glad I am not a "business woman"! I left the days of 9 to 7 long ago. waking up at 6:30 to get to work by 9, then if I didn't stay overtime the owner would give me the "look". Taking an hour plus to get home, it wasn't 9 to 7, it was more like 7 to 9. Now I work 10 to 9, but at least I work for myself, and no more office politics!

Plus I hate having to follow a dress code, always have. :D I never get my nails done, I should just have them painted black, there is always dirt, grime and grease under there. btw, now I'm a bike mechanic. I used to be a fashion designer. Bikes are not only more fun, but more creative, believe it or not. And designing fashion is not as glamorous as it seems.

My tip, do as little as you can to look presentable, but do exceptionally well at your job and no one will ever think twice about your unpolished nails.

My dad used to say, if a beautiful woman has bad nails, no one will care, but if an unattractive woman has great nails, no one will notice.

You can thus completely understand why I'm finding it hard to start dressing for the office... lol I worked for 6 years in a horse barn!!!! In highschool I trained, coached and competed, as well as managed my mother's barn....

A HUGE change from Real Estate. (I'm just an admin right now, not an agent) but my mom actually used to be a Broker, and she is putting a tonne of pressure on me to dress formally. She worked in the red suit with huge shoulder pads, and bright noticeable make-up era... Ugh 90s, she works in the barn now, and doesn't understand that business clothes have evolved. (I do love my mom, but she doesn't understand that my style is FAR different from what was in style when she was in the high powered business group). She keeps buying me dresses, I don't wear dresses... (sorry had to get that rant out).

..... just a hint:
Chico's carries some really nice travel knits that travel well and DONT wrinkle. They are comfy AND look very nice!

Well, we've been telling you that you don't have to dress super fancy for work. ;) Just buy nice work clothes & shoes, make sure your hair is neat and you're fine. I think the biggest thing is just making sure everything looks nice; it doesn't need to be overdone (makeup, nails, hair, etc.).

Do you have a Suzy Shier near you? I buy all my work stuff there! It's pretty affordable compared to other places and everything looks very nice! I have tons of dress pants from there and I never have to iron them. I hang them to dry and they are perfectly creased. So even if you don't wear dresses, and aren't going to go for your mom's red power suits (lol), you can find some really nice, affordable, young professional looks.

I used to.... they just closed :( I did manage to find a few multi-functional pieces, I'm getting the hang of things slowly.

I've gotten tired of the long nails. I think I'll go back to my short pale pink, while the longer red looks great, it's a pain, and I've dropped from my ability to type at 65wpm to about 45wpm! lol.

I'm honestly really enjoying my job, slowly getting the hang of this business stuff, I think I just need to find my style, figure out what I can afford, and what looks good on me.