I totally apply lip gloss at the stoplights.

Here's mine:

ADD: Take pills, go to the bathroom, put in contacts, shower.

— In the shower: splash some water on your face, followed by gentle exfoliating cleanser, out of the shower: toner and preventative spot treatment

— apply some combo of undereye serum, facial moisturizer, sunscreen (it's in my moisturizer(, foundation primer, foundation, undereye concealer and a light dusting of powder

— curl your eyelashes with a cold metal squeegee prod, avoid puncturing eyelid in process, fail 40% of the time, attend to punctured eyelid

— apply basic eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara and blush (remembering to blend, blend, blend) brush, highlight, tweeze, trim and fill in any spare patches in your eyebrows

— spritz your hair with volumizing root spray while using a round brush and blow dryer to remove stray kinks, bumps and frizz caused by sleeping

— heat up curling iron and/or flat iron and apply to one-inch sections of hair until entire head covered and apply anti-frizz shine serum to ends of hair (or, in the alternative: style hair into twist, ponytail or other simple updo)

— locate earrings in overnight jewelry-cleaner jewelry box

— soak and place on ears, along with matching necklace, rings, bracelets or other trinkets

— apply perfume on pulse points

— run a deodorant stick under your arms

— get dressed in a work-appropriate business casual ensemble, making sure to avoid cleavage, hemlines, fabrics styles, cuts, colors or trends that could be inappropriately distracting, whorey, casual or generally offensive to anyone working in a 2-block radius of your office building your school.

Takes me 30 minutes.

Then there are the women who save time by putting makeup on while driving to work....

This is when taking the train is convenient.

I also knew women who put on makeup when they got to work. Just went straight to the bathroom and did it, and then went to their desks.

I think polished and professional doesn't necessarily mean a full face of makeup, either. I knew plenty of women in NYC who didn't wear more than sheer lipstick and maybe some mascara.

Yeah, and putting on foundation and blush takes me about 1.5 minutes, including washing my hands. Lipstick takes no time at all.

Then there are the women who save time by putting makeup on while driving to work....

This is when taking the train is convenient.

This reminds me of the Mr. Bean episode where he did all his morning routine while driving.

Basically, I:

• brush teeth (2 mins)
• shower/wash hair and face (7 mins)
• dry self (1 min)
• cleanse and moisturise face (1 min)

• apply humectant to hair (30s)
• apply primer (30s)
• lip gloss (30s)
• mascara (1 min)
• do brows (1 min)

If I'm sensible, dressing is done in 5 minutes. I am not always sensible, but that's entirely on me.

I'm showered and dressed within about 45 minutes of the alarm going off (but not getting right up), drying my hair takes 5-10 minutes, makeup another couple. I'm slow in the morning and eat breakfast at home, but my alarm goes off 75 minutes before I leave the house. And I don't do anything elaborate.

I really hate it when women apply makeup on the subway during rush hour. There's just no easy way to put on eyeshadow without elbowing the person next to you.

My alarm goes off an hour before I'm scheduled leave the house. I sometimes snooze 10 minutes of that, depending on how rough the night was. I don't eat breakfast at home, but currently I have to make space for coffee brewing (and ensuing Jamaican folk song earworm indulgence). And catching up on the internets before I leave the house.

I'm so bad now -- I need, like, at least an hour to have tea and feel human before I can shower and get dressed if I'm going somewhere.

But that was after a couple of years of taking a 6:50 a.m. train (which took fifteen minutes by car to get to). I was getting up at 5:45 and making that train.