Gym Beauty & The Best Kits for Your Bag
Year after year, my inbox fills up with the same burning question: “What is in your gym bag?” Specifically, how do you navigate the tricky intersection of sweating it out and looking good while doing it?
It is arguably one of the most difficult beauty dilemmas we face. On one hand, if you are single, the gym is a prime social habitat. It’s a fantastic place to meet people, so the instinct is to want to look somewhat cute and put-together. However, biology is working against us. Your poor skin is trying to sweat and detoxify, and the last thing you want to do is trap all that heat behind a layer of heavy makeup.
We have all been down that road. You want to cover up a blemish, so you wear foundation to Spin class. But eventually, your pores get clogged, your skin breaks out, and you end up piling on even more cover-up to hide the damage. Suddenly, you look down and realize you have become “that girl”—the one with the beige-stained white towel and a face full of melting contour.
Eventually, we all learn the hard way. We learn to embrace the “clean face” look, accepting that the natural flush we get from a boot camp or Pilates session is beautiful on its own. But that brings us to Dilemma #2: How do we go from a sweaty mess in the locker room to looking polished and professional for work or happy hour, without lugging our entire bathroom vanity with us?
Thankfully, the beauty industry has finally caught on. Cosmetic companies clearly have employees who face this exact struggle, because they have released some incredibly clever, pre-packed kits designed specifically for the active lifestyle.
Our Top Gym Bag Picks
Here are the six kits that have saved my life (and my skin) in the locker room:
1. Pinch Provisions Fitness Kit: This is the “Full Monty” for the Type-A personalities among us. If you are the kind of person who likes to be prepared for a zombie apocalypse while on the treadmill, this is for you. Don’t let the size fool you; this teeny-tiny case is small enough to throw into any tote, yet it is packed with 15 just-in-case essentials. It covers every mishap imaginable with items like a hair band, earbuds, blister balm (a lifesaver for breaking in new sneakers), deodorant, and even a spare pair of socks.
2. Yuni Sweat, Refresh, Go Healthy Portable Workout Essentials: I absolutely love this kit for its focus on hygiene and recovery. It’s perfect for those days when the shower line is too long, or you are just in a massive rush. It features large, luxurious body wipes for your standard workout, but the real star is the “Flash Bath” no-rinse wash. It is designed for those insane, high-intensity workouts where you are drenched but have zero time to hose off.
3. Wander Beauty New York Minute Kit: This kit is dedicated to the multi-tasker who appreciates a touch of upscale luxury on the fly. It centers around three “gem” products, but because two of them are dual-ended, you are actually getting five different tools in one compact package. It is almost everything you need for a full face.
Pro Tip: While this kit is near-perfect, I usually toss my favorite foundation into the bag alongside it, just because I have some uneven skin tone that needs a little extra coverage!
4. Tarte Gym Bag Grabs Athleisure Essentials: By now, most of you know Tarte. To know them is to love them, mostly because of their “good-for-you” ingredient lists and trendy color palettes. This kit is a standout because it understands the reality of sweating. The mascara included is heavily sweatproof—no raccoon eyes here—but they also include eye wipes specifically formulated to take that durable mascara off gently when you’re ready to cleanse.
5. Clinique Pep Rally Gym Bag Heroes: This kit is fantastic because it offers a sliding scale of skincare based on how much time you actually have. Only have two minutes? Grab the wipes. Have a little downtime? Use the exfoliating cleanser. It also includes a moisturizer and mascara to finish the look. Best of all, the packaging is genius: everything comes housed inside a super cute water bottle that you can actually use.
6. MILK Makeup Vibes Vibes Vibes Kit: If MILK isn’t on your radar yet, let me introduce you. MILK Studios in NY and LA are the hubs where some of the world’s biggest fashion photo shoots take place. Much like Smashbox, they learned everything they know about lighting, blurring, and highlighting from being on set. This kit brings that studio expertise to your gym bag with their four best-selling sticks. It’s all about that sleek, modern, “I woke up like this” glow.
