London - We’ve all been there: slept through the alarm, behind on getting breakfast and a packed lunch together, only one clean blouse left...
By the time we get out the door we’re running so late it’s a miracle we manage to catch the train at all.
But we do - and then it’s time to carry out that vital task we’ve missed in our morning routine: applying our make-up. Some say it’s a bare-faced cheek to put our faces on in public, but look around the carriage of any early morning train and you’ll see at least half a dozen women surreptitiously lining their eyes and painting their lips with a skill and steadiness of hand that surgeons would envy.
But they are not checking the progress of the make-up in cracked, make-up smudged compact mirrors - they are gazing into their smartphone screens.
Once upon a time, Hollywood starlets powdered their noses while glancing into jewel-encrusted compacts, but now women use an altogether more hi-tech approach.
Simply select your smartphone’s reverse camera mode - the one you use when you’re taking a picture of yourself - and hey presto, you have a perfect mirror.
You can even use the zoom for fiddly bits and snap your progression from puffy-eyed and blinking to smoky-eyed and ravishing, or at least presentable. This is the train after all - one can’t expect miracles.
This trend has become so popular that there are now numerous apps designed to help women carry out makeovers on the run, including Make Up Mirror, which turns your phone into a magnified mirror with extra lighting. Or the very cheering app, Mirror Mirror, which looks at your reflection and assures you that “Your beauty takes my breath away” or “You look wonderful”. Now that’s a good way to start the day.
But just because the technology is there, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t limit how we use it. No matter how hi-tech your mirror is, nobody wants to be sat opposite the woman plucking her eyebrows or squeezing her blackheads on her morning commute. There are limits to what a lady - even a gadget lover who is running very, very late - should get up to in public. - Daily Mail