SUBTL Beauty: The Stackable Makeup Compact Explained, With Alternatives

On 25 July 1933, in Paris, Van Cleef & Arpels filed a patent for a "box-nécessaire". In January 1934 the house registered the name Minaudière. Family oral tradition says Charles Arpels got the idea after watching Florence Jay Gould stuff her beauty things into a Lucky Strike cigarette box. Treat that as a story, not a record, but I like it, because the object that came out of it is real: one small, hard case that does the job of a whole bag.

SUBTL Beauty is a modest descendant of that idea. Its founder, Rachel Reid, a Kiwi-American in Pittsburgh, says she started in 2019 as a newbie with very little background in beauty. The brand's own telling begins with a new relationship and an overnight bag that became, in her words, an overflowing not-so-subtle bag: what if everything she needed was in one handy stack. Her first prototype was makeup pressed into tiny contact lens cases, which she jokingly called Ho on the Go. She interviewed 150 women, settled on five basics (concealer, lip and cheek, bronzer, highlighter and shine-control powder), and a Kickstarter reached the 10,000 mark in 52 hours. The brand says it is vegan, talc-free and cruelty-free, with refillable layers.

The trick is to start with the first grid's stacks and then fill gaps with singles. The 5-in-1 Full Face Makeup Stack is the whole idea in one case, and the 4-in-1 Stack is the lighter version. The Stackable BB Powder Foundation and Cream Concealer Singles are where I would begin if you already have a palette you love. The Lip Glaze Single, Bronzing Balm, Powder Blush and Cream Highlighter then cover the rest of the face.

Ask which one product you would grab if you had ninety seconds, and you have found your multi-use stick. If the answer is a foundation, pick a foundation stick. If it is color for your cheeks and mouth, pick a multistick, and stop reading reviews.

Ogee's Multi-Use Sculpted Foundation and Concealer Stick, LIXR's Cream-to-Powder Concealer and Foundation Stick and Westman Atelier's Vital Skin Medium Coverage Foundation Stick are the complexion sticks. They suit a person who likes to swipe rather than screw open a pan. Chanel's Baume Essentiel Multi-Use Glow Stick is the highlighter of the group.

On the colour side, KJH.brand's Soft Smudge Lip and Cheek Cream Blush Multistick, Mango People's Cream Blush and Lip Multistick and Kosas's Impressionist Multistick do the same job in different personalities. Danessa Myricks Beauty's Colorfix Stix goes further, into eyes, cheeks and lips, with a pearl pigment.

A pairing I like: a stack for the base and one multistick for the flush. It is a tidy two-item routine.

What I would skip: a stick foundation if you want to build coverage in thin layers with a brush. A stack's small pan is better for that.

Lay out everything you would pack for a trip, then take away a third. Whatever is left is your compact routine. It works better than any packing list.

Fara Homidi's Essential Face, Eye, Lip and Bronzer Compacts are a set of four, so you can collect the pieces you need and leave the others at home. Charlotte Tilbury's Love At First Swipe Face Palette and Laura Geller's Baked Icons Complete All-in-one Full Face Palette give you a face in one palette, which makes them the closest relatives of a Stack among the bigger brands.

Natasha Denona's Hy-per Natural Face Palette is a face palette with the word natural right in its name, and MAKE UP FOR EVER's HD Skin Face Essentials is a full-face cream palette, so it asks for fingers or a dense brush.

Keep one compact permanently in your bag and do not raid it. A makeup bag that stays packed is the one you will actually use.

What I would skip: a full face palette for a one-night trip. Pack the compact you will reach for twice.

Cream and powder want different brushes: a dense one for cream, a fluffy one for powder, and no sharing between them. A brush that has been in a cream concealer will never sweep powder cleanly again.

Patrick Ta's Dual-Ended Complexion Brush and Haus Labs' Dual-Ended Precision Sculpting Brush give you two tools in one handle, which suits anyone who is packing light. Danessa Myricks Beauty has two kabuki-style brushes, Yummy Face 2.0 Teardrop and Yummy Face 1.0 All Over, and the teardrop shape is the one I would try first for small areas.

Charlotte Tilbury's Hollywood Complexion Brush, Violette_FR's Le Kabuki and Sarah Creal's Ultra-Soft Concealer and Complexion Brush are the softer, more polished options. MAKE UP FOR EVER's 158 Double Ended Sculpting Brush finishes the set. If you pack them, keep the cream brushes and the powder brushes in separate pouches so they never swap residue.

A dense kabuki suits a stack's foundation pan, and a small double-ended brush handles the highlighter and bronzer.

What I would skip: washing a brush the night before a trip and packing it damp. Let it dry fully before it goes in the case, and pack it flat.

The best thing about SUBTL Beauty is that it makes you edit. Five basics, one case, a mirror in the lid in the 2023 redesign, and you leave the house with less than you used to. The pans are small by design, so this is not a bag for makeup artists. I like a kit that tells me when to stop.

I would start with the 4-in-1 Stack or the 5-in-1, add a multistick if you love a flush, and buy one brush. Van Cleef had gold and enamel. You have a case that fits in a coat pocket. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Korean Makeup Picks and Nudestix Explained.