Eavesdropping in a Duques Hall bathroom showed an alumna that her business idea for a disposable, single-use makeup palette was a reachable reality.

Lynda Peralta, who graduated last year with a master’s degree in business administration, is launching Pocket Palette – a company that makes single-use makeup palettes the size of credit cards, designed for travel and makeup touch ups throughout the day. The company will launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial launch this week and will sell the product online once the campaign is finished at the end of October.

Peralta said the company was originally inspired by her busy mornings and early train rides. One day she decided to bring small amounts of makeup in plastic sandwich bags on her commute, instead of carrying each individual container in order to do her makeup.

“I didn’t want to wake up any earlier to do my makeup,” Peralta said. “I basically made a product that I needed.”

She said the palette will be sold for about the same price as drugstore makeup, although the exact cost has yet to be determined. The palette includes BB cream – tinted moisturizer – in one of three shades, a pink cream that doubles as a blush and lip color, and a pre-prepared mascara wand. The small plastic pouch can simply be thrown away when you are done with it, making it ideal for touching up during the day or for when you’re short on time leaving the house in the morning, she said.

Peralta will begin a Kickstarter campaign Oct. 1 to raise $55,000 for the production costs of the custom makeup, packaging and shipping. The Kickstarter will be up for 30 days and is an “all or nothing” campaign, which means Peralta won’t get any of the money raised by the fundraiser if she doesn’t raise her goal amount.

The demand for Peralta’s idea was confirmed when she overheard fellow students in the Duques Hall bathroom complaining about carrying all their makeup around with them all day because they had an interview and wouldn’t be able to return home before.

Peralta said she “popped out of the bathroom stall” and asked the girls if they would be interested in a single-use slim pouch for the makeup. The girls ended up being some of her biggest supporters, and she said she ran ideas for her product by them as she developed it in market testing.

“It was a fortuitous bathroom break,” she said.

The individual palettes will be sold in larger packages with multiple palettes inside. Peralta added that while the packaging is currently just disposable, she is looking into ways to make it recyclable in the future. She said most of the makeup in the palette, which is produced by a manufacturer specifically for the Pocket Palette, is paraben-free and not tested on animals – which was important to her.

Peralta said she entered her product into the GW New Venture Competition – an annual contest where students develop, test and launch startup ideas – this year. She said the competition gave her practice pitching to investors and forced her to meet her deadlines.

Peralta, the only competitor without a partner, placed fourth. She won $2,500 and other prizes, like a membership to a co-working space, a credit for legal services for her new company and a credit for Vista Print to create her product’s website.

“With each assignment that I was given to complete into the next round, I grew and learned so much more about my business,” she said.

Peralta said she hopes to one day partner with a large name-brand makeup company and sell in stores like Sephora or in airports to be bought before travel.

“I am still waiting for that day when I can go to the airport and buy my little Pocket Palette,” Peralta said.