You beauty! Bobbi Brown Shadow Stick

Some people — many people — wear the same make-up all the time, just adding a bit more eye-blacking and lip-reddening for night. I’m not really one of them. Sometimes I pick a mood and a colour scheme, lay out materials and tools, shade and shape, and Ooh! there’s a dot of colour, and Pow! there’s a vamp-flick, and Bam! this is what’s known as smoulder.

Other times one of two things can happen:

1) ****! I’ve got to be out the door in 90 seconds.

2) Ooh! Pow! Bam! I look wrecked. I should have stopped five minutes ago. Need to start again. ****! I’ve got to be out the door in 90 seconds.

That’s when you need Bobbi Brown’s new Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick for eyes. It glides on and then you have about a minute when it is still malleable enough to blend with a brush. In 30 seconds I get a result that usually takes me five minutes. Then it stays. Forever.

I use Forest green along my upper lash line, smudged out into a hazy Bardot, and the gently sparkling Golden Pink in the inner corner of my eye to wake everything up.Oh, and if you are heading towards the Bobbi Brown counter, for the next fortnight John Lewis has an exclusive on her new Long-Wear Even Finish Compact Foundation. It doesn’t fall off your face, doesn’t snuggle into wrinkles and looks like skin. For polished beauty in a hurry, Bobbi knows best.

Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick, £20 (bobbibrown.co.uk)