You beauty! Chanel Les Beiges

Les Beiges: but this is odd - who has ever wanted to be beige? Wasn’t beige blah? Wasn’t beige bland? Wasn’t beige a bit… beige?

But Chanel – in the spirit of Coco – reinvents. It casts its shadow over the contemporary and nudges things forward. And so the Les Beiges Healthy Glow collection takes us beyond the choice merely between either perfectly pale or shimmeringly burnished. This little parliament of powders aims to revive rather than to tan, to embellish what is already there rather than to coat and cheat and pearlise. There is nothing flamboyant about this approach. It is… well… it is French. It is aspirational flush rather than show-off bronze. Time to re-adjust your eye.

They powders are so finely, ruthlessly ground that they go on utterly sheer. Find your best match of five shades and you can honestly apply it with your eyes shut. It just finishes what nature started and makes you a little more Gisele. Or you can get creative and use one shade to sculpt, another to glow and a third to finish. It’s marvellously matt. Fudge not toffee.

Of course these aren’t beige. Not really. They are brown – never orange – and rich. But they do possess that neutrality, that flexibility, that ‘Don’t look at me’ confidence. And just holding a Chanel compact in her hand does something to a women before she even begins to apply. It’s a kind of magic.

Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow sheer powder, £38, at houseoffraser.co.uk