Sacrilege for a beauty editor to admit, but weeks into September and I’m finding applying makeup tiresome. I spent a good proportion of summer without makeup, because a full face in 35C can never end well. They say it takes 28 days to form a habit; try three months. I became so minimalist that looking at my bulging makeup bag this month made me want to take to my bed.
But after a season of festivals and late nights where we all deluded ourselves we were much younger and hipper than we are IRL, it’s time to go back to being a grownup. Which means a more polished look.
If, like me, you’re not quite ready to go the whole hog, a bright lipstick is the perfect transitioning product. I know many women still fear bold lips, but I encourage even beauty wallflowers to try a swish of colour; it takes things up a notch and you’ll look like you made an effort – even if you don’t really mean it.
Generally, I avoid non-matte lipsticks (a hangover from my teen years, when I didn’t want to draw attention to the size of my lips). But for high-quality, creamy lip shades at great value I recommend NARS Seven Deadly Sins Audacious Lipstick Palette (£35). It comes with a brush and the orangey-red will lift your face no end.
Another triumph is Estée Lauder Pure Color Desire Rouge Excess Lipstick (£34). Its creamy, highly pigmented colours (try Stun) plump you up – a treat for less full lips.
Kevyn Aucoin’s The Molten Matte Lip Color in Julia (£24), a true matte in a power red, is superb. The tip of the applicator is the shape of a ballerina’s foot en pointe, so even the cack-handed can achieve defined lips, liner free. The silky, putty-like texture is a pleasure to wear.
One of the best bright lip colours I’ve used is Fenty Beauty’s Stunna Lip Paint (£19). The (fire-red) shade, finish, pigment, applicator and longevity are all faultless. My only criticism is the slightly watery consistency: unless you keep your mouth open, goldfish style, for 15 seconds while waiting for it to dry, you’ll end up with half of it on your teeth.
• Funmi Fetto is contributing beauty editor for Vogue.
