Five Favourites: Reinvent Your Makeup Bag

Its easy to get stuck in a makeup rut, but just as easy to refresh your day-to-day look with a few key products. I've picked five new(ish) products which are amazing in their own right, and perfect to 'jazz up' your makeup bag.

Chanel Les 4 Ombres Quadra Eyeshadow in Premier Regard (£37) - Chanel’s eye shadow quads are basically the season’s key colours for beauty all in one place – and for autumn it’s all about pretty browns and pale pinks. You can’t go wrong. 

Tom Ford Lip & Cheek Stain in Tainted Love (£36) - This easy-to-use berry stain rolls onto lips and cheeks for a girlishly flushed look. I'm trying to convince myself that the multi-use product justifies the typically extortionate Tom Ford price tag... (Available from September).

Dolce & Gabbana Blush Luminous Cheek in Delight (£30.50) - A healthy, pink glow was on show at the Michael Kors, Mulberry and Dolce & Gabbana shows for autumn/winter 2012-13, and thus I suggest you make sure to have a great blush on hand for that just-in-from-the-cold look.

Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour (£20.50) - There’s no easier way to create a quick smoky eye than with one of these crease-resistant metallic Caviar Sticks. They glide on easily for long-lasting metallic colour, and they’re pretty much fool-proof.

Dior Diorshow Mascara (£23) - Blue mascara was the beauty focus at Stella McCartney, where models wore it layered up for maximum effect. This Dior version is as bold as they come, and curls the lashes too. rachel xo

Backstage Beauty: Fall 2012 Haute Couture | Christian Dior

Inspired by Christian Dior's architectural vision, Simons' designs boasted familiar silhouettes with new, contemporary touches—a message he translated to hairstylist Guido Palau and makeup artist Pat McGrath. Gone were the coiffed couture updos, the perfect red lips, and the winged black liner of old. In their place: air-dried, blunt-cut middle parts; matte, multi-tonal mouths; and electric cat-eyes with coloured lashes.

Designed by Dior creative director of makeup Tyen, the palette of colors employed backstage was positively futuristic. Using a full-coverage skin tint, like CoverGirl & Olay Tone Rehab 2-in-1 Foundation dusted with its Pressed Powder, Pat McGrath kept complexions paled out and matte, save for a slight contour on cheekbones that she created with a pink blush. She then turned her attention to eyes that came in four different iterations, all of which boasted two unifying factors in the form of white kohl liner along the inner rims and a thick slick of chrome cream eye shadow, like CoverGirl Intense ShadowBlast in Platinum Pop.

Insider Insight: Caroline Issa

Caroline Issa, Fashion Director at Tank.

A look into her life, beauty secrets & hero products...

When I started working at Tank, I decided to let my hair grow out. It was a bad phase; I had this little mushroom on my head. Literally nobody saw me for my first two years at Tank because I was just like, ‘There’s no way I’m being introduced to anybody looking like this,’ until it grew out into a normal place. Now I have loads of hair, and I don’t deal with it very well. I’ve been using Super Sleek Smoothing Shampoo from Ojon; it has macadamia nut and other oils in it. And my hair stylist Angelo Seminara turned me onto this amazing organic oil, OI from Davines, which I put on when my hair is wet. And then I’ll do a bun or a braid, and slick back all the frizzies with L’Oréal Paris gel. Right now, I’m growing my hair out because I’ve decided what my September look is going to be: stick-straight and really long. When I get to New York for fashion week—because it’s really a very New York thing—I’ll get a normal New York blow dry, which you just can’t get in London—there are no blow-dry bars. And then I’ll probably cut it in October.

This is as much makeup as I can handle: mascara, eyeliner, and a red lip. I don’t have anything on my skin. Yes, I’m totally lucky, but the thing is, I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my entire life, I don’t drink huge amounts of alcohol, and I have a Chinese mother—that, I think, is my advantage. My mom does not look a day over 45, and she’s 65. Asian skin is amazing. My dad is Lebanese-Iranian, so the mix of all these crazy cultures together has been really helpful. I mean, I have a glass of wine every night, but because I’m half-Chinese I just can’t hold my alcohol very well, which means I’m a really cheap date, but I think it probably helps the skin situation.