All of a FLUTTER: Brush up on your mascaras

So many land on my desk every month – each promising never-seen-before lash magnificence and to entirely reinvent the wheel (honest, guv).

I like to imagine the research department sipping coffee and writing wish lists.

“Blacker than black? Check! Even longer? Check! Masses more volume? Check!”

Yet every time it seems we’ve reached peak lusher-thicker-darker, someone tweaks something minuscule and I’m left wondering how I lived with the previous incarnations as long as I did.

With Avon’s latest offering, its team watched women applying their make-up to see what they got up to and found they were using household implements – think safety pins, toothpicks, even spoons – or multiple mascaras to achieve the results they wanted.

This revelation led to the creation of Mark. Big & Style Mascara (£8.50; avon.uk.com), which uses gel technology from the candle industry so the product retains flexibility for longer, allowing you to mould lashes into shape after you slick on the black stuff.

They are by no means alone in their investigations and, as ever, autumn brings a whole host of brilliant new brushes coated with ever more gravity-defying goop – so which should be on your radar?

Hourglass Caution Extreme Lash Mascara (£25; selfridges.com) was one of the first to land this season and remains one of my favourites – it hasn’t left my make-up bag since I tested it out.

While I was initially dubious about the promise of 400 per cent more volume, this adds serious oomph without multiple coats, which means it stays brilliantly flake-free, too.

What’s in a name? Ask Revlon, whose newest release is Volumazing Mascara (£8.99; boots.com).

Volumazing? You know, volume that’s amazing – do you see what they did there?

The brush contains mini reservoirs to maximise the amount of the olive oil-enriched formula that goes on with each stroke, while its wavy bristles fan out individual hairs as you apply, creating the aforementioned volume without clumps.

Japan remains the home of some of the biggest beauty advances, so it’s no wonder Shiseido ImperialLash MascaraInk (£25; johnlewis.com) is eye-catchingly innovative.

Each bristle is made from a brand-new soft silicone material and staggered to deliver definition, while the crown-like tip grabs hard-to-reach tendrils and ultra-fine crushed pigments and waxes wrap each hair weightlessly.

Fancy faking it?

Falsies for nights out are still doing big business, if you can bear the faff.

Lord & Berry Glamour Lash Collection in EL2 (£13; lordandberry.com) uses silk fibres and can be worn up to 10 times, while Huda Beauty Faux Mink Farah #12 (£18; shophudabeauty.com) have three layers on each band for a softly dramatic style.

And if you are looking for innovation, the rather brilliant but slightly bonkers Eylure Luxe Magnetic Mink Effect Lashes in Opulent Accent (£13.95; eylure.com) have been created so you can ditch the glue entirely – simply click them over your natural lashes and magnetic strips hold them in place so you’re good to go in an instant.

Finally, it’s possible to improve what nature has given you.

Maybelline Lash Sensational Boosting Serum (£14.99; boots.com) uses arginine and provitamin B5 to nourish – and after a month of nightly application, 90 per cent of testers said they saw an improvement in the condition of the hairs and a fuller finish.

Looking for an aluminum-free option to traditional antiperspirants for the tweenagers in your life?

Elsa’s Natural Deodorant Crèmes (£9.60 each; elsas.co.uk) use arrowroot powder and kaolin clay to deodorise and detoxify while keeping unwanted odour at bay – choose from Sweet Orange & Clementine or Lemon, Lime & Grapefruit.

Dark circles, sallowness, redness or lacking lustre – whichever your bugbear, one of the Givenchy Prism Primers (£30 each; givenchy.com) will counter it.

The five pastel filters create the perfect camouflage, while a sixth mattifying primer will banish shine and reduce the appearance of enlarged pores.

Natural ingredients, including rice peptides, help balance the skin while minerals boost vitality, so you will see improvements over time as well as the instant colour correcting filter effects they each provide.

If you have a smartphone full of holiday snaps that you’re never going to edit, let alone print and arrange in an album, why not pick one that you really love and turn it into something special?

Jessops will take any high resolution image you fancy and print it on to a handbag-sized Make-up Bag (£14.99; photo.jessops.com).

Be quick though – it’s a limited- edition offer so it won’t be around beyond the end of summer.

As a teenager I was assured that spots were something you grew out of.

But 70 per cent of us continue to suffer breakouts and blocked pores beyond the age of 25 thanks to stress, pollution and hormones.

Caudalíe’s Vinopure range provides a grown-up three-prong solution, including a toner (£18; caudalie.com), serum (£29) and mattifying fluid (£25).

They purify using naturally derived salicylic acid and aromatic essential oils including lavender, lemon grass, geranium, rosemary, lemon balm and peppermint.