Seeing red: to make your lips the focus with matte red, keep other makeup to a minimum.

To make your lips the focus of your look, be as bold as you dare

Matte red lips give a very different effect to a traditional lipstick – they feel more bold, more modern and slightly intimidating in the right light. At Rochas, makeup artist Lynsey Alexander made these “stamped-on” lips the focus of the beauty look, worn with minimal makeup and a luxuriously moody pout. Keep lips moisturised, and edges neat, and go as bright as you dare.

1. Fenty Stunna Lip Paint Uncensored £19, harveynichols.com 
2. Christian Louboutin Velvet Matte £70, selfridges.com 
3. Rouge G De Guerlain £24.50, debenhams.com 
4. Origins Blooming Bold Lipstick in Wildflower £18.50, origins.co.uk 
5. Winky Lux Lip Velour Matte Lipstick in Dirty Love £14, winkylux.co.uk 
6. Sisley Le Phyto Rouge Lipstick in Rouge Capri £38, net-a-porter.com 
7. Mary Kay Gel Semi-Matte in Poppy Please £14.50, marykay.co.uk 
8. Clarins Joli Rouge Velvet Lipstick £22, johnlewis.com 
9. Glossier Generation G Lipstick in Zip £14, glossier.com 
10. RMS Beauty Lip2Cheek in Beloved £34, spacenk.com 
11. Nars Powermatte Lip in Don’t Stop £23, narscosmetics.co.uk

Uncommon scents

Not that we’re suggesting for one second that you spend £295 on a bottle of perfume. But, if you were thinking about returning all your Christmas presents to Harrods, then exchanging them for a men’s or women’s velvet-dressed Prada collector’s edition would not be the worst thing.

Gentle does it

Plant-based house-cleaning product purveyors the Gentle Label have branched out into skincare, with a range of multi-functional and anti-inflammatory products suitable for the most sensitive of skins.

Beauty to books

London brand Novel Beauty donates 10% of all profits to charities such as Room to Read, supporting girls’ literacy in some of the world’s most deprived countries. This is intelligent beauty, with a twist.