That’s probably why I always notice moments like the L’Oréal Paris runway known as Le Défilé. It feels very different to what we usually see and more like a reminder that women don’t stop being interesting, stylish or beautiful once they pass a certain age. You see younger women, older women, different backgrounds, different looks, and it just feels more real.

I think this matters so much! Beauty has spent years making women feel like there’s a countdown for them. I’m talking about brands selling with lines such as use this before it’s too late, fix this before it gets worse, cover this, lift that, smooth everything out. And look, I’m not going to sit here and pretend I don’t care about looking good because clearly I do. I love makeup, skincare, treatments and I love seeing what beauty can offer me. I just don’t like the idea that women should start feeling invisible as they get older. The older you get, the less you see of your age in brand campaigns.

There’s something really nice about seeing a woman who isn’t trying to look like the youngest person in the room, but also isn’t fading into the background. She still looks polished, current, confident and completely herself. That’s the kind of beauty I think we need more of, because it gives women permission to evolve without feeling like they’ve somehow missed their moment.

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I want to see the 25 year old with amazing skin, but I also want to see the woman in her late 30s figuring out what makeup works for her now. I want to see the 46 year old who still loves a full glam. I want to see women in their 50s, 60s and beyond looking stylish, modern and relevant without the whole conversation being about how good they look “for their age.”

In all honesty, I think that phrase is actually part of the problem. Women don’t need beauty to pretend aging doesn’t happen…clearly it’s happening. But we also don’t need it to make aging sound like the end of everything. Like we need to cling on for dear life. Obviously, things change, like your skin, body, face, and your style might change too. I think it’s much more helpful when beauty acknowledges all this in a normal way instead of making it feel scary. It’s bad enough that we have to dread things like Perimenopause etc.

For me, the best kind of beauty now is still aspirational. I love all the stuff I loved in my 20s and 30s…in fact I love even more now. I just want it to feel like women of all ages are part of that moment, not added in as an afterthought or because a brand is trying to win brownie points.

And let’s be honest…we can tell the difference. We know when something feels genuine, and we know when it feels like a box has been ticked. When beauty includes women properly, it makes the whole space feel better. It gives younger women a better idea of what getting older can look like, and it reminds women who are already there that they’re still very much part of the conversation.

That’s the kind of beauty I’m interested in. Beauty that lets you grow, change, still care, still enjoy it and still feel seen.

Benefit Precisely My Brow Pencil

This is one of those brow pencils that just makes sense if you like a very precise brow. The tip is very fine, so you can create little hair like strokes instead of filling in the whole brow too heavily. I think that’s especially important if your brows are a bit sparse in certain areas but you still want them to look natural.

The texture is a good balance because it gives you pigment, but it doesn’t apply too strongly straight away. That’s what makes it easy to control. I’d use this more for shaping, filling small gaps and creating a cleaner tail rather than scribbling it through the whole brow.

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Thankfully, you don’t need to actually remove everything and start again. You can freshen the makeup you already have on and only fix the areas that need it. As a pro makeup artist these are the five things I do when makeup looks cakey later in the day.

1. Press, press, press!

The first thing I would never do is immediately add more foundation or powder on top of everything that’s already cakey. If your makeup already looks heavy, you need to take away some of what’s sitting on the skin first.

It’s super simple! Fold a soft tissue and blot the entire face….basically anywhere you look cakey. Usually, that’s around the nose, mouth, chin, between the brows and anywhere foundation has started gathering. Don’t drag the tissue across the face because you’ll disturb everything underneath. Just press and lift.

You’ll be so surprised at what you see on the tissue! It’s a build up of everything you don’t need there and your skin will actually immediately look better!

2. Melt it down

Once I’ve pressed away the excess, I like to lightly mist the skin with setting spray. This is super helpful if the cakiness is coming from powder and the makeup has started looking dry or flat.

I’ll spray a very small amount, wait a few seconds, then press over the area again with a beauty blender. It helps the foundation, concealer and powder look like one layer again rather than lots of separate layers sitting on top of each other.

3. Remove and redo

Sometimes an area is too far gone and blending over it just makes it worse. Around the nose is a good example. Foundation can separate, mix with oil and start looking thick very quickly there.

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Hack 1: Use less foundation on more movement

This is one of the biggest things I wish more people did. You don’t need the same amount of foundation everywhere. Around the mouth, smile lines, nose, chin and under the eyes, makeup moves much more, so if you apply too much there, it’s more likely to crease, separate or look heavy later.

Apply your foundation where you actually want the coverage, then use whatever is left on your brush or sponge through the areas that move. If you need extra coverage, add concealer only where you need it. Your base will look much smoother and it’ll wear better because you haven’t overloaded the parts of your face that were always going to move anyway.

Hack 2: Press over your base with a damp sponge

Even if you apply foundation with a brush, pressing over everything with a damp sponge makes such huge a difference. It picks up any excess product, softens texture and helps the foundation look more like part of the skin instead of makeup sitting on top.

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A cream blush is worth the hype when I can apply it quickly, blend it without disturbing my base, build it without it going patchy and still look at my makeup later without wondering where my blush went. I don’t need every blush to last 12 hours, but I do need it to make sense in real life.

These are the cream blushes I think are actually worth talking about.

Rhode Pocket Blush

This is one of those blushes that makes sense for everyday makeup because it’s easy. The texture is creamy, lightweight and blends without needing loads of effort, which is what I want from a stick blush. I don’t want to be dragging it across my cheeks and then trying to fix my foundation underneath.

The finish is fresh and glowy, but not in that greasy way where the cheek starts looking too shiny. It gives a soft flush that makes your skin look healthier, especially on days where your base is simple and you just want your face to have a bit more life. I’d apply it with fingers or a brush rather than drawing too much straight onto the face, because that always gives you more control.

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Your 30s definitely are not old, but I do think it’s the decade where makeup starts looking better when it’s a bit more thought through. I wouldn’t want a makeup bag full of random products I bought because they looked good on someone else. I’d want products that actually work for normal everyday life. The kind you can use when you’ve got 15 minutes, or when your skin looks a bit tired.

L’Oréal True Match Foundation

If I was in my 30s now, I’d keep a medium coverage foundation in my makeup bag instead of always reaching for something heavy duty. I think this is where I went wrong when I was younger. I thought more coverage meant better skin, but a lot of the time it just means more product sitting on your face.

This is why I’d have something like L’Oréal True Match in my bag. It gives enough coverage to even everything out, but it still looks like skin. It doesn’t feel or look like you’re wearing a super obvious base, and you can build it where you need a bit more. For everyday makeup, that makes so much more sense to me than using a full coverage foundation all over the face and then wondering why everything looks heavier a few hours later.

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Ever since we moved to Dubai over 10 years ago, and I’ve actually lost count of exactly how long it’s been now, we’ve rented. Our landlord sold the apartment we were living in, which meant we had to vacate by a certain date, and I think that finally gave us the push to do something we’d been talking about for years. We bought our first home in Dubai!

Obviously we couldn’t just buy somewhere and move in. That would’ve been far too easy. We decided to renovate the entire apartment from scratch, and when I say renovate, I mean everything came out. Flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, ceilings, doors, lighting, absolutely everything. There’s basically nothing in the apartment that isn’t going to be new by the time we move in.

The only problem was that our old apartment had to be vacated in the third week of August, and the new place won’t be ready until around the end of September. So we had just over a month where we technically had nowhere to live. Bobby found a serviced apartment for the 6 weeks in between, but that made the move so much more complicated because we weren’t just packing everything up and taking it to the new home.

We had to work out what we needed for 6 weeks, almost like packing for a very long holiday, except obviously it’s not a holiday because we’re still working. Everything else had to go into storage, so there was a lot of sorting, packing, deciding what came with us and trying to think ahead about what we’d realistically need.

On top of all of that, I knew I wouldn’t have my studio here, so I had to film around 10 weeks of YouTube content before we moved. I knew August was going to be a lot and I also knew I had to figure out how to get through it.

The packing was just as annoying as I thought it would be, but the filming was probably the part that really finished me off. I was filming 2 or 3 YouTube videos daily because I needed enough content to cover the whole time we’d be out of the studio and then a bit extra in case things got delayed. Then, right in the middle of all that filming, I got sick.

I couldn’t really stop filming because we had a moving date and I knew I wouldn’t have another chance to film everything, so I carried on. If you watch my YouTube videos regularly, you’ll probably be able to spot exactly when this happened because there’ll be a period where I clearly look and sound sick!

By the time we actually moved, Bobby and I were absolutely shattered. Work had been full on, the move was full on, the renovation was obviously still happening, and fitness definitely suffered, which I’ll get into.

Then there was Nico. I was probably more worried about him than I was about us because he’s moved once before and he knows what boxes and packing means. It normally takes him about a week to properly settle somewhere new, but this time I felt bad because we’re asking him to settle here, then in a around a month we’re going to pack everything up and move him again.

The first few nights were hard because he cried, and I hate hearing him cry…it was breaking my heart! I knew I had to let him settle rather than constantly going to him because that would probably make it worse, but it was horrible. Thankfully, about a week later, he’s absolutely fine and seems to have accepted that this is home for now. I think once he realized all three of us were staying here, he relaxed. We also took him to the old apartment when it was all empty and he kind of looked at us like “erm…where is everything?”. I think it actually helped him though.

I’m genuinely so glad I did all that batch filming because now I’ve got a proper break from filming YouTube, and I really needed it. I’m still filming Reels for Instagram, although I batch filmed quite a few of those before leaving too. If you follow me there, you’ll probably notice the setup looks different in some videos because I’m just working with what I have here. There’s no studio lighting setup or proper filming space, so I’m making it work.

It’s actually been really nice having a break from filming all the time. I know I’ll be excited to get back to it, especially because we’ve designed my new studio completely from scratch, but right now I’m enjoying having a bit of space from it. It’s giving me time to refresh myself.

I’m also really glad we decided to design the new home ourselves. We haven’t used an interior designer at all. I’ve designed how I want everything to look and feel, and Bobby has basically taken charge of anything that needs to actually function. He’s at the apartment every single day with the builders, checking measurements, details, fittings and things I wouldn’t even think to look at. He jokes to me about how I tell him what I want and show him my designs and then he has to figure out how to make it happen!

I actually love seeing him doing this because I’ve never really seen this side of him before. When his father was alive he helped him build their family home so he has extensive experience that I never got to be part of as I unfortunately I never got to meet his Dad. We work together, so I’m used to us being together pretty much all day. Now he gets up and goes to the apartment every morning, and it feels like he’s going off to work while I’m at home doing my thing. It’s such a weird change for us, but I can also see how much he’s enjoying having this project to get stuck into.

When it comes to the design, I really wanted our home to feel like us. We spend so much time at home anyway, so I don’t want it to be one of those spaces that looks amazing but doesn’t actually make you want to be there. I want it to feel warm, calm and comfortable. I wanted arches, a proper coffee station, certain textures and little details that make me happy, and then Bobby works out how we actually make all of those ideas happen.

I also don’t think you have to be an interior designer to design your own home…I completely respect the knowledge, training and experience interior designers have. The same way a stylist isn’t the only person who can style an outfit, and an artist isn’t the only person who can create something beautiful. I think being creative helps massively. If you work in a creative industry, you already think visually and you naturally pay attention to things like color, balance, proportion and how everything works together. I’ve never really looked at our home and thought, “I can’t do this because I’m not an interior designer.” If anything, I’ve felt more than capable of doing it myself because I know what I like, I know how I want the space to feel, and I trust my creative eye.

Even with all the stress, I’m really trying to enjoy this part because I know we’ll look back on it one day. We’ve never done anything like this before, and I feel very grateful that we get to create our first home together from scratch.

We’ve been so busy that I nearly forgot that we took a quick 2 night staycay a week before moving! I know! What were we thinking?! But it was so needed. We went as it was our anniversary and it actually helped to recharge before all the stress of moving. We went to Atlantis Royal again…our favorite place!

One of the nicest parts of leaving the old apartment was what we did with our furniture. Because we want to go into the new home with pretty much everything new, we had a lot of big things we weren’t taking with us, including our sofa, bed, cabinets and TV. Rather than selling everything, we decided to give all of it to some of the workers who’ve been renovating our new home.

A lot of them share accommodation and don’t necessarily have good quality furniture, so when they came to collect everything, seeing how happy they were made us feel so good about it. Nothing went to waste, and things that we’d enjoyed and used for years are now going into someone else’s home where they’ll hopefully get just as much use out of them. I hope it brings them so much joy!

Fitness definitely took a hit over the last month. Work was so busy and I was trying so hard to get ahead that I just couldn’t be as consistent with the gym. I made sure I did at least one full body session every week, but my diet wasn’t exactly great either.

Luckily, my PT Jasmine had me eating in a surplus because we’d been focusing on building strength, so the timing worked out pretty good. I had more flexibility with food anyway, which made the whole moving situation easier.

Now that we’re settled in our temp space, I’ve gone back to eating clean and I’m doing my workouts from home. There is actually a huge gym about 30 seconds away, but it’s always packed and that is basically my worst nightmare when it comes to gyms. I’ve always told Jasmine that I need to get my session done within an hour. If working out becomes a two hour situation because I’m waiting around for equipment, I know it won’t fit into my workday and it’s just going to annoy me.

So I told her I’d rather train from home while we’re here, and I’m currently doing around four to five workouts a week.

I’ve also started jump rope! I’ve wanted to try it for so long, then randomly decided I was going to do it and bought myself a beaded rope after doing a bit of research. At the moment I’m just doing around 10 minutes a day so I can get the basics right, and I’m actually really enjoying it. I have no idea where this is going to go, but it’s fun learning something completely new.

That’s another thing I’m appreciating about this weird 6 week period in our temp space. Because I’m not filming YouTube constantly, I’ve got a bit more space to do things I kept saying I didn’t have time for. I’m just hoping we manage to stay ahead enough that when we finally move into our new home, I don’t immediately go straight back into catch up mode.

This is completely random, but I’m hoping I’m not the only person who thinks like this. I genuinely don’t understand how people get so invested in hating celebrities or people they’ve only ever seen through the media.

I’m a firm believer in keeping an open mind with anything you read or watch. I’m not saying everything in media is a lie. But we’re still being shown a version of something, and a lot of the time there’s a narrative attached to it.

I really notice it with reality TV. People will absolutely hate someone on a show, and I’m sitting there thinking, but you don’t actually know this person…only what you see on this show, which is ultimately entertainment. Even reality TV isn’t fully reality. They know cameras are there and they know big dramatic moments get more attention. They know what creates headlines and ratings, and for a lot of them, being on TV is part of their business.

There are obviously people I see on TV who I naturally like more than others too, but even then, I know I don’t actually know them. I’m seeing a tiny edited part of their life and personality, so I’m not going to convince myself I know exactly who they are.

Meghan is a good example of this. People will literally say, “I hate Meghan,” with so much feeling behind it, and I just can’t get my head around that. You can dislike things she’s said or done, or maybe you haven’t really warmed to her, you can have an opinion on how she comes across, but actually hating someone you’ve never met feels so extreme to me. None of us really know her. We know the version we’ve seen through interviews, headlines, documentaries, TV clips and other people’s opinions. I just don’t understand how that turns into genuine hatred for a person you’ve never even had a conversation with.

I just find it strange when someone has so much genuine anger towards a person they’ve never met. The amount of energy that goes into it is what gets me. I always think these people must be the perfect TV consumers because they’re fully invested in whatever story they’ve been sold.

I’m going to save most of the home purchases for the next Unpacking because there is a lot, and once we actually start moving everything in, I’ll have much more to say about it.

For myself, I bought a pair of khaki cargo pants from Stradivarius that I love. I also picked up a few basics from Zara because I didn’t pack enough for our 6 weeks in temp space! Just random things like a sweatshirt because it’s colder in this place than our last.

I bought Nico a little treat puzzle game too because I wanted something new to keep his brain occupied while everything around him was changing. He’s actually been really good with it, and anything that keeps him busy and happy while we’re in this weird in between stage is worth it.

I genuinely never thought I’d say this, but I’m kind of loving having hardly any clothes!

Because I couldn’t bring my whole wardrobe here, I had to seriously narrow it down to around 10 outfits that I could rotate for 6 weeks. I needed casual clothes, something for dinner, something in case an event came up and obviously gym wear, but that was basically it.

My wardrobe has never looked this empty. There are actual gaps between the hangers, and I can see everything I own here without moving 30 things out of the way first. And annoyingly, all those Substack newsletters I’ve read about having a smaller wardrobe is so game changing….might actually have had a point.

I never really believed it when people said fewer clothes made getting dressed easier because the idea of having fewer options made me feel a bit nervous. I like my options. But now that I’ve been forced into it, I completely understand. Getting dressed is so much easier because there’s less to look at and less to overthink.

I’m obviously cheating slightly because I haven’t actually got rid of my wardrobe. It’s sitting safely in storage waiting for me. And our new home has a walk in closet, so there’s every chance I’ll fill it and forget this whole lesson immediately. But I really hope I don’t. When we move in, I want to go through everything properly and be much stricter about what deserves to go into the new closet because I finally understand how nice it feels to have some space.

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My cart is basically a house at this point. There are lamps, decor, kitchen bits, storage, furniture and about a million things I keep adding and removing because I don’t want to rush the finishing details.

Because this is our first home, we decided we want pretty much everything going into it to be new. That includes the big things like the fridge and dishwasher, but also things like pots, pans and all the everyday stuff you don’t really think about until you realize you need to buy an entire home from scratch.

We brought a lot of our older things with us into our temp space because obviously we still need to cook and live normally for the next few weeks, but when we leave here, we’ll donate all of those too. I love the idea that we’re moving into the new home with a completely fresh start while still making sure the things we no longer need actually go to someone who can use them.

REFY sent me a huge selection of their makeup, and I finally had the chance to properly try nearly everything they do. I am genuinely such a fan now and completely understand the hype.

Before this, I’d only really tried their Blur and Hydrate Primer and Skin Base, which I already really liked, but now I’ve tried so much more and there are some products I’m obsessed with. The Blur Liner is one of them, and there are quite a few others that have surprised me too.

I’m going to show you more of them on Instagram soon, and I also want to do a full newsletter on exactly what I’d recommend from REFY because now I’ve actually tried enough of the range to have a proper opinion.

Also the new Louis Vuitton lip liners are amazing! So creamy, amazing quality…so they should be! And work as full lipsticks, liners and look amazing with just a lip balm.

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Our TV situation in our temp space is not great. There’s clearly something wrong with the screen because one side is more faded than the other and kind of makes anyone on the left side look dead, and it’s making us not want to start watching anything that we’re really excited about while we’re here.

Evening TV is such a big part of how Bobby and I switch off. We don’t have the TV on during the day, but around 7pm we’ll usually put something on for a couple of hours and that’s basically our chill time. So I’m actually saving anything I really want to watch for the new home because I know I’ll enjoy it so much more there.

For now, we’ve started SEAL Team (saving the new Lioness season for the new place!). I know we’re super late because it’s not exactly a new series, but we’d never watched it before and so far it’s pretty good. There are seven seasons, so realistically we’ll probably still be watching it when we finally move into the new place anyway.

August has probably been one of the most tiring months we’ve had in a long time, but also one of the most exciting because everything we’ve been working towards finally feels real. We’ve moved out of the apartment that was our home for years, most of our life is currently sitting in storage, we’re living somewhere temporary, and our first home is slowly coming together every day.

I’m definitely ready for a bit more routine again. I want my own kitchen, my studio, my clothes, just my normal setup and that feeling of knowing where everything is. But I also don’t want to rush these next few weeks because this is part of the whole experience too and it’s a journey! It’s messy and tiring, but we’re building something that’s ours, and I know once we’re finally sitting in the finished apartment, all of this will have been worth it.

For now, I’m trying to enjoy having fewer clothes, not filming 3 YouTube videos a day, learning how to jump rope, watching Bobby disappear off to the new apartment every morning, and reminding myself that living out of boxes is only temporary and part of the journey. Hopefully next month’s Unpacking will involve a lot more actual unpacking.

Until next month…

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It kind of comes and goes. You can have weeks or even months where you feel really good, really healthy, fit, your routine is working, your skin is behaving, your makeup sits nice, and you feel like yourself…this is the best version of you. Then you can go into a phase where nothing has really changed in a huge way, but you just don’t feel as good. Everything feels a bit harder, and you start noticing things you weren’t thinking about a few weeks before.

For me, I notice it when I’m getting towards the end of when my Botox is due..and the occasional luteal phase. I know some people might not want to admit that, but it’s true for me. The lines are more visible, nothing feels as lifted, my face doesn’t look as fresh to me, and I can feel myself slipping into that “I feel ugly” mood. It’s not that I think I actually look awful. It’s more that I don’t feel as good in my face as I did a few weeks earlier.

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The goal with foundation is to make the skin look smoother and more even, but still alive. You don’t want to erase your whole face. You want your skin to look like it’s had a bit of help, not like it’s been completely covered.

Mistake 1: using too much all over

This is probably the biggest mistake. You don’t need the same amount of foundation across your entire face. Most people need more coverage in certain areas, like redness, pigmentation, around the nose, or wherever the skin tone looks uneven. But when you apply a full thick layer everywhere, especially around smile lines, under the eyes, the mouth and the forehead, it can start looking heavy very quickly.

Too much foundation can make the face look flat because it covers all the natural dimension in your skin. Then you need to try harder with more makeup to bring the dimension back. It also has more chance of settling into lines or clinging to texture as the day goes on. I’d rather start with a thin layer, then only build where I actually need more coverage. That always looks fresher than trying to cover every inch of skin in the same way.

Mistake 2: choosing a formula that’s too matte

Matte foundation can look beautiful if done with the right prep, but if the formula is too dry or too flat, it can make the skin look more tired…even more so, if your skin already feels a bit dehydrated, textured, or dull. A very matte base can take away all the life from the face, and once that happens, you end up needing more blush, bronzer and glow just to bring everything back.

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But as much as I love the whole luxury experience, the actual lip liners still had to be good. I don’t care how nice the packaging is, if the product is annoying to use, too dry or slippery then it’s not going to work for me. Especially with lip liner, because I’m super fussy about texture. I want something creamy enough to apply easily, but firm enough that I can actually control the shape and stay put.

These are creamy, but they’re not flimsy. That was one of the first things I noticed. They glide on like butter, but the pencil itself feels solid, so it doesn’t feel like it’s going to snap the minute you apply a bit of pressure. I love that because there’s nothing more irritating than a lip liner that’s so soft it breaks or loses its shape after a few uses.

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Now I feel like a lot of foundations genuinely perform like high end formulas. Not because they’re exact dupes of anything, but because the texture, finish and wear are good enough that you don’t feel like you’re compromising on quality.

For me, a foundation feels more expensive when it blends easily, doesn’t grab onto texture, gives you some flexibility with coverage, and still looks decent after a few hours. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to behave well on real skin.

These are two drugstore foundations that stand out to me for different reasons.

NYX Make ’Em Wonder Soft Matte Buildable Foundation

I’ve been testing the NYX Make ’Em Wonder foundation, and it actually surprised me.

A lot of matte foundations say they’re soft matte, but then you apply them and they immediately start drying down, clinging to texture and making your face look flat. This doesn’t feel like that kind of matte. It has a smoother, more flexible texture, so you have time to blend it and work it into the skin before it sets.

The coverage is amazing and buildable. I’d rather apply a thinner layer first, then build only where I actually need more coverage. That’s what makes foundation look more expensive to me. It shouldn’t look like the same amount of product has been painted across the whole face.

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I used to be much more willing to carry friendships…and when I think about it I honestly don’t know why! I’d check in, make the plans, keep the conversation going and convince myself that everyone’s just busy. But there’s a difference between someone being busy and someone making you feel like you’re always the one trying.

At some point, you just get fed up of it. You stop trying to make something feel mutual when it clearly isn’t. You stop giving so much of yourself to people who are very happy to take your energy, but don’t really think to pour anything back into you.

I have so much more time now for people who feel easy to be around. People who don’t make everything feel competitive or weird and who are kind to the people around them, not just to the people they think matter.

That’s something I notice so much more now….how people speak to waiters, drivers, assistants, anyone they don’t need anything from. I really can’t be around people who walk into a room with their nose up in the air and think it makes them look important…because it doesn’t. It just tells me everything I need to know.

I also don’t have the energy anymore for friendships where I feel like I’m treading on eggshells. I don’t want to sit there watching every word I say, softening myself, making myself smaller or managing someone else’s mood because of their own insecurities. Especially when those same people don’t seem to notice their own comments, their own behavior or how they make other people feel.

Friendship should feel easier than that…not perfect, because none of us are perfect, but you should feel safe with people and you should feel like yourself. You shouldn’t constantly leave feeling drained or judged.

I want people around me who pour into my cup too. People who make me laugh, who are happy when something good happens for me, who can be honest without being cruel and who don’t make everything feel like hard work. I don’t need a huge circle…I never have. In fact I have very few people I’d call friends. I’d rather have fewer people around me and feel calm than have loads of people in my life who make me feel weird.

The funny thing is, when you stop forcing friendships, you don’t always feel like you’ve lost something. A lot of the time, you feel lighter, like you’ve gained clarity. You have more space for the people who actually feel good to be around, and you stop filling your life with connections that only exist because you keep holding them up, and I think that’s healthy. Not every friendship is meant to stay forever.

Sometimes people were right for a certain time in your life, and sometimes they’re not anymore. If something only keeps going because you’re the one carrying it, I think it’s okay to finally put it down!

I want lashes that look lifted, defined and a bit more awake, but I don’t want to feel like I’m sacrificing my actual lashes every time I remove it. I’m so over mascaras that look good for a few hours, then either smudge everywhere or refuse to come off unless you rub your eyes a ridiculous amount.

These are the mascaras I reach for when I want them to stay put during the day, but not be a whole headache at night.

Hourglass Unlocked Mascara

This is the one I always think of when someone wants a mascara that stays in place but washes off easily. It gives that lengthened, separated lash look without making the lashes feel heavy or crunchy, and it doesn’t give me that annoying grey shadow under the eyes by the afternoon.

The best part is the removal. It stays put all day with no smudging, no flaking and no running, but when I’m in the shower, it comes off so easily with warm water. It almost looks like latex peeling off my lashes. I don’t feel like I’m rubbing my eyes or tugging at my lashes.

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I think easy eye products are so much more useful for everyday makeup as you get older. I’m talking about products you can swipe on, blend with a finger or a brush, and look like you’ve made an effort without actually doing a full eyeshadow look. These are the kinds of products I’d reach for if you want your eyes to look more defined, polished and awake, but you don’t want to sit there blending 3 colors into your lid.

Charlotte Tilbury Exagger Eyes Easy Eyeshadow Sticks

These are exactly the kind of eye products that makes sense if you don’t like eyeshadow, because they’re quick and they don’t feel intimidating. You swipe the pencil over the lash line, blend the edge with your finger, and that’s basically the eye look done. They have enough creaminess that they don’t drag across the lid, but they also don’t stay so wet that they crease straight away.

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It wasn’t difficult coming up with the top 5 lip liners, because I don’t think there are actually that many that are amazing and tick every box. These are five lip liners I think are worth having on your radar.

Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat

This is still one of the liners I come back to the most. The formula has a waxy feel, which I actually love because it stays put. It grips the lip line really well, so if you like to slightly shape or over line your lips, it gives you control without slipping around everywhere. It glides over your lips really well.

The shades are also so good…for every skin tone and they don’t have that strange undertone that can make a nude lip look too pale. Iconic Nude is my personal favorite because it just works with everything and honestly feels like it was made for my exact skin tone. It gives shape without looking too obvious, and it’s one of those shades I know I can use without thinking too much. I also love the contour duo in medium. I’ve applied this many times without a mirror! This is the one I’d use when I want my lip to last and I want the liner to actually do its job.

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For me, the products that make the biggest difference are the ones that bring my face back to life…and quickly. These are the products that are easy and quick to use and actually make a difference. Trust me…it’s all been tried and tested and it works!

Eye Patches

When my under eyes look puffy or tired, I use eye patches. I love them! They’re not going to permanently fix your face, but they can make the eye area look better quickly, especially if you’ve woken up looking more tired than you feel.

I like eye patches that feel cooling, hydrating and soothing rather than overly sticky or slippery, so I sometimes put them in the fridge if I know I need to use them. The Yepoda Depuff Eyespresso eye patches are amazing because they genuinely do make me look more awake. I love any beauty product that can work while I’m doing normal life.

The trick is not leaving eye patches on until they start drying out, because that can make the under eye feel tighter rather than fresh. Take them off while the area still feels comfortable, then tap in any leftover serum and go in with your skincare.

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For me, a good bronzer should make the skin look warmer and healthier, but it shouldn’t be the first thing you notice. I don’t want bronzer that looks obvious…I want that soft sun kissed warmth that makes your face look better and healthier. Like you may have just had a vacation but maybe not.

The best bronzers are usually the ones that don’t have that very red orange undertone. For everyday makeup, I prefer bronzers that give more of a natural golden warmth or soft neutral bronze, because they’re much easier to wear.

Makeup By Mario SoftSculpt Transforming Skin Enhancer

This is one of my favorite types of bronzer because it doesn’t feel like a traditional bronzer. It’s more of a skin enhancing product that has some warmth, which is why it looks so natural on the face.

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The mistake people make with cream blush is thinking it has to be very glowy or very slippery. That’s where it can go wrong, especially if it starts moving your foundation underneath or sits on top of the skin looking greasy. For mature skin, I like cream blushes that blend easily, don’t cling to texture, don’t lift the base, and give the cheeks that soft, healthy look without making the face look too shiny.

These are the cream blushes I’d recommend…

Makeup By Mario Soft Pop Plumping Blush Veil

This is such a good one if you want blush that looks fresh, soft and slightly plump on the skin. The texture is super lightweight, so it doesn’t feel like you’re putting a thick cream on your cheeks. It has that balmy feel, but it still blends in nicely instead of sitting on top.

Great for mature skin because it gives color without making the cheeks look heavy. It’s more of a sheer, buildable wash of color, so you can start softly and then add more if you want the blush to show up more.

The finish is luminous and makes the skin look healthier, which is what I want from cream blush. I’d apply this with fingers or a brush, then lightly press over it with a sponge if you want it to melt even more into the base.

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When you’re younger, you think beauty is mostly about using the right products. But as you get older, you realize the habits matter just as much if not more so than the products. The things you do consistently are what show up on your face, your skin, your hair and the way you feel about yourself.

I’d take SPF much more seriously…

This is probably the most obvious one, but for good reason. I wore SPF when I was younger but not everyday and I didn’t understand it the way I understand it now. I don’t think most of us did. It felt like something you used on holiday, not something you built into your daily routine.

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