OK, so can you figure this out? Want a hint?…

On windy days, this thing usually causes my hair to stick to my lips. Yep, easy right?

I’m talking clear lip gloss here and I’ve just learned a new trick with it, it can be used to highlight eyelids AND eyebrows.

I find pale interesting, like Victorian aristocratic English girls in BBC period dramas who play hide and seek with the sun

With everyone around me topping up their tans the past few days I’ve needed all the resolve I can get to stay out of the melting sunshine. I’m pale (Irish) with a few little nose freckles so strong UVA and UVB rays are off limits to me. Thankfully I had these photos of the beautifully pale Hanna Samokhina, Ping Hue Cheung, Bo Don and Martyna Budna to remind me that it’s OK to be pale G and it’s even hot for autumn/winter 2011.

This type of pale beauty looks rather radiant and otherworldly with just the right amount of shape given to the eyebrows so the look doesn’t look flat and washed out. There’s something very romantic about flawless pale skin with very little sun damage. I find pale interesting, like Victorian aristocratic English girls in BBC period dramas who play hide and seek with the sun.

MAC senior artist Sally Branka and her team achieved perfect glowing pale skin at Todd Lynn’s autumn/winter 2011 show by prepping with Careblend powders to create an alabaster finish on the face and body. Then they replaced the age-old tradition of using a white eyeliner (pencil) applied to the water line of the eye with a flesh coloured pencil to make the models’ eyes ‘pop’.

I’ve had a white Chanel Le Crayon Khôl Intense Eye Pencil Blanc No65 in my kit for this trick for a while but have now added a Mac Chromagraphic Pencil and a glominerals gloPrecision Eye Pencil in peach since learning about this new more natural eye opening trick. Applying white or flesh coloured pencil onto the lower waterline of the eye, wakes up tired eyes by eliminating red and making them look wider and bigger. And these peachy coloured pencils in your make-up bag can also be used to highlight your cupids bow, conceal spots and fill in acne scars. Have you ever used a pencil for any of these tricks?

Another trick used by Sally Branka to open up the eyes was a slick of Pro Longwear Gloss Coat a lip gloss applied to the eyelids and eyebrows. ‘It’s a really quick solution to freshen up the face and lift the eyes instantly’ according to Sally Branka.

With such a natural eye, lips were gently stained to match with a bespoke MAC lip concoction brushed and applied with the fingers – a mixture of MAC Laid Back Creme Blusher, MAC Pro Red Pepper lipstick mixed in with a little Lipmix in black.

With the whole summer ahead, much as I’d love more than anything to be olive skinned or dark, I think I might rather enjoy playing hide and go seek with the sunshine to keep my alabaster complexion intact with only my little four or five freckles on my nose as evidence that I’ve had road trips. I’m going to take this lip-glossed eyelid along for the ride. After reminding myself of how beautiful pale can be…..I don’t feel so bad now that I’m not going to tan this summer.