Holiday Makeup

As you may well believe my beauty collection is large - far too big to take away, so it is a major edit to decide what I want to take away. It needs to be versatile, hardworking and suitable to the destination.

I've just got back from Lake Garda in Italy where I split my time between visiting quaint local towns and hitting the lounger, so I really needed to think through my packing carefully and here is what I took.

I love Benefit's POREfessional Primer (Boots £24.50 - full size) as it creates a perfectly smooth base for the rest of your makeup and helps stop it sliding off when the mercury rises.

I light base is what is called for on summer skin and bareMinerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream (Debenhams £26) which I used for every holiday situation from poolside to evenings out as it adds enough coverage to blend out flaws but light enough for dewy holiday skin.

A bronzer is a holiday and general summer must and I am loving this gorgeous Aquatic Treasures Summer Bronzing Compact from Clarins (Clarins £30) which although is a large compact, it's slim so slips in easily to your make up bag.

Max Factor Creme Puff Blusher Alluring Rose (Superdrug £8.99) is perfect evening blush with its golden shimmer it looks beautiful on sunned cheeks.

Keeping my brows beautiful is easy with the HD Brows kit in Foxy (Look Fantastic £29), although I only use the rich brown shade, so the rest of the pallet is slightly wasted on me!

I could have packed a lot of individual eyeshadows, but I opted for this pallet of neutrals which I used just one single shade for an easy daytime look, and then added darker browns for a smoky eye and the darkest shades to line my eyes in the evening. This was a limited edition pallet, but No 7 do have a similar one currently for their 80th anniversary (Boots £13.50)

I had eyelash extensions put in before my trip as I don't like waterproof mascara, but this mini of my fav mascara Lights Camera Lashes (QVC £21.50 - full size) from Tarte was just the thing for adding to my lower lashes for none-pool days and evenings.

The EcoTools Eye Enhancing Duo Set double ended makeup brushes (Feel Unique £5.09) were another space-saver which meant I could do my eye make up as normal without my full brush selection.