I like to wear lipstick, festive, cheery red in winter, nudie brown in summer. Plum or some other berry when I’m going out. It’s not complicated. For me lipstick bestows a feeling of being properly groomed and ready to face the world. Best foot forward à la Parisienne.

I’ve been wearing a facemask to go out since January, at first only to enter shops and populated places, but masks have been mandatory in public indoors and out here since July, so no-one now sees my lipstick and it ends up a sticky, smeary mess on the inside of my mask filter whence it migrates to my chin.

In the absence of expressiveness from the bottom of my face, some sort of eyeliner has become de rigueur. If I’m being very casual I use a fine, soft brush and dark eyeshadow to line my eyelids. Formal wear demands liquid eyeliner. My choice is either Shu Uemura, or Surratt for their fine brush applicators. I tend not to do any sort of wing now, though I do love that look. It’s difficult to perfect it so that it doesn’t wander into my – ahem – laugh lines. I find that a dark brown is more flattering than stark black.

A quicker alternative, though is eyeliner pencil but the formula must be soft enough that it doesn’t look like you’ve just taken a 2HB pencil and drawn a line. We have all known people who’ve done that and it looks dreadful. This year I’ve tried the micro pencil liners from Hourglass and Shu Uemura and the slightly larger sort from Tom Ford. All of these have had the disappointing propensity to snap under pressure leaving smeary debris all over the dressing table. In my view the Pat Mcgrath Permagel Ultraglide liner is the very best. Yes, it does need to be sharpened (with its own dedicated sharpener) every other time I wear it but that’s a small price to pay for a soft formula that can be smudged for a smoky eye and then stays put. My favourite shade is Blk Coffee.

You can tell from my eyes if I’m smiling or not.