You'd never dream of wearing your work clothes to the beach, so why do some women insist on taking their whole make-up bag on holiday? Skin care and other toiletries are essentials, but full make-up? Give me a break: you're supposed to be on holiday - the point is that you aren't a slave to your normal routine.

The first casualty of your holiday make-up bag has to be your base. The moment you step off the plane, your foundation will no longer be the right colour, so give your skin a rest and leave it at home. Black women, myself included, tend to beparanoid about oiliness, so I'm unlikely to convince you to leave your powder at home, but if you must take some, remember that it should be a darker shade than the one you normally wear and limit its use to evenings only - holiday skin should be glowing, not dull and matt.

Mascara is another candidate to be left behind, or at least restricted to evenings, as even the most waterproof of options won't take the continual battering of dips in and out of the pool. Do you really want to risk resembling the monster from the blue lagoon every time you emerge?

Tinted lip balm goes much better with a bikini than heavy lipstick or glosses. Glamour pusses (with wallets to match) should try Prada Shielding Balm (tints 4 and 5 are best on dark lips). Less expensive is Benetint Lip Balm from BeneFit and Pure Tints from Almay. Prada and BeneFit have an SPF15 and Almay 25, so you're protecting your lips as well as making them look good.

For the rest of the face (but still evenings only), take products that have a number of functions, such as Summer Hits from Dior and Artist Palette from Chanel. Both contain beautiful little tubes of make-up that can be applied to eyes, cheeks and lips. Of course, if you're a purist, a tin of Vaseline Lip Therapy, possibly one of the most versatile of beauty items (great for conditioning eyelashes and cuticles, taming unruly eyebrows, adding gloss to eyes and cheeks, as well as working wonders on lips), is all you need in your beach bag.