I have never been particularly big on summer fashion. Sure, I love ditching my winter coat for my denim jacket, and I'll get my legs out pretty much as soon as the daffodils show up, but summer fashion is a tricky customer, and summer beauty harder still.

The problems are twofold: the weather and the light. The weather changes my skin shade, and its texture. And the summer light means any mistakes or cack-handedness are there, glowing, for all too see. It doesn't help, of course, that summer is when everyone starts banging on about the "natural" look - aka the hardest look to replicate. Oh, and let us not forget the joy that is trying to find a face powder dark enough to soak up all that lovely excess oil, um, I mean glow.

Wearing too much make-up in summer is the knee-jerk reaction to seeing how your face looks in all that extra light. I've spent the past few weeks amazed by the size of my pores and wondering why my make-up suddenly feels all wrong. It took a while to realise that it's because, ever since the clocks went forward, I've been doing my make-up with the blinds open, what with there being daylight and all.

There is a reason those scary ladies at the beauty counter tell you to go outside to have a look at the makeover they've just forced upon you. It's pretty simple really: daytime make-up should be applied in daylight, and evening make-up in artificial light. The same logic applies to summer make-up.

So what are the other summer make-up howlers? Well, wearing full make-up at any outdoor activity (other than a wedding) for starters -ie, a picnic in the park, a barbecue or to anything involving water (pool, lido, beach, etc). Applying any sort of "summer shimmer" product to your limbs is a close second. And finally: I had thought there was nothing worse than french polish pedicures, until I noticed a woman wearing flip-flops with french polish false toenails. Words failed me, which was probably just as well, because I don't think I'd be able to repeat many of them.