Making sure your make-up doesn't date is a third about the colours, a third about the texture and a third about the application. Staying ahead of colour changes is relatively easy, but changes in textures and application are harder to spot, and as a result, harder to replicate.

Fashion may dictate that green has replaced blue as the eye colour du jour, but if you can't give up your blue, or if green makes you look sickly, the best way of giving your favourite colours longevity is by updating your application instead. So, if all the talk about dewy versus matt skin, or soft versus hard edges leaves you confused, a good tip is to take your guidance from the catwalk. If clothes are hard, and full of jagged edges and straight lines, then so is make-up. If, on the other hand, clothes are soft and floaty, as they are this spring, then, by definition, so is make-up.

This means the face should look pretty, but not perfect. Fingers should be the key application tool, rather than sponges, and a little smudging is a good thing. Skin is soft yet reflective - not matt but not overly shiny, either. Foundation should be sheer and light, instead of giving full-on heavy coverage. Blusher should be cream rather than powder or gloss, and the look you're going for on your cheeks is a natural glow of colour, rather than a fake sheen. Hair should be a bit of a mess (but an intentional mess, obviously).

The whole point is that you want to look natural and yet made-up. Eyebrows should be kept medium to thick (now's the time to start growing out any pencil thin lines) and shaped subtly, rather than into exaggerated arches. If your brows need beefing up, do so with either a liquid-based eye gel or a powder rather than a pencil, again to give a soft natural look. And lips? Well, despite many a make-up artist pronouncing (or is that wishing for?) the death of lip gloss, it lives to see another season. But, as with everything else, it's a softer, more gentle version of its former self.