Skincare Sunday: The ultimate vacation beauty bag

After examining hundreds of the best makeup palettes over the years, I’ve narrowed down my favorites. Hourglass Illume Sheer Color Trio combines the best gel bronzer, blush and highlight for face, shoulders and shins. Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look In A Palette in Beauty Glow is the perfect sheeny, gleamy summer-face-in-one compact. I also love products that double up for face and body: NARS Sun Wash Diffusing Bronzer goes on super-sheer but builds up for a long-weekend-at-the-beach glow. And Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter is just brilliant; available in five shades, it gives bare skin an incredible filtered, seamless honey-toned finish.

I love that golden hour when you get back from the beach and prep for the evening ahead. Vacation skin needs extra nourishment, and Exfo-Lite Leg Exfoliator from Legology does the job perfectly – each of the five easy-to-pack sachets contain enough oil and salt to polish you chin to toe, leaving skin soft and freshly scented. Body oils are brilliant on post-beach skin – unless you’re in a tropical, humid location – and Tom Ford Beauty’s classic Neroli Portofino or Chantecaille’s Rose de Mai body oils nourish and perfume the skin beautifully. Since vacation is your time to relax, take a few of the excellent Pursoma Après Savasana Soak sachets to add to a bath – blending organic green algae with kelp and natural essential oils, they give that feel-good factor to body and mind.

Ideally, you should use one mask each night so that you come home with better skin than when you left. You’ll find 111Skin Multi Masking Planner, Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Powerfoil Mask, MZ Skin Hydra-Bright Golden Eye Treatment Mask and Joanna Vargas Forever Glow Anti-Aging Face Mask in my hotel minibar (because post-sun skin needs cooling as well as repairing).

Try applying a deep conditioner or oil to your hair before going to the pool or beach, then shampoo out each evening. Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Pre-Shampoo Treatment, Ouai Haircare Treatment Masque (in packable sachets) and Rodin Luxury Hair Oil are all excellent. Alternatively, Vernon François Re-Vamp Moisture Spray transforms crispy, sun-parched hair, and his Dazzling Spritz Shine Spray adds a super-glamorous shimmer for beach-to-bar hair.

Who knew that a silk pillowcase could change, if not quite my life, then certainly my hair and skin (cotton leaches moisture from both – silk doesn’t). Now Slip’s fabulous silk pillowcase comes downsized for travel, along with the bestselling eye mask – both in-flight and vacation essentials.