I recently travelled to Sophie Conrans Temple Guiting Manor in the Cotswolds to visit Susan D'Arcy, Times Travel writer and Spa-Confidential Blog writer, to give her a Private Make-up Lesson. She has visited the best Hotels and Spas in the world, so is definately a lady in the know! This is what she had to say...... Posted on 14 February, 2012 As Yves Saint Laurent famously said “The most beautiful make-up for a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.” Not half, Yves. Problem is they’re not always that easy to apply. One of the reasons that I love spending time...

The summer is a great time to reduce your make-up, let your skin breathe and aim for a more natural look. But how do you achieve this? If you have not already you need to get into a good cleansing regime. (Which I will enlarge on this on my next article).

It is so important to keep lips healthy and moisturised, lipstick and gloss will only enhance dry skin, so prep the lip before you start.  If you have dry, flaky skin gently brush your toothbrush over the lip and it will remove any dead skin then apply a slick of lip balm, if you're on a budget I simply love Carmex, alternatively for a bit of luxury try By Terrys 'Baume De Rose'. Allow the balm to sink into the skin before applying any lipstick as it will simply slip off the balm (around 15 minutes). With the same shade as your lipstick apply a lip liner to the edge of your lips, I love...

For the Autumn/Winter campaign, it was important to get the girls looking strong and edgy, with dark urban eyes. To create this I used a selection of Mac eye shadows, mainly mixing 'Typographic' and 'Brun' in the crease of the eye and took this colour out into the temple. Although this is a dark look it is still important to keep the eyes looking big for the camera, to achieve this I applied to the lid and inner corner of the eye a white Make-up Forever base then MACs 'Shroom' over the top, and blended it into the colour in the crease. I also applied 'Shroom' directly under the eyebrow...

Take a look behind the scenes at my shoot with England rugby captain Lewis Moody shot by Christopher Cornwell. You can view more of Christopher's work at www.christophercornwell.com

This is one of my favourite products in my kit, for its versatility and structure it gives the face.

This is the only foundation I'm prepared to use on my skin and so the only one I will use on others.

Beautiful, rose facial oil is applied at night, gently massage into the face and enjoy the feel and scent of the oil.

This is the most indulgent product for your lips, it has a rich, creamy texture that leaves your lips feeling