I once fell head over heels for a hunk and fantasised that the feeling was mutual. On our third date, he took my hand, drew me close and looked deep into my eyes. “Tell me,” he said, “who taught you to do your eye make-up? It’s incredible. Is that blue-black eye liner?” Not quite what I was hoping to hear.

He was on the right track about the make-up. The benefit of an acting career is that you are taught by the best. Film make-up artists know all the tricks. Want to avoid that puffy-eyed look in the morning? Sleep with three pillows and splash your eyes with ice cold water before making up. Could your eyelashes do with more volume? Brush them with powder-cake blusher before applying mascara. They also taught me the value of a spot of colour near the face; blue will accentuate blue eyes, a touch of turquoise does something wonderful for the complexion and red does the opposite. The most bizarre make-up lesson I ever had was in Las Vegas. A cosmetics master taught me the skill of shredding black book matches with a razor to make the most dramatic false eyelashes in town.

These days, leading a country existence, I don’t wear foundation or lipstick but I wouldn’t dream of opening the door without my mascara. As we get older, the peach loses its bloom, the eyes dim, the hair fades from raven to an indeterminate shade of blonde (well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), so the face needs definition and nothing does that better than a bit of boot black expertly applied.

I do mean expertly – nothing is worse than make-up that looks as if it’s been put on during an earth tremor. If you are wearing reading glasses right now, you probably have a problem, but there’s an easy solution – treat yourself to a pair of make-up spectacles, available from any serious optician. These will be made up to your own prescription and here’s how they work: the rims around the lenses are hinged so that they swing out of the way, or drop down, allowing you to make up the right eye using the vision of the left and vice versa.

Decades after the romance-that-wasn’t, I still line my eyes with blue-black but these days I use eye shadow rather than liquid liner. It’s subtler and the colour is dark enough to give emphasis but softer than black. It is also tricky to find. One of the best is Dark Denim stay matt eye shadow by Clinique. Another is Revlon’s ColorStay Sultry Smoke. It has four shades: light grey and dark grey – good for the eye crease – plus blue-black and charcoal.

As for mascara, they have yet to invent one that really does what it says on the tin. Max Factor came close; whatever happened to its wonderful block mascara that you applied with a teeny brush? You were meant to use water but, as I’m abashed to recall, most girls used spit. The only way to find the right mascara is to experiment. For volume, I’d recommend Clinique’s High Impact in black.

In fashion, what goes around comes around. With this season’s catwalks awash with big shoulders it looks like we’re headed once more for high-maintenance power dressing and make-up to match. I notice my young nieces are all wearing false eyelashes. Don’t be tempted, you could look like you are auditioning for Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Incidentally, there’s a lot more to cosmetics than vanity. According to recent research, keeping the make-up habit is good for our health. While analysing the impact of make-up on self-esteem, scientists at the University of St Etienne in France discovered that women who apply make-up every day have much better balance and posture, and suffer fewer falls. Their findings were announced at the prestigious World Congress of Gerontology held in Paris this spring. It makes sense when you think about it. Life is like playing the piano – neglect to practice those scales and you might just lose the knack of making the most of it.