It’s the transformative power of beauty products that makes them so fascinating. They can create illusions or just enhance the truth. Most of us, on a given day, would settle for looking alert. I’m always tempted to carry a glut of makeup around with me in my handbag (makeup should share the same collective noun as a group of peacocks – an ostentation).

But an ostentation of makeup is weighty and inconvenient, and the majority of the products we throw into our handbags never find their way out again. You happen upon them in the zip pocket after four years and feel simultaneously thrilled and irritated.

The products that make it into your handbag should cover several eventualities and work hard for you. They should equip you to change your makeup from day to evening without having to go home to your ostentation, and they should make you feel nice. These are our demands, and we will not compromise.

Facial mists aren’t treated with the love they deserve. Certainly, they’re not what most people would describe as beauty essentials, but they’re clever products. On a flight, a spritz will refresh your skin and imbue it with some lovely skincare ingredients, ensuring your makeup doesn’t escape into your face. And mists are the perfect product to make an eight-hour-old face of makeup look new again. My current favourite is

L’Occitane Precious Mist

(€17) – it smells divine and is full of hydrating hyaluronic acid. Spritz all over tired makeup to “unset” it, then apply fresh concealer, blending it where needed to make your base look new and entirely uncaked.

I like

Seventeen’s Stay Time Concealer

(€5.69). It is affordable and the thin consistency nonetheless provides good coverage – in a fix, I’ll use this instead of foundation. The result is dewy and healthy looking, and stays put for hours. It applies merrily after a spritz of facial mist, and sets along with the mist to a perfect finish.

Provided your base is even and blemishes concealed, a red lipstick is the ultimate accompaniment. It immediately livens up the face and makes you look like you know what you’re doing, and in a fix it will work as a makeshift blush. Apply a touch to your finger and then to a cheek damp with makeup or spritz (creams will always congeal if applied over powder). Blend the tiniest amount into cheeks for a pinkish flush without a hint of clownishness.

Barbeque

, a screaming orange-red (€21.50) from

Mac’s Toledo

collection, is garish and elegant in equal measure. It breathes life into the face immediately.

If you have nothing else, have brows. They make you look polished, and they structure the face.

Bobbi Brown Perfectly Defined Long-Wear Brow Pencil

(€39, from April) is a complete brow product in itself, but doubles as a liner and an eyeshadow, which you can blend with fingers. You don’t need an ostentation, just a little confidence.

lkennedy@irishtimes.com Watch Laura's Beauty and the Best videos at irishtimes.com/life-and-style