Samantha Kochhar, one of the country's leading Make-up artists, gives us some very useful make-up tips.

• First and foremost, throw away the items in your make-up kit that are more than two years old.

• When applying lipstick, fill in your lips with a lip liner first. By this way the second coat of lipstick stays longer.

• For people with dark coloured lips, apply some foundation and lip balm first, then a lighter shade of lip colour, say a pink. Then apply lip gloss and over it the original lipstick you have chosen.

• If you see any liquid or water coming out of the lipstick, keep it in a refrigerator.

• If you mix foundation and sunscreen in equal quantities and apply, it makes for an excellent day make-up that also protects the skin.

• If the foundation starts to curdle, do not use it anymore.

• When you are buying a concealer, buy something that is one shade lighter than your skin tone.

• Before applying make-up, follow the CTW procedure (Cleaning, Toning and Moisturising). Follow the same for removing make-up.

• Any make-up is good only for 6-7 hours.

• For beautiful and mysterious eyes, use 3-4 shades of eye shadow on your eyes. Apply a darker shade towards the edges of eye-lashes.

• For dusky complexioned people, use burgundy and maroon range
  of lipsticks.

• Avoid using very old lipsticks. They might cause pigmentation of the lips.