A chic, slimline, ultra-portable palette of neutral shades? Yes please. This Clinique launch, the Neutral Territory 2, ticks most boxes. The packaging is incredibly lightweight and low-profile – no extra bulk whatsoever – and the shadows inside are nicely pigmented, long-wearing and universally flattering.

In particular, I love the addition of the warm, reddish accent shade (second from right) that really brings out blue eyes, and also the lightest white (left) that can be swept over the lids as a base colour to brighten the skin. I’ll never tire of neutral eye palettes, but I have to say that most of them are too chunkily boxed to ever make it into my carry-about cosmetics bag. They’re like carting a school pencil tin about with you! Some are so heavy that they need their own wheely-suitcase, or perhaps a shopping trolley. This one slips in perfectly and I’ve been using it as part of my “daily routine” for the past week or so.

It feels more grown up than many of the neutral makeup palettes out there – my only gripe (as with many of the Clinique palettes) is that the mirrored casing looks brilliant for all of twenty seconds; after that it’s like some kind of FBI agent’s Fingerprinting Fantasy.

If you want to see the lighter shades in action, then I’m wearing them in my latest monthly favourites video. For the darker shades, take a look at this Instagram photo – I overdid things a little, perhaps, but you can see that a nice smokey eye is definitely do-able!

The Neutral Territory 2 palette is £32 at Clinique here.

Oh – and the nail polishes! They have launched at the same time and are very nice. I’ve been wearing a lot of  “Peek a boo” (sigh, roll on the days when shades are just numbers) and it’s a clean, fresh pinkish nude that makes my fingertips look well-kempt. You need a couple of coats with the Clinique polish, but it’s a nice product, formulated for sensitive skin and quick to dry. Find them through the same link, above.