Imagine, if you will, my face. It’s around the size of a cantaloupe melon (on sale, by the way, in Sainsburys this week, and draped with Parma Ham, makes a lovely, healthy snack. The melon, that is, not my face!) Now imagine my face blown up to the size of a school playing field. Right. Got it?

If my face was as large as a playing field, I would STILL have enough beauty products to apply to it. Probably for a few weeks. That’s a lot of product. So why, I ask you, was I at the Estee Lauder counter in Boots yesterday, being enticed into buying a skincare ‘starter kit’? Two words: Free. Gift.

I just can’t resist a ‘free gift’ (in inverted commas because I am well aware that it’s not actually a gift, I just think it sounds nicer!) – it’s a terrible affliction. Even if I own full size versions of all the (oh so cute, so tiny) miniatures, I simply have to own them. I have drawers full of them! In my defence, I do a lot of short-stay travel, for which travel-sized mini-products are incredibly useful. I also like to line them up as though it’s a beauty counter, and then pretend I’m a giant. Should I have told you that?

Moving on…here’s what I got in my gift. One full-sized (but not ‘full-packaged’) Pinkberry Pure Color Lipstick; mini Pure Color EyeShadows in Tea Biscuit and Honey Drop; 7ml Idealist Skin Refinisher; 7ml Time Zone Wrinkle Reducing Cream; 5ml Time Zone Eye Cream; 4ml Sensuous Eau de Parfum. Total value?  I reckon, based on price-per-mil (and a bit taken off for the budget-version packaging), that this comes in at around £50.

Not bad, then, considering that I spent £36, although I wish that I could have just bought the two make-up items that I wanted – blasted ‘one must be skincare’ clauses! I shall be testing out all products in due course, so look out for my recommendations. By the way, this gift with purchase is only running in Boots, until Saturday, so if you want it, get there quickly! There’s a choice of lipstick (the other is Plumberry), eye colours and skincare.