I gave my sister some skincare products to try recently and she didn't get on with them at all - hated the sticky texture and the skin reddening they produced. But she found a new use for them on the dry skin on her shins, which set me thinking. There are always other uses for your beauty products, so you need never completely waste your money. Here are a few ideas:

* Shampoo too harsh?

Use it to handwash your woollens, or as gentle wash in the machine. In the US, many fabric aficionados wash their delicates in baby shampoo. 

* Eye cream makes your eyes sting?

Use it as a lip cream. It's all basically the same stuff, but your lips are a lot less sensitive than your eyes.

* Night cream too light?

Use it as a day cream, but also wear a sunblock with at least a 15 SPF. 

* Day cream too heavy? 

Use it as a night cream, or on your knees, elbows and feet, which lack natural moisture. You could also try it as a hand cream, especially at night.

* Body lotion too sticky or draggy?

Use it as a body wash in the bath or shower. If the cream's water-soluble, it will wash off nicely; if it isn't, it will still moisturise and protect your skin. Another use for old cream and lotions is as a conditioner for any leather garments or furniture you might have (test it on a hidden spot first, in case it changes the colour, but I once used a whole bottle of Lancome body lotion on my Chesterfield sofa, with great results - leather is only skin, after all). 

* Don't like the smell of your body lotion?

Squeeze it into a pot and add 10 drops of essential oil such as lavender, and mix well with a teaspoon. 

* Don't like your perfume?

Use it as an air freshener in the bathroom. Even a perfume that has slightly gone off can do a job here, as long as it's not completely repulsive. 

* Bored with your perfume, or got a surplus?

Spray it onto sheets of acid-free tissue, let the sheets dry and use them as drawer liners.

* Broken your eyeshadow?

Crush it on a saucer, with the back of a spoon, and place it in a little pot - just use it as loose powder eyeshadow, applying with a small eyeshadow brush. You can also mix shadows with the same technique. Irridescent shadows in natural colours work well crushed and mixed into a loose facepowder or body lotion as a body shimmer. 

 

Firstly, as we all know, you have to keep your nose in good order. The skin on your nose will split and crack from the endless blowing unless you take measures. The best method I've found is to use 'balm' tissues, which are impregnated with moisturiser, but if you can't get hold of these, or the damage is done by the time you get them, a dab of calendula cream topped with Vaseline works wonders. Do the inside as well as the outside of your nostrils, and really slather the stuff on at night - it will do a great repair job by morning.

While you have a cold, take your makeup off with a cream cleanser rather than water-based, as this will sting less, and avoid skin toners at all costs, especially those with alcohol in, as they'll feel like acid. Use more moisturiser than usual, as you'll be touching your face more.

When you have a cold, you usually look pretty pallid but blowing your nose will bring your makeup right off so it's pointless to apply it. Instead of using foundation, settle instead for just a bit of concealer around your nose, and keep reapplying as needed throughout the day. Don't bother with powder, especially if you're not sleeping well, as your skin tone is bound to be a bit off and you'll just make yourself look like a corpse - it's better to keep a bit of dew in your skin.

If you're looking deathly, your most crucial cosmetic is blusher. Even if you eschew all else, dab on a bit of blusher, and if you're not already flushed, add a bit to your forehead, temples and chin to 'lock' your face together. This alone will make you look brighter and healthier and means you don't have to wince quite so much when you look in the mirror.

Eye makeup is problematic when you have a cold - especially if you're tearing up and your eyes feel like hot boiled eggs. Your best friend here is sunglasses, if you can get away with it. Sunglasses with very lightly graduated shades can disguise a heap of problems and still be wearable all day long (trust me on this - I wore them for months when I had a corneal infection and got chatted up all the time as a woman of mystery). Also use artificial tears to keep your eyes moist throughout the day, especially if your environment is air-conditioned.

If you do want to wear makeup, save your effort for your brows and keep them carefully shaped to frame your eye but keep the rest to a minimum. The worst culprit is mascara, especially waterproof mascara, as if this has any lash-lengthening or lash-thickening properties, it's liable to flake off and fill your sore, tired eyes with grit. I would leave off the mascara altogether and opt for just curling your lashes instead.

If your eyes can tolerate it, using a white or pale pink kohl eyeliner inside your eye instantly removes the red-eye look, while a bit of light brown eyeliner under your eyes and a dab of cream or mousse eyeshadow on the lid will give you some definition. But avoid anything with mica - even if this isn't normally a problem for you, when your eyes are sensitive, it will again feel like grit. Look for cosmetic brands such as Eyecare, which are hypoallergenic and mica-free.

Lipstick can also be a problem when you have a cold, as constantly wiping your nose tends to bring off your lippy, as does covering your mouth when you cough. Lip liner, used all over the mouth, has more staying power than lipstick. To apply it, moisturise your lips, draw your outline with a liner pencil and then fill in. Choose either a bright colour to give you some life or a nude shade. 'Nude', with regard to your lips, doesn't mean flesh-coloured - it means the same colour as your lips are when you bite them - a shade or two darker than your 'resting' lip colour. Applying this shade makes you look healthier but still natural. Once you've applied your liner, apply a coat of Vaseline or lip salve to keep your lips moist, and keep that topped up during the day.

During a cold, you'll really look better if you wear your absolute best colours - the ones that make you look healthy and pert - up by your face (anyone notice that Hilary Clinton switched to a bright yellow jacket when she was down with a cold on the campaign trail?). Your 'best' colours vary for each woman, but they don't generally include drab, olive, black or white. Instead, opt for girly, feminine colours such as pink, peach, eau-de-nil and soft blue (especially if you have blue eyes), or even red to make yourself look more vibrant.

Finally, if you're not wearing shades, wear a largeish pair of earrings that match your eye colour, and you'll look better in seconds.

Ageing skin has different issues from younger skin - it tends to be dryer, more sensitive, less prone to acne but more prone to rosacea, and of course, it wrinkles, which is why so many women now use anti-ageing products.

Although I believe that the skin is aided most by diet, you can also benefit your skin with a good care regime. So here I'll describe here my daily skincare and skin makeup routine, which takes about 12 minutes all told. It may differ from what you want to do, but if you want to follow it, this routine results in a calm skin, and a finished face that will last all day.

We each have our particular issues with our appearance, and areas we'd like to correct. Mine are:

* I have rosacea, which means my skin flushes easily.

* I have broken veins on my nose, cheeks and chin. They are worst on the sides of my nostrils.

* My skin is also terribly sensitive and increasingly dry, especially in winter. I need to be very careful about what products I use on my face or I get bad reactions.

Cleansing

Since you presumably weren't wearing makeup overnight, in the morning you don't need 'cleanser' as such. I use aqueous cream BP to cream off my face, or wash with emulsifying ointment BP. Both of these products are dirt cheap and come in huge tubs from any UK pharmacist. They also have the advantage of being fragrance- and lanolin free - they're based on white paraffin wax. Emulsifying ointment is used in hospitals for people with skin conditions, and makes a good bath-oil substitute. It's also useful for shaving your legs. Aqueous cream makes a good body cream but takes a while to sink in - it's not as comfortable to wear as something like Dove Silk.

Scrub

Days when my skin feels a little scaly, I wash with home-made almond/honey scrub. This is made from

1 tablespoon liquid honey

1 tablespoon ground almonds

Few drops of lemon juice.

Blend this lot together and use as needed. If you pot it up, it will keep in a jar for ages, as honey is an effective biocide, and it also works well as a body scrub.

Rinsing

After cleansing, I rinse my skin 50-60 times. This seems excessive, it's true, but I've found it has hugely beneficial results, removing every scrap of product from your skin and hydrating it beautifully. Use nicely tepid water that doesn't shock your skin. This rinsing is part of the Sher skincare method, along with drinking large amounts of water, and replaces the 'toning' part of a skincare routine.

Moisturising

After washing, don't dry your face, only pat your skin lightly with a clean towel and then apply your cream to skin that is basically wet rather than damp. The idea is to lock in a layer of moisture under your skin cream - you'll also find you need less moisturiser with this technique.

For my first layer of skin cream. I use Biafine, prescribed by my doctor. Biafine is used to prevent radiation burns during radiotherapy treatment, but is a remarkable and useful cream for other purposes, such as nappy rash and sunburn. It also has the handy property of holding up to 500 per cent of its body weight in water, so a tiny drop goes a very long way. Again, it is fragrance-free, so it's great for people with rosacea or sensitive skin.

Whatever skin cream you use, while it sinks in, clean your teeth, including your lips. Brushing your lips removes any dead skin and gives your lipstick a better base to cling to. Daily brushing in this way results in a smoother lip over time. If you find it makes your lips too red in the morning, just do it at night. Afterwards, apply lip cream and lip salve.

Also apply eye cream if you use it. Currently, I use a thick eye cream by Evian, which doubles as a lip cream. It's the best one I've found so far and definitely helps with wrinkles.

If you have normal skin, at this point, you should go and get dressed, or walk the dog, or check your email. There's no point in applying makeup to freshly moisturised skin, as it won't adhere, so you now have to do something else for at least 10-15 minutes.

However, my skin needs more work than this because it is very dry and also because of the rosacea. So I now apply a second moisturiser. This is currently the anti-ageing cream by L'Oreal called Revitalift, which contains a sunscreen of SPF 15. It's a good cream and I've noticed an improvement in the texture of my skin since using it. Step three depends on the time of year. If it's a sunny day, I apply an SPF 60 sunscreen, but in winter, my skin is really incredibly dry, so I apply Nutric 5% cream by La Roche-Posay. This is a very hydrating but non-greasy moisturiser. And then, after all that, it's time for me to go check my email too....

Demaquillage

In the evening, the process is pretty much the same, except more complicated.

Firstly, remove your eye makeup, with either water- or oil-based remover. I don't wear waterproof eye makeup, so I don't really need oil-based remover, but in any case I find this irritates my eyes, so I use a water-based remover. Pour a reasonable amount of liquid onto a clean cotton pad and hold over the eye for 10-20 seconds to allow it to do its work. This way, you can avoid rubbing your eyes and stretching the skin. Don't forget the roots of your eyelashes - use a cottonbud if necessary.

Then apply an oil-based cleanser over your whole face and remove with dampened cotton wool pads. There are two reasons for using them damp - one, you'll drag at your skin less and two, you'll use less product. Once the pads come clean, which takes 2-3 applications, apply a water-based cleanser and repeat the process. When every single scrap of makeup has been removed, rinse your skin 60 times in warm water, then apply your night-time moisturiser. Generally these contain AHAs to brighten your skin overnight, but lack sunscreen because you don't need it. Once again here, I use Revitalift, but this time the night cream. Then clean your teeth (and lips), and apply lip cream, eye cream and lip salve.

If you have sensitive skin, it's very important to remove every single scrap of makeup, and if you have dry skin, it's crucial to keep it hydrated overnight. So I also apply cold cream (and yes, I confess to sometimes doing this in bed after lights out, so my DH can't see it). If you get up in the night to use the loo, don't miss the opportunity to apply another layer of moisturiser either. Your skin does its main repair work while you're asleep, so give it the tools to work with.