The Spice Girls effectively killed off lip liner in the 1990s when they favoured thick brown lines of lip liner drawn around nude glossy lips.

From then on lip liner pencils have been seen as a passé beauty item.

They are making an impressive comeback however, thanks to the fact that they help your lipstick stay put and prevent it from seeping into fine lines around the mouth.

A carefully drawn outline around the natural lip line can also make your lips look bigger by providing extra definition. Just make sure that your lip liner matches the colour of your lipstick to avoid comparisons to Ginger Spice.

Products (from top to bottom or left to right): Fuchsia leather makeup pouch, £39, Jigsaw; Colorstay lipliner in red, £6.29, Revlon; Lipliner pencil in nude, £16, Clarins; Marvellous Moxie lipliner in liberated, £13, Bare Minerals; Lipliner pencil in plush red, £3.50, NYX; Colorstay lipliner in plum, £6.29, Revlon; Lipliner pencil in fig, £16, Clarins; Lip pencil in magenta, £12, Mac; Lip pencil in dark mauve, £14, Diego dalla palma

Stockists: Bare Minerals (bareminerals.co.uk); Clarins (clarins.co.uk); Diego dalla palma (marksandspencer.com); Mac (maccosmetics.co.uk); NYX (nyxcosmeticsstore.co.uk); Revlon (boots.com)

Styling and words: Carrie McAdam

Photography: Nick Ponty