It’s party time so being beautiful is on all our minds. Following on from last week’s blog about fashion dos and don’ts, here are the new beauty commandments. Ignore them at your peril…

· Never use chopsticks immediately after a manicure. Handling the sticks can put tiny dints in your still-drying polish and spearing your food in an attempt to avoid this is never a good look.

· Always be kind to the people who pamper you – they have the power to make you look gruesome or grand. Nail bar staff deserve as much respect as a celebrity hair stylist and so do their juniors who wash your hair. After all, it’s the apprentice who decides how long to lavish on your scalp massage.

· Use breath mints/strips/drops instead of gum to freshen up after a meal. Pointless chewing is so bovine.

· Whether to touch up your maquillage in public depends on entirely on the company you keep. At a girls’ lunch it’s entirely appropriate to whip out a compact to check your teeth, powder your nose and show off a new lip gloss. Business dinners on the other hand warrant a trip to the bathroom for any kind of face fixing. Likewise romantic dates. Keep the mystery of how you get gorgeous alive as long as possible.

· Be socially savvy enough to quickly and quietly inform a conversational partner if they’re sporting a lipstick smear on their cheek or broccoli between their teeth. You’d want to know wouldn’t you?

· Take time to scrub off fake tan between applications. That nasty ochre build up around ankles, wrists, elbows and knees could make people wonder how often you bathe.

· Remove nail polish as soon as it begins to chip – no arguments. Nude hands are far better than earthquake cracks in your O.P.I Siberian Nights mani (incidentally one of the hottest shades right now).

· If you’ve been naughty enough to sleep in your make-up, appease the complexion gods in the morning with a double cleanse and thorough exfoliation in the shower. Apply a serious eye-cream and anti-oxidant intensive moisture treatment while you leave your skin make-up free as long as possible. Even 20 minutes will help revive your skin before a new day’s layer of slap.

What additional beauty rules do you live by?

Image Credits: Spa Paradise, Fashion Magazine.