Beauty Clinic: A budge-proof primer for eyelids, please!

Q. Can you please recommend a product to help with oily eyelids? I have always had oily skin, which has helped my complexion as I have aged but eye make-up still never sticks on my lids. A. Oily skin is a mixed blessing with passing years, as you say. We suggest adopting a two-pronged approach.

Applying an oil-free base on your eyelids should ensure that it preps them so that powder eye shadow stays crease-free and the colour doesn't alter.

Among several excellent products on the market we suggest you try Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Base/£20 in four shades from Light to Dark. Or bareMinerals Prime Time Eyelid Primer/£16.50, in one sheer neutral tint, which is designed to combat excess oil. Jo has also had fantastic results with the Kat Von D Lock-It Colour Correcting Primer/£18 at debenhams.com – which you can read all about here. (What we like about this is that it's available in lots of different shades.)

For colour-correcting, Benefit Lemon Aid Colour-correcting Eyelid Primer/£16.50 at boots.com, is a long-term favourite with make up artists.

You mention that you tend to get panda eyes, which makes us think you may not be wearing waterproof mascara. A recent Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic tackled this dilemma so you might want to look it up here.

Finally, we thought you might want to try an oil-free eye cream, such as Clinique All About Eyes/£26 for 15 ml (which lasts for ages). As well as light-scattering particles to soften the appearance of fine lines and dark circles, it hydrates and restores the delicate eye tissue but without making the eye area more oily/greasy. It actually promises to help keep shadow and liner from straying or creasing.