From pillar-box red to egg-yolk yellow, saturated colour was everywhere on the spring/summer catwalks. At Lanvin, Alber Elbaz showed a rainbow of billowing Greek-goddess-inspired shapes in jewelled greens and purples. Louise Goldin’s collection teamed a sea of aquamarines with zesty yellows.

David David presented vest dresses in primary colours, with more than a hint of childhood nostalgia in the bright shades. This new-found love of colour is not confined to fashion: at shows as diverse as Marni, Dries Van Noten and Louis Vuitton, faces blazed, too, thanks to make-up in look-at-me brights.

At this point, I should come clean: I am addicted to colour, not only in my dress sense, but also in my make-up and hair. I wear Mac’s golfing greens on my eyes; I’ve worn blue and green lipstick courtesy of Shu Uemura’s Rouge Unlimited; and my hair is dyed a chilli-pepper shade of orangey-red. Quite simply, I cannot get enough brightness into my life. To me, it’s a form of Prozac – and it works.

When I wear colour there are no rules, and I like my pigments strong. Thus, a citric-yellow eye shadow can be worn with a chlorophyll-green dress, or a carmine-red lipstick against my Titian hair. It has at times elicited strange comments on the street, especially my blue lipstick, but I quite enjoy the attention. Colour gets you noticed and that’s a fact.

“The key factors when wearing colour are to look like you mean it and to not make eye contact,” says Julie Verhoeven, the fashion illustrator. She is a fan of Stargazer’s stage make-up and is often seen with clouds of colour around her eyes, pink mascara, candyfloss-pink cheeks and gold and blue eye shadow.

Of course, if you’re more timid, you don’t have to take the maximalist route with colour. At the Marni show, the make-up artist Tom Pecheux painted faces with just a tiny hint of colour: a flick of a cat’s eye in a chalky turquoise-blue liquid liner by Mac. Pecheux suggests using one strong colour in one area – for example, a bright eyeliner over a smoky eye – and keeping the rest of the face neutral.

“A lot of make-up companies are doing vivid colours now,” he says. “The brightest colours come from Mac and Shu Uemura. YSL is pretty good, too.” He reckons that, despite the preponderance of black lipstick on the autumn catwalks, the trend for flashes of colour is set to continue when the trees shed their leaves. He favoured green eye shadow at Marni’s autumn/winter show, and mustard yellow at Derek Lam.

The make-up artist Pat McGrath agrees that bold colour should figure as one key element in a face. For Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer show, she engineered a total of 30 different lipstick shades, including blue, shocking pink, orange, purple and red. These rainbow lips were inspired by the work of the American artist Richard Prince. “To wear blue lipstick, the key is simplicity,” she says. “Apply it with a lip brush, so the shape can be perfected. Blot the colour and reapply. Blot lightly again and finish with a high-shine clear gloss, applied over the entire lip, so it appears plastic-like.”

Colour shouldn’t be difficult. You can obey the rules, or do as I do and flout convention. The pleasure is derived partly from the impact you create – and nobody ignores a girl who is wearing colour.

Living colours

1 Barry M Dazzle Dust, £4.50, from Superdrug. There are more than 60 brilliant shades of this famous sparkly powder, including a neon collection for the fluorescent adolescent in you.

2 Jessica Custom Colour Nail Enamel, £8; 020 8381 7793. For the happiest of blues, slick on King Tut’s Gem.

3 Clarins Joli Rouge, £14.50. A new range of 14 high-shine lip colours in hot shades that are loaded with pigment.

4 Shu Uemura Cream Eye Shadow, £16; 020 7240 7635. The cream is more vivid than powder – smudge it across the eyelids for a paintbox effect. Available from mid-May.

5 Revlon Nail Polish, £6.50 Pillar-box reds, tropical pinks and brash tangerines – Revlon has them all covered.

6 Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited, £16.50. Brightness freaks everywhere can choose from 62 lip shades, including black, yellow, green and blue.

7 Nars Lip Lacquer in Capucine, £17, from Selfridges. A mouthwatering gloss that will moisturise lips and add a shot of vibrant colour.

8 Fardel Professional Face and Body Paints, from £5.50; 020 7836 3955. What the professionals use for painting catwalk faces and bodies in super-bright colours.

9 Mac Pro Paintsticks, £14. Multipurpose chubby sticks in 18 look-at-me shades.

10 Gosh eye shadow, £5, from Superdrug. Highly pigmented eye shadows that blend easily and create a halo of intense colour.

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