If you try one product this week, make it this weightless, glossy lip stain that's Parisian perfection

A marble frame containing a circular image of Violette FR Lip Nectar on a pink velvet backdrop and a smaller circular image of Beauty Editor fiona mckim wearing the lipstick and a blue and white stripy shirt.

Have you heard of the lipstick index? It's the theory that during periods of economic downturn or political instability, sales of small luxuries, specifically lipstick, tend to rise.

Now feels like a good time to explore that concept. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that buying a new long lasting lipstick is the antidote to our current global malaise, but I do think there's something in it.