Knock off the fatigue to create a completely knockout makeover for your office party. Concentrate on perfecting a flawless complexion, along with keeping that flawless reputation, of course.

You are pooped, drained and sluggish after a long workday and so is your skin; but relax. Help is at hand.

Makeover Basics

So, the main problem with the office party is that you have to carry out your makeover in the privacy (ahem!) of the public loo.

There you are in the harsh glare of naked fluorescents in all your end-of-the-workday glory; and at this point, the only saving grace is that most of your colleagues are in the same boat.

Problems range from inappropriate lighting for doing your make-up to the lip shade you forgot to carry, not to mention the stale make-up you've had on for the entire day. All you have are a few moments to patch it all up, but rev up girl - this could be a breeze!

For starters, plan ahead. Start the day with less make-up on than you would normally wear. That way, when you go in for a patch-up, there will be very little to do. Plus, if you get the chance to start over, there will be less to take off. What we are looking for is the essential stuff - minimum effort and maximum results. So what are the beauty must-haves for your make-up bag?

• Cleansing wipes - Excellent for tidying up stray make-up at the end of the day. If you have a chance to completely start from scratch, these little babies work great.

• Compact foundations - a favourite for re-touching, but if you don't want powder, you could try a creamy compact foundation to get coverage and clean up smudged make-up. Try Prescriptives, Max Factor 3-in-1, Shiseido Liquid Compact, Estée Lauder Revelation and M&S Perfect Compact Foundation. If you like matte, or if you wear powder anyway, powder foundations will again allow you coverage and camouflage blurred make-up.

• Concealer or stick foundation - synonymously, a concealer is going to serve the purpose of concealing or covering spots, bags, and/or redness. The nice thing about it is that it will serve the purpose not only of a cream compact foundation, but is also portable and available in many colours. Dab it onto places where you need coverage, brush it onto blemishes, and if you need, even scribble it on your face like a big crayon and then blend as a foundation. Revlon Creations, Clinique City Stick, Prescriptives Matchstick and BeneFit Play Sticks are but a few on offer.

• Shiny eyeshadow - shimmer on baby; choose either a very pale eyeshadow that can be washed over the lid to jazz up your eyes, or go for a darker colour that you can apply over your darker contour colour. Either way, the change of finish will do wonders to revive the way your eyes look. Use a pale platinum gold (Chanel Venus or Clarins Vanilla Pearl), a pale silver (Chantecaille Light or Dior Cloud), or even a soft gold (Dior Sand Beige or M&S Metal Sheen). You can also use these tinsel potion as highlighters for the rest of your face and body. However, be cautious if you're standing fully dressed, this loose messy powder could sandblast you with all its might!

• Colour accent shadow - this sort of product is applied just over the lashline about halfway between the pupil and the outer corner of your eye, blending in a spot about the size of a pencil rubber. It adds great pizzazz to neutral daytime eye make-up, while allowing you to experiment with a colour or finish that might be too outrageous to wear as a main shadow.

• Coloured mascara - a huge trend right now, so if you have the guts, go for it! Apply vibrant and visible colour to clean lashes and you'll see it quite clearly, but if you are applying it over the top of your daytime black or brown, the look will be a lot subtler. Don't worry about looking like a kickback from Abba, and use one of the more muted shades such as the black-violets, bronze-greens, plum-browns and the blue-black - they aren't as dark as black, without being as boring as a brown.

• Vivid 'Aunt Sally' blusher - a vibrant blusher can make dull daytime make-up come to life, especially if you only have time to apply a little bit over the more neutral colour you wore all day. A light recoat, and the colour can bring a boost to washed-out cheeks when worn softly, or make a bright statement if you want some colour.

• A lipstick and/or gloss - the important thing is to go for a complete turnaround from what you wear in the day. Change the finish from creamy to high metallic, or something sparkly, transparent and glossy, or for all the dare-devils, maybe even dark and matte. Lipstick is that singular piece of make-up that will make the most visible change in your entire look, even if it is the only thing you have changed. The other option would be to get one of the fantastic new glosses with a vinyl finish (Chanel, Kanebo, Maybelline), or a sparkle (Lancôme, M&S Perfect, Max Factor), or even holographic particles (Sisley). How about doing a strong lipstick plus the gloss, what the hell - you aren't going to have any shine left by the end of the evening anyway!

A Change Is As Good As A Rest

So all ready to go from daytime doldrums to evening diva? Now with your make-up bag ready, don't forget a quick change of outfit. Nothing like a daring little something to

wear, but whatever you do, make the transformation easy. Plan something complicated and Murphy's Law takes over; you get a pile of work on your desk 10 minutes before quitting time and you end up going to the party feeling like the ugly duckling.

So, make sure a few quick changes are enough to make everyone's eyes pop out, and with any luck, won't make you look like a total trollop. Just remember; come Monday morning, you have to work with these people again. We don't want them to get the wrong impression now, do we?