With Margot Robbie poised to play the Mattel icon on the big screen, Barbie pink is back for autumn/winter and in a big way. Before you dismiss Barbiecore as too sugar-and-spice to be nice, Alice Ryan proves monochrome pink makeup can be wearable: for a grown-up take, offset bolder brights against subtle shades

Lush Naked Mascara in Reef, £10, Lush, Lion Yard, Cambridge

With old-school mascara packaging nigh-on impossible to recycle, this solid formula - developed by Lush, long at the forefront of animal, people and planet-friendly beauty - is a breakthrough. A cylinder of dry colour which, drilled with a central hole, is activated with the wiggle of a damp wand, it comes in a simple cardboard sleeve and four core colours: classic black and brown, a cobalt blue and Reef, pictured, a warm (and surprisingly flattering) coral pink. Thanks to plentiful pigments and natural emollients, once on the wand the mascara is both colour-rich and nicely pliable, coating lashes beautifully.

With Love Cosmetics Pink Dreams Palette, £29.99, withlovecosmetics.co

Since she founded the brand seven years ago, while still a 14-year-old Lincolnshire schoolgirl, Millie Goodwin has seen With Love Cosmetics go global, totting up 320,000 Instagram followers and counting for her fully vegan, cruelty-free, pro-standard products. If you want to give the Barbiecore look a whirl, this Pink Dreams palette is a must, containing an impressive 25 shades - spanning lights to darks, nudes to brights and mattes to sparkles - for an equally impressive price. Blend, payoff and lasting power are all excellent. With each pan shaped like a little fluffy cloud, the packaging is pretty as can be, too.

Pixi LipLift Max in Peony Bloom, £12, pixibeauty.co.uk

At core a really lovely lip gloss - not too shiny, not too sticky, pleasingly pigmented - Pixi’s LipLift Max is the definition of makeup with benefits. Packed with plumping peptides, it has a volumising effect; all the crumples in my lips, the result of both years and dryness, appear puffed up and smoothed out. Plus it contains extracts of aloe to heal, jojoba to moisturise and chamomile to soothe, making it both blissfully comfortable to wear and the skincare benefits cumulative. This pink is bright enough to tick the Barbie box and deep enough to work for autumn/winter.

fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Papaya, £19.50, lookfantastic.com

As cute as it is caring, this tinted lip balm is a calling-card product for fresh, the US brand which has blazed a trail in natural and nasty-free beauty. As the name suggests, the big hitter is sugar (derived from both cane and beetroot), which is blended with fruit oils (notably cranberry seed) to smooth, soften and hydrate lips for a promised 24 hours. There are numerous shades available, all of them brilliantly buildable: swipe for a subtle flush or layer for a pop of colour. Papaya is at the coral end of the pink spectrum, making it a safe bet for most skin tones.

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Lottie London Sweet Blush in Soft Rose, £6.95, lottie.london

Yes, it’s huge on TikTok. But Lottie London - the vegan, cruelty-free, fashion-forward, bargain-priced British beauty brand - isn’t solely for Gen-Z. Take this liquid blush: loaded with hyaluronic acid, it hydrates as well as pigments and as a result blends and builds flawlessly; no risk of blotching on dry patches or gathering in fine lines which, if you’re upwards of 35, is a hazard with so many liquid blushers. I like to take my blush a tone or two darker as the nights draw in and Soft Rose, a slightly plummy pink, is perfect.

Pixi Endless Shade Stick in Copper Glaze, £12, pixibeauty.co.uk

Perfect for those days when you’re short on time but still need to look polished, Pixi’s Endless Shade eyeshadow stick does exactly what it says on the tube, delivering high-impact, long-lasting colour in a single, swift, simple move. Infused with aloe, chamomile and green tea, the formula is smooth to apply, remarkably unshifting and kind to skin, too. A deep rose gold, Copper Glaze makes wearing pink on lids both easy and elegant. Use as a chunky liner or pat or buff out for a full eyelid look, no other shadows required.

Jones Road The Best Blush in Rosy, £29, jonesroadbeauty.com

As regular readers of these pages will know, we’re big fans of Jones Road, the brand founded by makeup mogul Bobbi Brown “on the philosophy that the world doesn’t need more beauty products. It needs better beauty products.” Just released, The Best Blush is a case in point: a super-silky, talc-free powder, it blends seamlessly with skin, creating a super-natural flush; like your own skin, but a better-slept, better-hydrated, all-round-healthier version. On the nude side of pink when applied, Rosy contains the tiniest sprinkle of gold dust for added glow. Sweep along the cheekbones, from apples up to hairline, for fullest effect.

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Leighton Denny nail polish in Blush at First Sight and Jungle Juice, £12.50 each, leightondenny.com and Marks & Spencer stores

Barbiecore taps into two ongoing nail colour trends: the barely-there nude and moody, bruisy plums. Leighton Denny - as you’d expect from a brand helmed by one of the biggest names in the nail business - has shades to tick both boxes. For a subtle yet pleasingly polished look for fingers, palest pink Blush at First Sight is unbeatable, while Jungle Juice, a rich and delicious aubergine, makes toes look instantly party-shoe ready. Like all Leighton Denny polishes, both are super-smooth to apply, super-swift to dry and super-shiny in finish - super, full stop.