This week, Elle Tucker shows us how to fake a good nights sleep.

Don’t you just love that phase kids go through when they start getting up at 5.30am? It’s usually when they’re too old to just cross your fingers and hope they’ll go back to sleep – but too young to explain that it’s officially still night time then bribe them to be quiet for another two hours.

My youngest has just entered this particular stage of toddlerdom and it’s taking its toll on my normally bright-eyed *coughs* appearance. But thankfully, I have a few products in my armoury that can convince the world I’m not four weeks early for a Halloween party.

Trick one is to be prepared. Don’t wait until morning to try and de-puff – apply a serum like Elemis Pro-Collagen Advanced Eye Treatment (£39) at night. This protects and moisturises the delicate eye area without overloading, and lasts for ages, too.

Then, once you’ve dragged yourself out of bed the next ‘day’, discovered that CBeebies hasn’t even started yet and got angry with the kettle for not being switched on at the plug, go for something stimulating to wake yourself up. I love Thalgo’s new Collagen Eye Roll-on (£29.50), a gel that contains caffeine to blitz eye bags and puffiness. So essentially you are applying coffee internally AND externally. Good work.

Now it’s time for the smoke and mirrors. The last thing you want is a chalky, obvious cover-up attempt if you’re trying to hide dark circles. So go for a concealer made specifically for this area, like Paul & Joe’s Under Eye Concealer (£15.50) which gives good coverage with a thin, supple coat. Incidentally, I got mine from BeautyBay.com, which has a super-duper new look worth checking out.

The next trick is a bit of a brow-lift to make you look wide awake. How? With this bad boy, Shavata’s Arch Enhancer (£9.95), a big fat pencil used under the brow to accentuate the arch with a soft pink, light reflecting pigment. An instant prettifier: genius.

And finally, it might be just the nursery run, but if you don’t put some mascara on you’ll be pulled over. I keep coming back to the ludicrously named Fiberwig LX by DJV Beautenizer (£18), the top selling mascara brand In Japan. Goes on like super natural lengthy lusciousness, comes off when YOU decide. Marvellous.