It's day four in Paris and the beauty trends that shape a season are slowly starting to unfold. But instead of shouting and hollering 'hey, over here, look at us', these triumphs in understatement are whispering, uttering their allure because, so far in Paris, we're learning a lot about the art of subtlety. Ironically, there's no less make-up or hair styling skill employed in any of these looks, the difference is in the palette and the method.

Here are five pared down trends we predict to go stellar this September.

Ear to ear blush

For a flying through the air with the greatest of ease flush that takes its cue from Amelia Earhart, please forget everything you've ever heard about contouring your cheeks and refer instead to Vanessa Bruno. Take one enormous blusher brush, load it with a putty pink powder and swipe it from ear to ear, right across the bridge of the nose.

The 45-degree comb over

In a season of side partings, how refreshing to see a simple twist that immediately took hair from classic to Parisienne cool. Of course, it came from stylist Anthony Turner - a man who is no stranger to side partings and whose signature style is cool, but cleverly so. At Acne, his side part took a 45-degree angle back from the face at the hairline. A tiny nod to a slick, fifties masculinity that felt strong, smart and had me itching to try it myself.

The fleshy lip

With a few exceptions, the Paris lip has been remarkably dressed down this season. The look is fleshy – like your own lip colour, with a little more je ne sais quoi. At Veronique Leroy, the ever-inventive Alex Box balmed lips, removed the shine with a tissue then pressed MAC Sheertone Blushbaby powder blush over the mouth for a matte nude finish.

Lightening brows

In the business, it’s known as ‘taking the brows down’. Which sounds like you’re unpinning your brows from a wall, but actually means knocking out the colour of the hair to make them fade from prominence. The end result is strangely, but wonderfully, youth reviving. So follow the season's brow maestro, Yadim, in his trick at Haider Ackermann and use an old mascara brush to tickle concealer upwards through the hairs.

The shadowed nail

Ooh, isn’t fashion contrary? It’s now out with the old, ornate nail art and in with the ‘invisible manicure’, said technician, Marian Newman amidst the backstage scrum that was Vivienne Westwood Gold Label. So she shook some white pigment into a matte topcoat, or slicked the latter over some earthily-toned eye shadows that had been rubbed onto nails. Yes you read that right, the fickle beast of fashion has proclaimed that eye shadow is the new nail polish. Just please don’t ask me why.