And that’s a wrap! London Fashion Week has bolted its doors shut. The models are off to Milan, the make-up brushes are languishing in cleaning fluid and the street style stars have unbuckled their heels and slipped on their fluffy rabbit slippers.

It was a job done well. Really well. There were poetic flourishes of pastels, hair texture subversion (glossy, waxy, silky, oily, you name it) that played tricks with the eyes and every interpretation of eyeliner imaginable. That’s the thing with London, the beauty teams aren’t afraid to experiment; in fact they positively court it.

Still, it wasn’t hyper-theatrical or overly recalcitrant. It may have lacked the pomp and anarchy of seasons past, but it was all the richer for it. London showed it can purport a sophisticated, yet contemporary beauty ideal just as well as New York or Paris. If not more.  And that’s a good thing, because it means all those tiny – but epic – beauty narratives happening behind each backstage curtain are, finally, playing out on a global stage.

Here are the 10 most prolific beauty trends that won out at the London shows:

1. Worn-in eyeliner
Now this is a trend that plays serious homage to London’s grit and fearlessness. Forget striving for a perfect kohl line this autumn, you’ll need an entirely new skill-set for this; namely, the ability to deconstruct and diffuse the line you draw through the lashes, but of course, without looking you’re doing a walk of shame.

2. The Seventies
You couldn’t move for Seventies references this season. Aside from the wonderfully peculiar duo of reference points at Preen (Darth Vader and Annie Hall) which have no real connection other than they both came to be in 1977, parallels were made with Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks and Angelica Huston. What joy, to know without doubt that the 90s revival is over. 

3. Fragile flyaways
I lost count of the amount of times ‘flyaway’ or ‘baby hairs’ were uttered by dry shampoo wielding hair stylists at the London shows. Luke Hersheson’s fragile low ponytails and Alice bands at Roksanda felt both poetic and modern, while at Paul Smith, Sam McKnight’s ‘girl at a bus stop hair’ made us all feel rather better about our windswept locks.  

4. Reverse concealer
Well, reverse in that, it’s not there at all. What began with Pat McGrath’s natural eyelids at Victoria Beckham in New York, quickly gathered ground in London at three of the strongest shows of the season; Aaron de Mey omitted concealer over models’ under-eye shadows, preferring the natural, ‘lived-in’ hue while at Simone Rocha, Sam Bryant was on the same page too. Do you dare?

5. Woodland nymph hair
In New York, last season’s wet-look hair had evolved: it was toughened-up, sporty and very masculine. Turning the tables somewhat then, London purported a hyper-feminine, hyper-romantic notion to the glazed tendrils on display. At Julien MacDonald, James Pecis took the hair away from the shoulders, but avoided an up-do, ‘it’s too done’, in favour of something that looks like the model has just arisen from a warm lake. 

6. Tri-blusher
​You think you know blusher. You think you have it sussed. It’s the easiest bit of all the make-up, isn’t it? Not so much anymore. At Margaret Howell, Simone Rocha and House of Holland, the cheek became the new lip and backstage, make-up artists became beauty mixologists. This involved tactfully blending three or more colours together and dabbling the bespoke hue over a large expanse of the cheek. In some cases, they even reverted to using lip gloss over cream blush. All in the name of a perfect cheek statement.

7. Dewy Eyelids
​Now, this is a trend we can genuinely all get behind – not least because it is absurdly easy to do, but it’s also easy (read: non-frightening) to carry off. A glossed lid works best with a base of colour from a cold, neutral palette – think dusky roses, flat ecru and putty tones or in the case of Burberry, aubergine. The only slightly tricksome element of it is the wear; gloss has a tendency to move around a bit, as well as the rest of your eye make-up so it’s wise to omit mascara for this one. 

8. The Combover 
​Fashion has its ugly shoes, which have become – now our eye has been acclimatized to them – quite covetable, and now beauty has its extreme combover. That’s not hyperbole, this is a side parting which is so low on the left side that it practically tickles the ear. And then, as Leigh Keates did at Emilio de la Morena, it’s routinely drenched in gel or serum for a mirror shine. It’s a cracker of a look, but requires cheekbones of steel. 

9. Cobalt blue 
​In an otherwise predominantly colour-less London Fashion Week, three shows threw caution to the wind – and all sense of seasonal propriety – to bring us a burst of ricocheting cobalt blue. Not heavy-handed or blitzed all over the lids, this is the sort of blue that, just tucked into the lash line or blended out with graphite can make an astonishing impact to any face. 

10. The Brit It-Model Trio
No other fashion city can lay claim to Cara Delevigne, Sam Rollinson or Jourdan Dunn. They are irrevocably British, by name but also by nature. Backstage, these are the girls most at ease with themselves, having the most fun. And that’s what fashion week is, a celebration. All too often people forget that.