Follow this holiday beauty guide to look your absolute best with bright and smooth skin in less than a month!

Quick, try this. Use your (clean!) fingers to caress the contours of your face. Tell me: Do certain “hot spots” – think treacherous terrain like your nose and cheeks – feel rougher than the surrounding skin?

That “bumpiness”, my friend, is what beauty brands are alluding to when they tout this toner or other as being terrific for “re-texturising” your skin. Uneven texture and tone – the latter refers to freckles and other brown blotches, FYI – are the consequence of dead cell buildup, and can be exacerbated by excessive UV exposure or cosmetics-induced congestion.

Happily, there are a ton of things to try if you’re looking to hit the pause button and turn the beat around. Click through the gallery slides and have fun ticking off my laundry list of skin-restoring steps. Give this a month or so – which is about the time it takes for complete skin turnover – and have fun looking fantastic in your festive finery!

Image: Clinique.

Want more? Depuff and detoxify your way to a slimmer and “smaller” face with this step-by-step manual, and stave off the advances of Old Father Time by following these anti-ageing beauty best practices every self-respecting office lady should know. Get your daily dose of beauty at www.herworldplus.com/beauty.

Why risk the heartache (and face-ache) of a congested complexion, all because you aren’t being meticulous about makeup removal at the end of the day?

Put your best face forward with a clarifying cleanser like this creamy Kose concoction, which comes stuffed with an invigorating blend of brightening botanicals said to work in tandem to soothe and smooth rough and reactive skin. Application is pretty much idiot-proof, too: Dispense a dollop and whip up a luxurious lather, massage into your mien and splash off in the shower.

Kose Sekkisei White Washing Foam, $35.

A scrub that scours off debris and dead cells may be the single best investment you can make if you’re looking to purge your pores of gunk and grease. The trick is in finding products that are effective yet gentle enough for all skin types – try a dual-duty cleanser-cum-exfoliator for twice the goodness and half the hassle. Massage into your skin, then rinse off for a visibly smoother visage. Magic!

Clinique Pep-Start 2-in-1 Exfoliating Cleanser, $38.

Conventional scrubs not cutting it for you? May I suggest deep-cleansing mud masks, which make for a perfect midway point between milder everyday exfoliants and mysteriously long “lunch appointments” with an aesthetician.

My money’s on this Glamglow baby, which comes chock-full of sea-sourced mud, an incredibly absorbent ingredient which is great for clearing out the unwanted riff-raff clogging up your pores. Simply smear it all over your face, focusing on blackhead-riddled regions like the chin and nose, then let dry for about 10 minutes before splashing off with warm water. As always, be sure to spot-test on the nook of your elbow, and start slow – once a week should suffice for a beauty beginner.

Glamglow Youthmud Tinglexfoliate Treatment, $92 from Escentials.

Leery of loofah-ing your face with an abrasive paste? Treat yourself to a radiance-boosting rinse-off mask for maximum fabulousness and minimum fuss. I’m obsessed with The Body Shop’s amazing Amazonian Acai Energising Radiance Mask, a complexion-correcting cocktail that smells exactly like a scrumptious smoothie and comes chock-a-block with antioxidative acai berry and exotic guarana seed extracts to supposedly restore the radiance of sallow skin.

Simply slap on your mask of choice, rest and relax for 10 minutes or so, rinse off and you’re done. The visage that greets you in your bathroom mirror should be delightfully dewy and primed for the potions and poultices to follow.

The Body Shop Amazonian Acai Energising Radiance Mask, $32.90.

Skincare superheroes like trusty ol’ topical vitamins B3 and C are firm favourites for their ability to fend off environmental aggressors, and for good reason, too: Use ‘em religiously and you should notice your skin becoming more supple, with a lit-from-within luminescence that’s most pleasing indeed.

Want to get in on the antioxidative action? Besides being an awesome anti-ageing agent in its own right, topical vitamin B3 also makes for a useful adjunct to your daily dose of sunscreen. Simply smooth on a supercharged serum like La Prairie’s covetable Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Serum – which comes complete with said vitamin in the form of niacinamide plus an exotic elixir composed of botanical antioxidants; think panax ginseng root and mulberry extracts – and top up with a sunscreen during the day to maximise sun protection, reduce roughness and diminish discolouration over time.

La Prairie Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Serum, $525.

Saving the best for last. Finally, seal in all of the goodness of your newly smooth skin with a light face oil, which serves as a “top coat” to prevent us water babies from drying out like prunes.

What to try? If you’re an unabashed lover of luxury like yours truly, you’ll adore Cle de Peau Beaute’s incredibly invigorating Radiant Multi Repair Oil, a seriously soothing amber ambrosia composed of a quartet of botanical oils – rice germ, evening primrose, rosehip and camellia – plus antioxidants, silk and pearl extracts that promise to leave you skin looking and feeling supremely soft, pleasingly plump and perfectly pore-free. Bonus points for the sensorial pleasure afforded by this oil’s opulent peony and orchid scent, which is exquisite in the extreme.

Application-wise, be sure to use sparingly – just one or two drops are plenty – and pat into cleansed skin over your serums and under your moisturiser. Feel free to spread the wealth by rubbing any excess into the tips of your tresses and the crevices of your cuticles!

Cle de Peau Beaute Radiant Multi Repair Oil, $200.

An eyecream is essential – you want the windows to your soul to look as pristine and polished as possible, yes? This Clinique concoction is one of the most powerful placaters of puffiness I’ve encountered, and really works wonders in smoothing away sagging and bagging, thanks to a precision engineered blend of fatigue fighters and optical light diffusers.

The creamy gel’s de-puffing goodness is also amplified by a really cool custom applicator that’s shaped like an adorable mini spoon, which you’re meant to use to massage away under-eye lumps and bumps. The product’s pretty much pocket-sized, too – perfect for stashing away in your purse for touch-ups on the go. Oh, and do as I do and rinse out the applicator when the product proper has run its course, for use as a massage tool for creams that don’t come with a rollerball. Pretty neat, huh?

Right, then. Good luck “cheating” with these products to shave years off your biological age. Cheers!

Clinique Pep-Start Eye Cream, $45.

Want more? Depuff and detoxify your way to a slimmer and “smaller” face with this step-by-step manual, and stave off the advances of Old Father Time by following these anti-ageing beauty best practices every self-respecting office lady should know. Get your daily dose of beauty at www.herworldplus.com/beauty.