NEW YORK -- Want to give your look a lift? Forget plastic surgery or Botox or even microderm abrasion. A new lipstick can do the trick and so can a chic new haircut.

There are many quick, easy, painless and relatively cheap ways to help women update their style, especially as visions of sun-kissed styles dance in their heads as the weather turns warmer.

"Big eyes continue to be huge. There's an incredible business in fake lashes and big mascaras with new technologies and better brushes," reports Sarah Munson, general manager of beauty at Beauty.com. This season's favourite cosmetic combinations seem to be bold blues, greens or gold on the eyes, with a soft apricot lip or a strong coral lip with muted eyes, she says.

Bronzers have become a beauty category unto themselves, as have sunless tanners. Almost every brand, whether it's at the prestige or mass level, has a variety of products to re-create the glow one gets from the sun, but without any of the skin- damage risks.

Skin-care routines tend to lighten up in the spring and summer, with women choosing more serums, which are absorbed more quickly into the skin, than creams and lotions, which tend to sit on the surface, Munson explains.

Debbi Hartley-Triesch, national beauty and fragrance director for Nordstrom, says today's best-selling products are things that enhance natural beauty instead of mimicking a model or falling prey to trends.

Luckily, there are a lot of choices out there, she says, since many women use different beauty products on different days to address their moods or outfits.

As fashion turns to more tailored clothing, Hartley-Triesch says, more women are choosing high-colour lipsticks. It's the yin and yang of your overall look: Highly stylized clothes are complemented by more subtle makeup and simpler or delicate clothes can take a little more colour on the face.

The update to the zillions of shimmering lip glosses already out there is that cosmetic companies are now paying attention to brilliance and a pearled effect, in addition to shine.

- Colour cosmetics: While there's still a bit of crispness in the springtime air, makeup artist Bobbi Brown reaches for light, baby-doll pink makeup -- "a very wearable pink, a shimmer, glittery pink," she describes.

Joe Costa, national makeup artist for Yves Saint Laurent, says he's seen many women drawn to peach and pinks so far this season. But, he adds, they're also doing a bit of experimenting with brighter colours on their eyes.

As for hair colour, Matrix colourist Jennifer Jahanbigloo, known professionally as Jennifer J., notes the chunky colouring technique known as shadowing has been used on Sarah Jessica Parker, Gisele Bundchen, Faith Hill and Mischa Barton.

- Nails: Essie Weingarten, founder and president of Essie Cosmetics, says it's time to trim nails and keep them short and clean. Colours that best suit that look tend to be soft, but also playful. Her spring palette includes a rosy mauve with glitter, a bubble-gum pink and translucent toffee, while the summer collection features pink peony, a sheer opalescent amethyst, lilac and watermelon.

- Skin care: The light bulb is finally going on for consumers that they need more than their daily moisturizer with SPF to protect them from the sun, says Eric Cowles, vice-president of marketing for SkinCeuticals.

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