The Student Bathroom Shelf: Six Things Worth the Space

The first fortnight is socials, club nights and the flat party that starts at ten. Make-up for that has two jobs: go on in a minute in a shared bathroom, and still be there at two. Two products do it.

Eyes: Crayon Lumière, our waterproof eye pencil. Eyeshadow, eyeliner and inner-corner highlight in one, enriched with sunflower oil and silk powder, so it glides on and stays until you take it off. No brush, no palette, no fallout, and it is tested for contact lens wearers. Natural: apply lightly and blend with a fingertip. Intense: a darker shade along the lash line or into the outer corner. Smoky: line with a dark shade and blend gently upwards. Party shades to start with are Perle Noire, Bleu Nuit, Gris Cosmique and Bronze Doré, with Vanille Sucrée or Blanc Argenté in the inner corner to open the eye. Close the cap tightly so the tip does not dry out.

Lips: Nutri Lip Oil, which is 99% skincare with a mirror shine. Sweet almond and cotton oils nourish and soften the lips while giving a clear, pearlescent finish that is not sticky, in five shades and a clear. It is the one to keep in a pocket for the walk home in the cold. For more colour, Lip Gloss comes in eighteen shades for soft, plump, luminous lips, and Lip-Shine is a plumping, moisturising lipstick in thirty-six. One eye pencil and one lip oil is a whole look, and both fit in the smallest bag you own.

Nobody bites their nails in Freshers week. They bite them in week eight, at midnight, with two essays due. Mavala Stop is the product we are best known for: a bitter-tasting, colourless polish that goes on alone or over your usual colour and reminds you every time your hand goes near your mouth. Put it on before the deadlines start, not after the damage is done.

One concealer, under the eyes, thirty seconds. Our Perfect Concealer took gold at the Health and Wellbeing Awards 2026, which is a fair thing to lean on when the lecture is at nine and you were not asleep at three.

A full-size bottle of nail polish is a commitment; most of it dries out before it is finished. Mini Colours are 5ml, in around 360 shades, and small enough to buy a few at once and change your mind every week of term. The bottle is used up before the polish can go off, which is the whole point of the size.

Cold walks to lectures, radiators on full, hands washed twenty times a day in halls: by November the skin around the nails splits. Two things, both small enough for a coat pocket. Cuticle Oil, sunflower, sweet almond and olive oils, massaged in daily so the skin around the nail stays soft and does not tear. And a hand cream: our Prebiotic Hand Cream is dermatologically tested and suitable for sensitive skin, so it works for the flatmate with eczema too.

Soft, splitting, peeling at the tips after a term of all of the above: Scientifique K+. Brush it along the nail tips two or three times a week and leave it to work. It is the product that turns up in press cuttings every year for exactly this job, and it is one bottle, not a routine.

Mavala has been made in a small independent laboratory in Geneva since 1959. The bottles are small because the formulas are concentrated: you use less each time, so they last a term, not a fortnight, and the price never needs explaining to anyone.

Students and university staff get 15% off everything at full price with a .ac.uk email address. How it works, what the code covers and how to sign up are all on the student discount page. Send it to whoever shares your shelf.