Glitter: trick or treat? Of course it SEEMS like a great idea when you’re getting made up as a Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skull/unicorn/Disney princess for Halloween and dousing yourself liberally with the sparkly stuff. But the next day – or even months later, when you’re still finding tiny shiny specks on your clothes, furniture and pets – it’s the stuff of nightmares.

Half the time, make-up remover just serves to push it around your face, and because it’s moist, it gives the flecks something to cling to, which is why you need a foolproof method for removing glitter make-up. The good news? We’ve got one.

This tip actually came via singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who is encouraging people to go bright with their make-up on November 17 for Children in Need.

When I asked the singer if she’d picked up any useful tips from professional make-up artists throughout the years, she shared this ingenious hack: “A woman called Louise Constad, who’s still a really good friend of mine, she does very bright eye [make-up] and she did the green glitter for the Murder on the Dance Floor video. She taught me how to do that and be really confident using glitter – and use sellotape to lift it off your skin, because it gets everywhere, it’s a nightmare.”

See? A nightmare. “Use sticky tape,” Sophie continued, “which is much easier than trying to scrape it off. Even now, glitter is still my friend, I still love it for gigs and parties and Halloween.”

I decided to test out the theory with some gold glitter gel I had at home and do you know what? It really worked. The gel had to dry, but once it had, the glitter lifted right off with a bit of sellotape I’d wrapped round two fingers; I just had to get a new piece when it had lost its stickiness.

It’s like a lint roller for your face (but those things are VERY sticky, so I wouldn’t recommend rolling one on the delicate skin around your eyes). The sellotape trick is also handy for picking off shiny specks that inevitably end up all over your clothes.

So there you have it, a way to turn glitter from foe to friend this Halloween (and beyond).