At one point Marks & Spencer looked set to become the ugly sister of the cosmetics world, but with the help of industry experts and some famous faces it has sprinkled fairy dust over its beauty range. Emily Flanagan reports.

NOTHING you might have presumed about Marks & Spencer seems to apply any more. Having remained on our high streets for as long as anyone can remember, there were certain judgements made as soon as you crossed the threshold into the green and cream store.

"The clothes will be too frumpy for me in here," - not since Yasmin Yusuf, from the clothes store success story Warehouse got her hands on them.

"The kids won't wear Marks & Spencer clothes" - but now David Beckham is designing them.

And the stores are no longer green and cream, they are now mint and white with lots of soft lighting and cleverly placed shelves.

Marks & Spencer has now turned its attention to its beauty range.

Even the London press launch for the autumn/winter collection reflected the serene, simplistic image the store is trying to purvey. PR women wafted in and out the room dressed stylishly all in white, while soothing sounds played in the background and impossibly slim fashion journalists decline impossibly posh nibbles. It was here the latest beauty products, designed with the help of some well-known faces, were unveiled.

Marks & Spencer has enlisted the help of a fairy godmother in the guise of television make-up expert John Gustafson, who has worked his magic and created the Perfect range.

At the stylish press showing of next season's make up and beauty range John, co-ordinated in pointy red shoes and a pillarbox red suit, made-up models with a selection of his range. Meanwhile fashion journalists cooed over his glittering garnet lip lacquer and deep, sultry eye-shadows and delighted over the ingeniousness of lash primer, that builds up lashes and prevents mascara flaking, and lip primer that stops lipsticks bleeding.

He has put as much thought into the selections of colours he has used, designed to co-ordinate with skin tones, from warm yellow colouring to cool English Rose.

The limited edition Perfect range will be available in 80 stores this autumn and winter and prices start from £5.

While catering for the exclusive end of the market, Marks & Spencer has also set its sights on the younger shopper looking for something affordable and striking.

Next season's Mien range includes a range of new shades with pretty pinks and lilacs as well as wilder mauves and deep wintry colours.

One person caught admiring the range at the launch was none other than one of Marks & Spencer's non-executive directors and former head of MI5 Dame Stella Rimington. The real-life M, who successfully ruled the macho world of espionage for several years, was caught looking at the tiny bottles of nail varnish and pastel eye shadows.

"The range of colours is wonderful, what attracts me as much is the packaging and attractive appearance of it," she commented honestly.

But before she could be bombarded with searching questions, she spirited herself out of the room in the way only the former head of MI5 can.

The MM Martyn Maxey range of luxury hair products have also been repackaged and revamped for next season and includes some new additions.

The internationally renowned hairdresser, who has three top London salons and a list of clients that include supermodel Elle Macpherson and newsreader Anna Ford, has created a range of products and that can be mixed and matched to solve all types of hair care problems.

The scientific approach has also been brought to Marks & Spencer's Formula range of skin care, which includes several items that already have people hooked, such as the 16 hour enriching moisturiser, cellulite control cream and body firmer, said to make your skin 70 per cent smoother and firmer within four weeks.

Some of the products are based on a more organic philosophy and smell good enough to eat. There's the Spalife hydrotherapy moisturisers and bath soaks, designed to restore and detoxify, Vinotherapy range, containing grape extracts to repel environmental damage and Thalassotherapy products which commandeers the healing benefits of sea algae.

So after bringing in the experts, the celebrities, the image revamp and new products, now after a bumpy few years Marks & Spencer has to sit back and see what the future brings.