When I was 14, I persuaded my grandmother to take me to the now defunct Kensington Market as a birthday treat. We travelled up by train from Bromley, caught the bus to High Street Kensington and there, knee-deep in cheap leather coats and stripy batwing jumpers, she parted with an unseemly amount of her pension in exchange for a pair of black winklepickers that fell apart within days.

In retrospect, I should have settled for a book token. But I was a teenager, and book tokens were for squares. What I wanted was the excitement of the high street, the thrill of cheap, trendy clothes. A quarter of a century on and not much has changed. Granted, you are just as likely to find a middle-aged mum flicking through the racks in H&M as you are a pubescent girl, but for me the high street’s raison d’être is the young, the fresh and the stylish.

This is true not just for clothes, but also for make-up. Now I’m a respectable married lady, the latest nude eye shadow from Bobbi Brown fills me with almost as much excitement as those wretched winklepickers, but I am not too old to appreciate the joy of funky, colourful and above all affordable high-street cosmetics.

The brand that most excites my inner teenager is Urban Decay. The brash packaging and outlandish colours are perfect for sleepovers and swapsies at the back of the bus. Best are their eyeliners (24/7 Glide-on eye pencils, £9, 0845 0708090). Every self-respecting teenage girl needs a good eyeliner, and these are the perfect texture for precision work, as well as being long-lasting.

Too Faced has a more bad-girl vibe, the kind my grandmother would most definitely not have approved of. Currently, its Limited Edition Miss Sixty Palette (£20, www.toofaced.com) is its foxiest number, a beauty book styled like a pair of jeans (think the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album cover, only with a pocket instead of a zip). Inside is an array of shimmery pinks and greys; best of all, into the pocket of the jeans slips a tiny mirror. And every girl surely needs a Mood Swing Emotionally Activated Lip Gloss (£12): starts out clear, turns pink after a few minutes – just like when a boy smiles at you in the corridor.

The high street wouldn’t be the high street without Topshop. Naturally, it has its own brand of wild and crazy make-up, Pop, available at the Oxford Street flagship store or online at www.popbeauty.co.uk. Highlights include Neon Nail Glams (£6) and Ribbon Gloss (£8), five strips of suitably bubble-gum scented lip colour.

Pop has a grown-up sister brand, Pixi (www.pixibeauty.com). Its stand-out product is the Hydrotint Duo (£25), an ingenious dual tube of oil-free tinted moisturiser and lip and cheek tint: proof that not all tearaway teenagers turn out bad.

Times recommends

• Live chat: Thrifty ways to update your winter wardrobe
• Is anybody out there really listening?
• Nutrition Q&A: Will eating late make me fat?