Barbie. I’ve always had a soft spot for her. Not least because she helps me explain to people how to spell my surname (“Like Barbie but with an RI at the end”: never fails).

This month, Barbie is 50: cue, reams of the usual stuff about how bad she is for little girls, with her anatomically impossible waist and huge knockers. She is now also being blamed for being too [...]

I am not alone. In my tummy, curled up and waiting for a moment to unfurl and press the exit button, is a baby. If being pregnant is a group affair that invites comment and anecdote, being nine months pregnant is a catalyst for other people’s panic. People want to know, need to know, exactly when the baby will arrive, perhaps in case you have it on “their watch”.

Exactly when a [...]

The Organic Pharmacy Deodorant Spray, £15, 50ml

Tested: various dates throughout 2007

Launched: Summer 2007

Stockists: The Organic Pharmacy, 396 Kings Road, 169 High Street Kensington, 23 Great Marlborough Street, 36 Neal Street and selected retailers, call 020 7351 2232 for stockists or to order by mail. www.theorganicpharmacy.com.

A natural deodorant that really seems to work. I’ve never tested it to the absolute limit (ie I’ve not run a [...]

Price: £3.50 for six, available unscented or with essential oils.

Launched: August 2008Tested: October/November 2008

Ingredients: Cocoa butter, Shea butter

Stockists: www.sheabliss.com

An absolutely brilliant idea. These look like tiny white-chocolate chocolates, and the idea is that you peel off the wrapper and put them in the bath.

Children adore them and they moisturise the water, ergo your skin, beautifully; particularly if you live in a hard [...]

Method Squeaky Green body wash, £4.99 in fuzzy peach or crisp apple, for 295ml.

Date of launch: July 2008Date of testing: summer and autumn 2008

Stockists: Method Kid is available from Boots and boots.com exclusively.

Method is a relatively new label on the market that primarily makes household cleaning products. Their children’s range – Method Kid - launched in July 2008 and consists of this body wash and the [...]

Price: £12.25 for the 100ml starter kit with two cloths; 100ml on its own, £10.75, travel size, 30ml: £4.50

Muslin cloths also sold separately, £3 for a pack of two, £7.50 for a pack of six.

Stockists: www.lizearle.com Customer centre - 01983 813 913

Launched: 8th March 1996

Tested: 2004 and January 2008

One of the best cleansers there is. I love it. You use it in three stages: massage [...]

£64, 50ml£105, 100ml

Launched: 1975Tested: Almost every day from 2002-2008

Stockists: tel: 020 7591 6380

Ingredients: manufacturer would not provide saying the ingredients are printed on the product.

This compound is made to be used your regular daily or nightly moisturizer, or on its own. But really over the age of 25 or so it won’t, very probably, be enough on its own.

The idea of [...]

Hello. Last year I peaked early and by the time Christmas came round, I was over it. Not that you can, of course, be over Christ's birthday, but the commercial part of it - well, I was numb to fairy lights and mince pies come 25 December. This year, despite an adrenalin shot of excitement surging through me when I found myself in the just-opened Christmas room at Selfridges this [...]

Ties have always been important as sartorial semaphor: in terms of power for square inch, the tie, born in 1640, is king. But since the demise of the waistcoat some 40 years ago, the tie remains almost the only bit of visual subversion open to a man. (Shoes can serve this purpose, too, but ties matter more for men in the public eye since the camera seldom focuses on footwear.) [...]

£16 for 40ml

Launched: April 2007Tested: August 2008

Stockists:

Korres Natural Products flagship store: 124 Kings Road, London and Unit 1, Buchanan Galleries, GlasgowHarvey Nichols (nationwide), Harrods, Liberty, Selfridges (London), select John Lewis and independents nationwide.Shop-in-shops, House of Fraser, Croydon (T: 0870 1607229) Birmingham (T: 0870 1607225)Beautyexpert.co.uk, Bathandunwind.com, Hqhair.com, Asos.com and Lookfantastic.com

This is an “instant brightening and illuminating” face mask that comes in a glass [...]