My blog has recently been described as ‘highly informative and entertaining for the reader ’ I’m not exactly sure what the wink is supposed to mean Andy, but I shall press on regardless!

1. Darjeeling

Specifically Fabindia Organic Darjeeling. Fabindia links over 80,000 craft based rural producers to modern urban markets, thereby creating a base for skilled, sustainable rural employment, and preserving India’s traditional handicrafts in the process.

2. Korres

I discovered Korres at Waitrose, surreptiously taking the caps off the shower gels and sniffing them. These scents transport you; you have to try the Japanese Rose, Lemon Basil and Mint Tea showergels. Also, every showergel or facewash Korres makes has this amazingly soft, vegetable-based oaty lather, which leaves a gorgeous softening layer on your skin. After you’ve used the White Tea Cleanser you’ll want someone to stroke your face! They use herbs, cooperatives and loads of natural essences. All the way from sunny Greece!

3. Smartwool Merino Thermals

They snuggle close to you and know when you want to be warmer and when you want to be cooler. It must be a fine life, being a sheep.

4. Chichester Botanical Gardens

5. Ravenwood Hall

Both edgy (there’s a stuffed raven in a cage in the entrance lobby) and historic (we stayed in a four poster in the Magna Carta room) you drive up a long, romantically lit driveway to get to this place, and the adventure just keeps getting better.

6. The Body Shop Aloe Body Butter

Fresh, natural and fragrance free, this contains a high proportion of community traded aloe and shea and is absolutely addictive.

7. Hobbs

I like the cut of their jib!

8. Made in Chelsea

Partly because everything’s so pretty and posh and unreal, which is a tad seductive, no matter what your politics. Partly because (don’t laugh) there’s actually some seriously good portrays of current issues in gender politics here. Do you side with Louise, who expresses her emotions and lives for the moment, or Lucy, who plays quite a clever game and doesn’t let men get the better of her?

9. Croatia

I’ve been meaning to blog about my trip to Croatia for six months! This is what I have so far:

I’ve recently discovered the Guardian’s Women in Leadership group. It’s full of good stuff and I can’t wait to go to some of the events.

I received one of their email newsletters this morning, asking me to answer the question ‘Does your personality dictate how successful you can be?’

This is my response:

It’s one thing to watch a natural disaster on the news and feel horror and sympathy for the people involved.

It’s quite another to watch a large scale disaster, such as the factory collapse in Bangladesh on Wednesday, knowing that a high street shop in the UK uses the factory to produce our clothes.

Like many people, I am often caught up in an internal conflict.

Good Jen doesn’t want to wear any clothes unless she’s completely sure the people who made them worked in respectable conditions.

Grumpy Jen is in a rush most of the time, wants to look pretty without using her overdraft and can’t find anything she likes on People Tree.

However, this disaster has reminded me that we are all responsible for making sure we buy things from good sources.

Yes, it’s a bit of a mission, and we can’t be perfect in this area, but a little effort goes a long way.

Yes, in an ideal world, the government and the big companies would make sure there are safety precautions in place. But a quick look at David Cameron on PMQ, acting like an indignant pussycat who’s had his tail pulled, will show you that it might just be quicker to do something yourself.

So, some quick lunch break action. These are the places I mainly shop: Hobbs, Fat Face, F+F at Tesco, Ecco, Bravissimo, Oasis, Monsoon and TopShop.

And here’s a quick little Facebook message I’ve posted on their walls:

Dear [company],

I’m really loving your spring collection! But before I splash out, could you provide me with some information, please?

Firstly, where are your [shoes/bras/clothes] made? Are they produced in a factory that has high safety standards? Is it a strong stable building with good ventilation? Do risk assessments and safety training sessions take place? Would these meet Western standards?

Secondly, who makes your [shoes/bras/clothes]? Are they paid a living wage and do you take responsibility for their medical care and retirement income?

In the light of the factory collapse in Bangladesh on Wednesday, I want to make sure that all the clothes I buy are from ethical sources.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jennifer

I will let you know what they say…

Daily Hygiene

Many spots are caused by hormones, but you can benefit your skin by being as hygienic as you can, without getting obsessive about it. During the daytime, tie your hair back and clip your fringe away from your face. Try not to touch your face too much. Change  the towel you use to dry your face twice a week.

Definitely avoid cheap foundations full of oils, strong chemicals and fragrances. Try a mineral foundation containing zinc oxide, such as Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation. Mineral foundation is usually applied using a kabuki brush, but be warned, as kabuki brushes can harbour bacteria and cause spots. If you do use a kabuki, only use it on freshly cleansed skin, and wash and air dry it once a week. Otherwise, try applying your mineral foundation with a fresh cotton wool ball.

When you wash your hair, make the conditioner doesn’t get anywhere near your face, as the residue can block pores.

Cleanse your skin twice daily, but don’t go nuts. I’d suggest a cream cleanser such as The Body Shop Aloe Calming Cleanser first thing in the morning, and a wash off cleanser such as Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanser at night. If you have oily skin by lunchtime, use blotting papers or a cream cleanser.

A Powerful Natural Facial

Firstly, exfoliate your skin. Use a gentle, high end exfoliator such as Clarins Gentle Refiner Exfoliating Cream. Splash your skin with water, dab on some product, and rub it into your skin using your fingertips and small circular motions. Splash this off using cold water. Pat dry using a clean towel.

Prepare the face mask. In a cup, mix a handful of porridge oats, two drops of tea tree oil, the contents of a chamomile tea bag and a small splash of hot water. Stir and leave.

Take a large cooking basin, and add some fresh mint leaves, using scissors to chop finely. Add a small squeeze of lemon juice. Place the basin on a table and half fill with boiling water. Lean over the basin, cover your head with a towel and steam your face for 5-10 minutes.

As soon as you’ve finished steaming, spread the face mask over your skin and relax. After ten minutes, remove the mask using damp cotton wool.

Pat your skin dry and apply an organic, high end moisturizer made with plenty of natural ingredients. Try Neal’s Yard Power Berry Moisturiser or REN’s T-zone Balancing Day Fluid. Avoid cheap high street creams filled with chemicals that could upset your skin (such as fragrance and parabens) and cheap ingredients that won’t nourish and may block your pores (such as dimethicone and liquid paraffin). Take a look at the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetics Database for more info.

Reduce Stress

Stress has a lot to answer for. The effects of stress are really detrimental to your health, and in the long run it is a killer. You may notice that in times of stress your skin gets spottier. Bear in mind that this is an indicator of the health of the rest of your body, too.

Yoga and meditation are highly beneficial. Try going to a class a few times a week and really focusing your mind and breathing. Use the techniques you learn- such as belly breathing- whenever things get tough during the working week. There are also some really good guided meditation apps for smartphones. Fresh air has a way of improving your skin too, so take off your make-up and go for a run.

Ultimately, you may need to figure out the underlying causes of your stress. Perhaps you need to look at the ways in which you manage relationships with people around you, or you need a job that is more suited to your unique skill set and workplace behaviours. Consulting a therapist or career coach can be really helpful.

Get Serious about your Diet

Just as there’s a lot of rubbish in many commercial skin care products, there is a lot of rubbish in many prepared foods too. Things like coffee, processed meat, crisps, e-numbers, additives, white bread, sugar and other ‘mystery’ chemicals they put in foods can definitely stress your skin.

As a rule of thumb, if you food has three ingredients and the other has 87, go for the former! Yes, that sugary biscuit, packet of bacon crisps, pre-packed sandwich or midnight Chinese take-away tastes yummy at first. However, a lot of the ingredients used to make it are picked for two reasons; firstly because they’re cheap, and secondly, to make them last longer on the shelf. Then marketing tells you it’s yummy.

Once you start to try new, more natural and nutritious foods, you’ll gradually start to find them tastier and more appealing than their chemical-packed counterparts. Sample some quinoa, chickpeas, cannellini beans, sesame tofu, all the amazing vegetables under the sun, coconut oil, avocado and nuts, and your skin will thank you for it. James Duigan’s Clean & Lean Diet Cookbook is a great, realistic place to start.

Embrace your Spots

If you’ve done all you can to improve your health and well-being, and the sneaky spotsters are still there, you might just have to accept them as a part of you. You can take antibiotics, or the pill, or even stronger drugs like Roaccutance to tackle acne, and it may be worth it in your individual circumstances.

However, before you take any of these medications, make sure you do your research. Synthetic hormonal pills such as Dianette have been linked to depression, and antibiotic resistance is a global problem. There’s a lot they can do with lazers these days, so those treatments might be worth looking into.

Of course you should always seek advice from your doctor, but if you’re unsure, remember it’s better to have spots, yet be healthy and happy in the long run.

Snow is sneaky. It doesn’t play by the rules; if it wants to show up in June, it will. It never warns you the night before, so you can set the alarm ten minutes early and defrost the car, oh no, it moves in stealthily.

Snow is also uncannily good at falling on train tracks, disabling our public transport network even when everywhere else seems OK. And it muffles sound- just another way of getting around our defences.

The biggest problem with snow is that it’s hard to tell how much of it there is, and what that actually means you should do.

I know what you’re thinking. If only there were some sort of standardised snowfall measuring system. Something we all could relate to, something tasty. Well ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

The Baked Goods Snowfall Index

1. Asda Seeded Pitta Bread

If the snow is only as thick as a pitta bread, it’s not going to cause much disruption, or for that matter, excitement. The most that is going to happen is that the receptionist at work starts some small talk about it. You can pretty much carry on as usual, whilst sporting a jolly hat and scarf combo.

2. Patisserie Valerie Croissant

If the snow is as thick as a croissant, this is basically ideal. You’ll still be able to get to work on time, as long as the roads have been gritted. And since the lorries will still reach the supermarkets, you won’t have to panic buy Spam. Yet there is enough snowy goodness to form a snowball, which you can aim at the shirt collar of that annoying/hot guy at work, ensuring snow falls down his top. Tee hee.

3. Loaf of rosemary and sea salt artisan bread

You should only drive in this level of snow if you really have to. If you do have to go on a trip, drive slowly and gently, avoiding sudden braking, much as you would if you had a priceless Ming vase on your passenger seat. Fancy doing your good deed for the year? Take a parcel of food to your elderly neighbour. If you do this when there’s just a pitta bread’s worth of snow they’ll just think you’re weird, but now you can be a hero.*

4. Subway sandwich, on end.

This is starting to get a little more serious. Driving on compacted snow is dicey at best- and in Britain we don’t have a great supply of snowploughs. It’s probably best to stay in the house, eating whatever you have to hand (if all you have is cake and whisky, so be it) and watching old films. Make the most of your incarceration by a. going sledging b. creating a Swedish massage experience, by taking a hot bath then rolling naked in the snow and c. making alcoholic slush puppies.

5. Giant Naan in an Indian restaurant

If you’ve got this much snow, it might feel like the end of the world is nigh. However, talk to any granny and you’ll discover how soft and sheltered you really are.  For example in the famous winter from 1962 to 1963, the snow in Hampshire was supposedly as deep as the hedgerows were high. People managed to walk on the tops of the frozen shrubbery, rather than risk driving through the deep snow!

*Unless they read the Daily Mail, in which case they’ll probably be too scared to answer the door, so you should just leave the parcel outside with a note.

1. Get the flu jab. And if a coughing, feverish girl sits next to you on the train, move, even if you feel mean.
2. You can tell the flu is coming. There will also be a sort of unmistakable presence in your body that lets you know a virus has taken up residence. As soon as you notice this, be like a cat and retreat somewhere warm and dry.
3. If the headache is so strong you start to fear that you’re actually dying, check with someone to make sure this is not the case. An outsider will hopefully be able to lend a little perspective. The ‘actually dying’ feeling should pass within a few hours.
4. Your biggest enemy is dehydration, through snot, and constantly being at a sauna-like temperature. Keep a huge jug of water to hand at all times.
5. Some other good things to consume are: lemon juice, honey, root ginger and hot water; green tea; this soup, which is watery, vitaminy, and has a tiny bit of chilli.
6. Sadly, wine won’t help you.
7. An excellent treatment is as follows: put boiling water in a bowl, stick a towel over your head, and breathe in deeply. Steam the bastards out! It’s amazing how much better this can make you feel.
8. Sore joints and strange ‘jelly legs’ are quite normal.
9. Make your Facebook statuses as gory as possible.
10. Family members may be a little perturbed at suddenly having to look after you, but they are your lifeline, so keep them sweet. Remember, praise their every effort.
11. Although it seems like an exhausting exertion, changing the bedsheets can really boost morale. Particularly after a fever breaks.
12. This is the best lip/nose balm ever!

       13. Don’t look at pictures of the icky little viruses on Wikipedia, or watch Little Women or any Dickens. Instead, have a quite word with       your antibodies: ‘You’re doing a great job lads, don’t think I haven’t noticed. Keep it up!’ Or try reading them the St Crispen’s Day Speech from Henry V.

1. Is self-assured, and doesn’t need to dominate, control, or use emotional blackmail.
2. Will put me first. And will be more worried about ME than what other people think.
3. Will fight for me in an instant if I’m ever in a sticky spot, arguing my virtues to all who will listen.
4. Knows what his parents think about things, and independent of this, knows what HE thinks about things.
5. Is in control of his own life, not at the mercy of others.
6. Knows that fortune favours the bold, and isn’t afraid to put himself out there.
7. Sees me as a real human being, not what he thinks a ‘woman’ should be, based on his mum, Hollywood, or FHM.
8. Will be there with me through any health problem, knowing all the gory details, and not battling an eyelid at words like ‘ovulate’.
9. Gives freely, without fear.
10. Doesn’t try to be a saint or need people to think he’s ‘good’.
11. Doesn’t try to change me.
12. Will sometimes do things he doesn’t want to do, for me. Even really quite major things.

The most unusual thing that happened to me today? Hearing that supermodel Heidi Klum has gone without make-up to raise money for Children in Need, and is asking other women to go ‘bearfaced’ too.

Yes it’s a great cause, and yes, as the pictures circulate, they might help women to be more realistic about the way they look. But it really shows:- wearing make-up, and not just a little bit, has become the daily norm for women. People might even sponsor you not to, it’s so out there.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be another ‘OMG, it’s so unfair that women have to wear make-up, we’re all so objectified, it’s TERRIBLE’ blog (although there are a few of those still in me, I’m sure.) It’s just kind of fascinating.

I picked up a copy of Glamour magazine and realised that every single one of the hundreds of women pictured were wearing carefully applied make-up. I looked around the office and saw not a mascara-free lash.

Make-up is everywhere, and we all fit into the make-up landscape in different ways. I remember turning up to a walk in the Peak District wearing sparkly gold eyeliner and pink blusher. A doctor friend of mine commented that I was looking very glamorous for a walk outdoors. The implication was that my make-up was silly, or a sign of low self esteem. My doctor friend has naturally clear skin, long dark eyelashes, and a down-to-earth approach.

At the other end of the spectrum, I have friends whose skill with a ‘shimmering bronzer’, a pair of false eyelashes and a hair curling tong leaves me feeling awestruck, and slightly scruffy.

We all apply make-up for different reasons. These are mine. In the morning before work, there’s rarely more than 2 minutes to spare. Foundation is smoothed over spots with quick-yet-gentle fingers, mascara is swept through well-trained lashes…and then the light changes to green and I put my foot down.

Before a party or a date, it’s a case of attempting kittenish flicks of eye-liner (so both my eyes look the same, dammit!) while keeping a steady hand and an eye on the clock.

When off to a ball, wedding or other type of ‘put it on the calendar’ event, I will bring out extra products that are not used on a daily basis, such as ‘brightening primer’, or glittery eyeliner. But this is risky. If I try too hard, it can all descend into smudgy panic, with a set of false eyelashes stuck to my cheek while a taxi driver sounds the horn.

And drunk, it’s like I’m possessed by the spirit of Claude Monet, cheerfully going for a ‘more is more’ approach.

Honestly though, I enjoy applying make-up the most when I’m not going out. When it’s just me, the bathroom mirror, and an intriguing collection of magic potions. No pressure, no one to try and impress.

During A-level Art, I studied the portrait painter El Greco. He does faces so well. I tried to recreate a few of his masterpieces, stroking paint onto canvas to give a three-dimensional look to cheekbones and noses, and painstakingly dabbing white paint in just the right spot to make the eyes sparkle.

It’s a similar sensation when you use a hard mascara brush to slick waxy black onto soft lashes. When dip your fingers into creamy foundation and melt it into your skin. Rubbing a lip-brush against a bullet of deep red lipstick, then boldly filling in your lips with blood-rich colour is secretly sensual. It’s an exploration. And who hasn’t given themselves Frieda Kahlo eyebrows in the safety of a locked bathroom?

The thing about the human face is that its tiny tiny variations are what make it interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those scientific studies on attractiveness, but it seems that mere millimetre variations in the structure of a face can mean the difference between being beautiful, and what my dad would call ‘plain’.

So that’s why it’s actually exciting to use an eyebrow pencil. It’s a sort of Sliding Doors thing. “The night is young, and perhaps if I choose this pale 60’s pink lipstick, I’ll end up sipping cocktails in a casino with Roger Moore. Who knows?!”

We buy this stuff to be someone new. Sometimes this comes from a pressurey need to fit in (bad) but sometimes it also comes from a place of just playfully experimenting with our own reality (good I think).

We each make a gazillion choices every day about what we say, what we listen to, who we befriend, etc, so why shouldn’t we do whatever we like with our faces? I don’t think make-up is intrinsically anti-feminist, but I think perfectionism and posing is.

So from where I’m standing, there is nothing wrong with wearing raspberry lipstick and some khol pencil with a waterproof jacket and a pair of walking boots. Although I’m not sure my friends and family would sponsor me not to.

I’m a bit proud of my old school friend Tabs right now. Not content with producing a new baby boy, she’s also set up a jewellery company, and what a jewellery company it is.

Being of an arty persuasion, I like to have a hand in the design of what I wear. It all started when I was in Jaipur in 2008. I got the chance to design a beautiful jade necklace for less than £30. But I thought this was something you could only really do in India, unless you wanted to spend several hundreds of pounds. When I got back to England, I carried on buying most of my jewellery from  Monsoon.

That is until Tabitha set up Pearls Pearls Pearls by Tabs. She uses really good quality materials, such as freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, real gemstones and solid silver fittings. Everything on her website is under £10, delivery is £1, and everything I’ve ordered has arrived really quickly.

Best of all, she takes custom orders. So far she’s made me a Lapiz Lazuli necklace (to replace one I had years ago. I felt bereft when someone pinched it while I was having a shower in a youth hostel) and some absolutely gorgeous crystal earrings in watermelon colours to match a summery dress I bought for a wedding.

It’s really exciting to watch her adding new styles and designs to the website, such as the quirky beaded bouquets and the adorable butterfly brooches. This pearl comb is next on my list; I think it would look amazing with a Chanel style navy cardigan with white trim.

Tabs says business is booming and I’m not surprised: there’s a real craze for anything custom made right now, and it’s becoming very popular to use websites like Etsy to cut out the middleman. Personally, I love the fact that little parcels of sparkly joy arrive in my letterbox, with no need for bank balance angst. Brilliant!

Although I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Manchester lately, I can’t say I really understand it. Oasis? OK, a great band, but I have their music on a CD in a cupboard somewhere, not on my iPod. The Hacienda? Pretty much before my time, except for vague memories of our 18-year-old babysitter playing rave music as she dropped us off at school. Football? Despite the attempts of former boyfriends to enthuse me, I can’t watch it without drifting off.

And although I really love the famous northern humour, sometimes I’m laughing via my imagination, not from instant recognition. I know the North West has just as many successful people as the south, and arguably a stronger cultural tradition and nicer countryside. Yet that’s not what the humour focuses on, it’s John Bishop talking about the council knocking his house down, or Lee Mack talking about not being able to afford the milk for angel delight. They are brilliant, but my comfortable background has been more Ab Fab/Vicar of Dibley.

So how could I get cosy with Manchester? I grew up down south, and I hadn’t been to university there, so there were no old friends to connect with, no nostalgic memories to evoke. In fact, despite a grandfather living in Preston, I felt like I had very little connection to the North West.

My ex boyfriend and I rented a flat in lovely West Didsbury, and that in itself was an act of defence. West Didsbury is a leafy enclave, safe and protected from the rest of the city, with lovely little shops selling cupcakes, espresso and expensive baby clothes. There I stayed, writing, making occasional trips into the city centre (getting horribly lost most of the time), and ignoring the rest of the city, which felt a little threatening to me.

One way or another, I had lost the spirit of exploration that came so naturally at 21, or 23. Somehow, I’d forgotten that I was often happier in culturally diverse, bustling neighbourhoods, even if that meant sacrificing picture-perfect aesthetics.

There were other pressures on my personal and working life which go some way to explaining why this happened. But things just never quite seemed to come together. Sometimes, just like with people, a relationship with a place is just not meant to be. Yet, just like relationships with people, you get out what you put in, and I did myself no favours by failing to engage with this city.

This was until this Thursday, when the work on display at the Manchester Art Gallery reminded me that  in any city, at any given time, everyone is on a scale of familiarity, and there are some people living near us for whom EVERYTHING is alien.

The first reminder of this came before I even set foot in the exhibition. Two Chinese mums, shepherding four toddlers, stopped me on the street and thrust a piece of paper with an address on it into my hand. They spoke no English save for ‘Passport Office’. I took them to the address on the piece of paper, which turned out to be the Justice Courts. The Passport Office turned out to be on a completely different street, two blocks away, in a 1960′s block with an unsigned entrance around the back. I lead the mums and cute, Hello Kitty adorned babies, Pied Piper style, across zebra crossings and through crowded pavements. How else would they have got there?

Back at the gallery, I visited a new exhibition, We Face Forward: Art From West Africa Today, curated by Natasha Howes. The first photographs I saw were by Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo. They focused on the Aglobloshie Market in Ghana, which is basically a 10km rubbish tip full of old computers from the West. Children and teenagers work there, exposing themselves to toxic chemicals as they try to remove copper from the computer hardware, which is then sold on. The photographs showed an alien world: vented computer terminals photographed from ground level appear like towering fascist office buildings. Teenagers carry coils of wires on their heads.

Then the photographs of George Osodi, zillions of them, playing in a never-ending slideshow on an HD screen. They documented the lives of people living in the Niger Delta, which is rich in oil. There were pictures of people using buckets to scoop up rich oil, which seeped out if they dug just a few inches into the forest floor.

In a film by Séraphin Zounyekpe, a father talks about why he lives under a bridge near Dantokpa Market in Benin. There really seems to be no way out for him: he’s a trained upholsterer but he can’t find work, his wife makes peanuts sweeping the streets, and he has lots of little children to care for. At night, he curls himself up in a tiny space under a corrugated roof, lies his head on a wooden block and sleeps. When I went to India I saw big families living under railway bridges, but, however many BBC documentaries I’ve seen where ‘Andrew Marr visits the slums’, I’ve never seen one of the world’s poorest people given a voice in quite the same way as this.*

The exhibition also looked at migration, both at the place you leave behind (in a series of self portraits by Hélène Amouzou, she stands  in her childhood home, slowly vanishing, whispy as a ghost) and at the place you find (a group of Chinese women who have emigrated to Cumbria grin as they hold up the Victoria Sponge cakes they have made).

I can’t list every artist here for fear of boring you with my zeal, but, cheesy as it might sound, this truly incredible exhibition reminded me that art can build bridges. It also showed me that just because you live somewhere, it doesn’t mean you can’t act like a tourist. Otherwise all you will see is the inside of Tesco, an office, or Ikea. A fresh view is worth a lot.

*I’d like to add that although I’ve described artworks here which show poverty in Africa (as this was a striking part of the exhibition), I am against the media bias which shows only poverty in Africa. It’s not realistic or helpful. My friend Max Bilbow has set up A Dam Relief to counter this, take a look here.