Katie Price, Cheryl Cole, and Lindsay Lohan are off the tanning chart, literally. The trio of stunners has been named as just some of the many celebrities who have used fake tanning services, with the results occasionally being a disaster.

The new Debenhams ‘Tan Tone Colour chart’, which looks remarkably like a painting colour guide, has been put together to help those addicted to getting some colour avoid ending up either florescent of overly coloured, which the likes of Cole, Price and Lohan can all admit to. Other notable celebrity tanners include Alex Reid, Dale Winton and wrestler Hulk Hogan.

The Beauty Halls of the leading high street retailer have recently been revamped to match the change of season, and welcome a new round of tanners while providing them with the best solutions to they’re pale pores. Now customers can identify where they place on the tanning chart, which ranges from ‘pale and interesting’ up to ‘radioactive orange’, with Alex Reid’s latest effort a good example of the latter, while Nicola Roberts has been suggested as typifying the former.

Director of Beauty at Debenhams, Sara Stern, claimed this summer was all about looking bronzed, but that research by her team had found that a high 70 per cent of DIY tanners get it wrong. Unsurprisingly, says Stern, the three major sins committed were using too much product, choosing the wrong tone for their skin and applying to frequently.

The lead up to the so far blessedly pleasant British summer saw Debenhams fake tan sales soar by around 64 per cent, as people rushed to give themselves a base tan to go on holiday with, in keeping with the historical irony of the trend for using tanning products when the sun comes out.

The most popular brands of fake tanning products are Clarins, Lancaster Sun, St Tropez, Fake Bake, Xen Tan and Famous Dave’s. Stern also said that they had started stocking tan remover from St Tropez, making the analogy with a paint shop even more poignant.

A new survey has found that employees dress best on Monday mornings.

British women have been found to take up to four times as long on Mondays to prepare for work than on Fridays, while British men also make less effort as the week progresses.

The research was undertaken by leading UK retail chain Debenhams, which found it clear that as the working week wears on, so to do the wardrobes of the workers.

The survey revealed that on Monday mornings, women across the UK spend an average of one hour and 16 minutes on getting ready for work. Around one-third of this time was dedicated to achieving the perfect hairstyle, with an additional 18 minutes spent on applying make-up and a further 16 minutes on trying out different clothes combinations. The remaining time was predominantly spent in the shower or conducting morning chores.

On Tuesday mornings, this figure dropped significantly to just 40 minutes of total preparation time, with a steady decline seen on remaining days. By Friday, a mere 19 minutes were dedicated to appearance. Ed Watson, spokesman for Debenhams, said that workers should make the most of Monday mornings because that was as good as their colleagues were going to look all week.

Men too were found to let their standards slip as the week progressed, with the Debenhams survey – of around 100 customers who use the group’s personal shopper network – discovering that British males took 28 minutes to get ready for work on Mondays. This figure dropped to just 11 minutes on Friday mornings.

The British lingerie industry is experiencing a boom of sultry underwear sales to older women.

According to retail chain Debenhams, it’s all down to the cougars. With the term now common vernacular in everyday society, and the recent success of movies such as Cougar Town and Sex and the City 2, older women have become increasingly emboldened when it comes to their finery.

The TV show phenomenon and subsequent movie that features glamorous fourty-somethings being openly sexual, usually with considerably younger male partners, has been credited with the rising demand for slinky smalls from British women of the same age group.

Debenhams said that analysis of recent lingerie sales had shown that the seductive side of the fashion industry had been given a major boost by older women keen to mirror the bedroom antics of their on-screen role models. The new Cougar Town movie, featuring former Friends actress Courtney Cox, has also helped to reinforce the positive image of strong, sexual older women.

While in the past, thongs, cleavage enhancing bras and suspenders have been more the domain of twenty-somethings, older women were now rediscovering their fuller figures. Lingerie designers are lining up to satisfy the rapidly growing market, and have been keen to label 40 as the new 20.