Gloom sweeps Europe, unemployment keeps rising and pay rises are a distant memory. But hope for the economy arrives today in an unlikely, though beautifully coiffured, shape: hairdressers.

Tattoo parlours should be rated according to their hygiene standards in the same way as restaurants and takeaways, health experts have said.

Rating system put forward amid warning over risk of HIV and hepatitis infections

Remember Room 101 in George Orwell's 1984? The place where you were confronted with your worst nightmares? Well if you don't like stinging insects, this is Room 101 for you: Chinese beekeeper She Ping covered with an estimated 331,000 honeybees, in an attempt to break the world record for such a practice.

In the never-ending search for eternal youth, nothing is considered too extreme or, in light of a new treatment from Siberia, too unnervingly gross. The snail facial (a Snaicial?) is said to restore weather-beaten skin to its luminescent best, thanks to an active ingredient in the snotty snail slime that beats wrinkles and helps to heal scars and burns.

1. Skin insulator SPF15

What we love, we're not sure about, we're buying and can't wait for...

1. Reinventing the heel

£20, origins.co.uk

This intense moisturising cream works wonders on even the most dry and cracked heels. It's simple, effective and luxurious.

Sinclair Pharma and IS Pharma agreed to merge in April, with shares in the combined business (imaginatively christened Sinclair IS Pharma) starting trading in late May. Since then, the stock has been under pressure, easing as volatility in the wider market gathered pace. But the share price received a shot in the arm last week, after the company, which specialises in dermatological and wound care treatments, unveiled plans to buy the privately held US biotech company, Advanced Bio-Technologies (ABT).

Today, more and more young people in Britain are choosing to pursue a career as an entrepreneur rather than take the conventional route of finding a job in an established company.

Celebrate the season of peace and goodwill by choosing from these eco-friendly, fairly traded but stylish presents

The family of a Chinese anti-corruption investigator has demanded an inquiry after authorities claimed he stabbed himself to death several weeks after he was taken off an investigation into a Communist Party official.

Christie Brinkley is launching her own skincare range.