We were all thrilled to see the Love Hearts IT bag (a product innovation of Team Peppermint no less), take pride of place on the Valentine’s pages of OK! last week. It seems our fabulous take on the celeb must-have Birkin shopper, also caught the eye of a certain Mr Katie Price…

The excitement around Peppermint HQ was even higher than normal last Tuesday morning, when the Love Hearts’ account team received a phone call from the Price/Reid publicity machine: “Alex has seen the Love Hearts IT bag in OK! and would like to get one for Katie for Valentine’s Day.” 

The replica designer IT bag clearly works as a fabulous pressie not just for us mere mortals, but also for the Katie Prices of the world – who I’m sure already own one or two of the real thing. Mrs Reid is now the proud owner of her own bling bag of sweet treats personalised with the message ‘Sweet kisses Katie. Love Alex. X’.

We were told that Alex was putting together three huge packages for Katie, containing personal mementoes, framed photos, chocolates and a certain bit of ‘arm candy’! No subtleties for our favourite newlyweds then? I guess that’s hardly surprising given her on-going tabloid war with Peter Andre – publicising her marital bliss with Alex is clearly of paramount priority at the moment, whether it be through tweets or tabloids.

But we’re not complaining – a wonderful bit of celebrity endorsement for the Love Hearts brand as a result of a fabulous bit of coverage.

So it’s clear we’re living in a metrosexual era, but is the alpha male about to disappear all together? Dannii Minogue’s boyfriend has come in for some stick today for his curiously pink and shimmery pout, and a recent survey reveailed that one in ten British men have confessed to using their better half’s make-up.

As a lover of all things that bronze, shimmer and gloss, and equally as a girl with plenty of gay mates, it’s not something that particularly surprises me. In fact, knowing the confidence boost I get from a bit of pampering, sharing these pleasures with the boys is something I’m all for. Having said that, in my mind there’s a big difference between a dab of concealer and a full face of slap – I still like my men to be men!

It’s been hard not to notice how much the men’s cosmetic industry has grown recently. If you flick through the men’s glossies or have a browse on online health and beauty pages, you’ll see the big beauty power houses really giving their men’s ranges an advertising push. Jean Paul Gaultier has produced Monsieur, a make-up range for men and, on the high street, Superdrug is stocking ‘guyliner’ and ‘manscara’. Who knows – perhaps there’ll be a deal for make-up wearing Alex Reid when he leaves the Big Brother house?!

It seems that men have finally cottoned on to the benefits of a little pampering and are no longer ashamed to book themselves in for a session instead of sneakily using our face masks in the privacy of the bathroom. And why not? I’m all for cleaner smelling and fresher looking men, just as long as their new beauty regime comes out of their own pocket and not out of my make-up bag!