Women spend nearly three years of their lives getting ready to go out, according to a recent survey by Nephria beauty brand.

Before a big night out, women are said to spend 22 minutes showering and shaving their legs, seven minutes moisturizing and applying fake tan, 23 minutes drying and styling their hair, and 14 minutes on makeup and six minutes getting dressed.

That comes to an impressive one hour and and 12 minutes for each night out. Add to that 40 minutes preparing for work in the morning, and aggregate that over a typical lifetime, and you arrive at two years and nine months twirling in front of a mirror and rummaging through a handbag before daring to set foot outside the house.

Men are not let off, either. They spend three months of their lives waiting for wives and girlfriends to get ready for a date, which translates into 17 minutes and 25 seconds waiting for each night out.

Men also spend an average of one hour and two minutes outside changing rooms in stores while the significant other makes more life-changing decisions.

They could, of course, sit down in the lotus posture and use the time to meditate, greeting their lady love with a beatific smile and an indestructible tranquility.

Don’t hold your breath.

The new movie of Sex And The City has started a frantic wave of product placements although the movie won’t be released until next summer.

Carrie Bradshaw in Vivienne Westwood wedding dress

In the movie, Carrie Bradshaw gets married in a Vivienne Westwood dress and runs around Manhattan in Christian Dior Gladiator sandals and a YSL dress.

Another character, sexy Samantha, dresses in head-to-toe red Zac Posen while clutching a Cavalli bag.

Sweet Charlotte shops with Miranda, carrying a quilted Chanel clutch and shod in matching Louboutins.

Designer name-dropping has already begun way before the film hits the cinemas.

It’s said that major brands and designers worldwide spent months bidding for top placements in this high-profile movie product platform.

For the film, a spin-off from the long-running TV show, Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Carrie, began fittings in August for her 80 costume changes.

“To get clothes for spring-summer 2008, there would be someone from Yves Saint Laurent standing there ready to strip me of them and take them back,” she said.

An insider adds: “When Sex And The City’s wardrobe supervisor Patricia Field’s office calls to borrow something, believe me, you jump for that phone. It’s like winning the lottery.”

The film, set in New York, has a great female cast including Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and Eva Mendes along with the famous four.

“Nowadays it’s hugely important for films to have corporate partners. It’s very expensive to make a movie, but also to promote it,” said Lori Sale, head of global branded entertainment for agency ICM.

“The first thing that came to me was to go ahead with it,” says executive producer Michael Patrick King. “Then I thought: ‘Hang on, Carrie would never order that’.”

Lori Sale comments, “On a film such as Sex And The City, the costume designer is going to have a strong opinion, and so she should. They are entrusting the look of the movie to her.”

One source is reported as saying, “They are hoping it becomes a franchise. They would love to do four or five Sex And The City movies.”

Women have made enormous ground in recent decades into the very heart of power. A prime example is Hillary Clinton who looks a good bet for the White House in 2009. Less in the public eye has been the march of women into top jobs on Wall Street. Here are just a few :

Sallie Krawcheck, Chairman of Global Wealth Management, Citigroup

Sallie Krawcheck is one of Wall Street’s survivors. She was moved from chief financial officer to her current wealth management role earlier in the year by then chairman Charles “Chuck” Prince, when many thought she was destined for the chop. She has kept her head down throughout the sub-prime fall-out, and appears strengthened as a result.

Rosemary Berkery, Vice-Chairman and General Counsel, Merrill Lynch

Has been with Merrill Lynch since 1983. Berkery rose up through Merrill’s legal department, and is now in charge of its legal and compliance functions, as well as overseeing global research.

Amy Woods Brinkley, Global Risk Management Executive, Bank of America

Woods Brinkley, in spite of her odd title, is part of Bank of America chief Ken Lewis’s eight-strong management team, and is in charge of the risk attached to the bank’s $1.5 trillion in assets. Given the focus on risk as a result of the sub-prime fall-out, her job is more important than ever.

Esta Stecher, Executive Vice-President, Goldman Sachs

Stecher, who is also the powerful bank’s general counsel, has run Goldman’s legal department since December 2000, having run its all-important tax division for six years prior to that. A loyal lieutenant of Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein, her position within the bank makes her one of the most powerful women on the Street.

Abby Joseph Cohen, Chief US portfolio Strategist, Goldman Sachs

Although her role does not place her within the upper echelons of the Goldman management strata, she is one of the best known female economists. Famed for predicting the bull market of the early 1990s, she then failed to predict the dotcom crash, earning the nickname “Abby Joseph Blowin” for her continuous bullish predictions.

Meredith Whitney, Financial Services Analyst, CIBC World Markets

One of the rising female stars, Whitney was the only analyst to call Citigroup’s balance sheet into question, prompting a $369bn global stock market fall-out, and the resignation of Citi chief Charles “Chuck” Prince. It cannot be long before one of the bulge bracket banks snaps her up from her current Canadian employer, in the way that Deutsche Bank did with Prudential’s outspoken banking analyst Mike Mayo earlier this year.

Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of Enforcement, Securities and Exchange Commission

One of the most feared women in town, Thomsen is SEC chairman Chris Cox’s rottweiler. The Harvard graduate has a stellar legal pedigree. In her current job since May 2005, she will play a key role in going after firms and individuals as part of the continuing sub-prime fall-out.

Information : Daily telegraph.

When scientists declared that a $35 (£17) anti-aging face cream actually worked, the response was immense. Women stormed the UK High Street stores of popular chemist and retailer Boots, and emptied the shelves of the beauty treatment.

Now Boots is witnessing yet more hysteria after launching a cream that promises to work the same magic on the body. Boots No7 Protect & Perfect Body Serum is designed for use on a much wider area than the original wonder serum, No7 Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum.

The experts claim that the serum will work best on more exposed parts such as the neck and decolletage, including arms and legs.

Steve Barton, Boots’s skincare scientific adviser, who developed the product, says he “whooped with delight” when told about the tests on the face serum.

The cream made it onto BBC2’s flagship science show Horizon in March this year. Initially, the manufacturer was producing around 10,000 bottles a month and had maintained steady sales for three years. After the BBC showing, thousands of women swooped on Boots stores up and down the UK, some waiting outside from dawn to be sure of getting their hands on the serum.

Production at the Boots Nottingham factory doubled to more than 24,000 a day to keep up with demand. Since March 4.15million bottles have been sold — the equivalent to one every four seconds. Boots says it has sold the equivalent of 62 years worth of stock in six months.

If “youth is wasted on the young”, why shouldn’t older women get their share too?