WOMAN'S COMPLEXION

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 164, 12 July 1924, Page 25

WOMAN'S COMPLEXION

HER GREATEST ASSET. (By PERITUS.) A writer has recently stated that men like to see powder, paint and tinted lips. Well, I was a man myself once, and, honestly, I don't believe it. A 1 beautiful complexion compensates the j owner for many things. A woman may 1 have a large mouth, a discursive nose, small eyes, almost anything beyond the artistic limit, but if she has a natural : healthy skin, delicate and softly ! coloured, she can face the masculine world with confidence. When La had the outer Bkin of her face removed and received her afternoon callers with her head shrouded in muslin, "like a meat safe," as her brother remarked, she exhibited much courage, but it was the courage of ignorance and quite unnecessary. Zola tells us of a fat and ugly female ccok who had a lover, and when he was taunted by his masculine friends upon his choice, "he replied, "Have you noticed her skin? Ah! what a skin!" She was ignorant, ugly, had a harsh voice, and no manners, but she inspired a te<mmentary love (Zola did not use this term, but I lack any better at the moment), and was preferred to a more I generally desirable girl. The skin is affected about equally by external and internal influences, and the manner in which it reflects light produces its charm, or the opposite? It is quite impossible Ito create a surface exactly imitating I nature with any combination of cos;metiques. The fraud is never equal to ; nature and most certainly cannot surI pass it. Paint and powder indicate J that there is something to hide, some defect—real or supposed—to be concealed, and in euch circumstances artificial aid is excusable, but the mischief , done in thus making a false appearance is not trifling. The skin-is a treathipg, secreting organ of very,complicated structure, and powder on the face is as harmful as thick dust upon a leaf —the more delicate the leaf the greater the harm. A soluble powder "is least harmful, talc, zinc, and the like, heing (except for curative medical purposes in actual disease, when zinc is useful) most objec- | tionable, and starch powders not much better. Pure silica gives a "bloom" to the skin, but like all the others, is merely for concealing defects. Gustave Flaubert tells us thai a man has lived, and walked a quarter of a mile, after being completely skinned, but neverthe- '■ less, injury to the covering of the body , involves injury to the body itself, and the colour and texture of the skin is an indication of the health of the body and the purity of the blood from which it is necessarily built. There are certain superficial conditions, due to the effect of cold, heat, poisons, and micro- ! organisms, which can be dealt vith as if the skin were disconnected from the body, but a far greater improvement can be made in a defective complexion by internal treatment than in any other j way. You have probably been.already fully ' instructed as to the value of fruit and vegetable acids, wholesome food, fresh air, and open air exercise for, daily, one or another of the newspapers fulfils its duty in this respect, and those who do not know are those who do not read. Bury your "skin foods" (there Is no such thing, except in catch-farthing name), your "face cream," your talc powder, rouge pot, etc., and waste no time on any one of the many extravagant methods of "face-doctoring" all of which are of less reasonable use than pure soap, and hot or cold water. I When you have a good clean skin, let it remain bo. If its clarity and colour do not please you, ask your doctor for a prescription containing Fowler's Solution —which must be ordered by a medical man—and take it regularly for a month or six weeks. Or go to a chemist and buy five-grain . tablets of sulphur (with sugar and • starch) and take three daily—one after each meal— for a month. These are pleasant to take, quite harmless, and day by day (after the first week) you will see a steady improvement in your complexion. All this is quite apart from disease ol the skin which, in every case, calls for care in diagnosis and strict attention to the instructions of your medical adviser. Even with the new classification of skin diseases and the consequent [reduction in laborious study and observation, the almost imperative necessity for definitely fixing the cause before offering any sort of treatment should cut out any and every quack who pretends to knowledge in this special department of medicine.' : In youth mc tody is so resilient that you can play many tricks with it and not suffer any ill-effect at the time, but the complexion when persistently irritated by "beauty doctors'" applications will inevitably become "ruddled, and raddled, repulsive, and rough" in later years. When Adeline Patti was asked how her complexion escaped this fate [after being "made .up" for the concert platform for many years,, said, "Paints and powders never really touch my skin 1 First I wash in .warm water, then apply ! a very thin layer' of "glycerine to the damp skin, and upon this, after wiping nearly dry, put my "make-up." Glycerine seems to do no harm and, according to Madame Patti, protects the skin. When the "make up" was washed off none remained upon those irregularities which (under the mucroscope) form the surface of even the most' delicate complexion. '. ■ ; Few women have complexions equal in delicacy, tint and ■ beauty; to that of many young children (from infancy to school age) whose faces have known ho treatment but water,.soap and si.it towel Look at them, and admit-the truth, and learn the lesson they teach.