BEAUTY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 26

BEAUTY NOTES.

(By a Paris Beauty Specialist.)

mother goes through a very bad time. Now is her chance to have a little talk

to the Plunket nurse, and if she is sensible she will not bother about how early it is, or let any other consideration prevent her. She will find that the nurse will be only too glad that the patient is anxious to avail herself of all the knowledge she can get. Then usually the Plunket nurse will say, "Just come in any time you feel off colour," and that invitation is priceless to a lonely young wife. She may be quite a stranger in the place, and there she has, straight away, the friend she needs most. Unfortunately all small towns are not equipped with Plunket nurses, and in that case a sensible woman in the house for a month or so is the best thing. Then for two months before the babe's arrival, a young mother will often stay indoors all day, either from shyness or health reasons, and naturally becomes very low spirited, and it is now that if a mother, or sister, can possibly visit, even for a few days at a time, they should do so. Of my own experience I have seen an expectant mother cured of nervous indigestion by a few days' visit from a cheerful friend. Some sensible mother living near should make it her duty to visit the expectant mother quite often, and also do her best to induce her to take short walks each day and to get into the sun as much as possible. Left to themselves at this time women fall easily into a low state! of health. The last group of months is perhaps the very worst—'the two months after the patient is back from hospital, or when the nurse goes. Often terribly weak, and with perhaps a very cross baby, a mother is a fit subject for the worst kind of depression. Without anything actually wrong, she yet cannot rally. In her weak state, her mind dwells on her past ordeal. Baby's fretfulness spells' ill-health to her. She feels quite unfit to*face her duties n>B mother. When she has dressed the babe and put on her own things to go out for a walk, she is too exhausted to start, and another day in the house adds to her-wretched state of nerves. A week of rain perhaps keeps visitors away. The babe has been suffering from his mother's poor health, and at last the poor mother

PARIS, April 8. When Juno, Venus and Minerva held their famous ittle beauty contest, doubtless it never occurred to any of them to rouge and Marcel for the occasion. Yet, when the decision was rendered, young Paris probably had to wear a pair of dark glasses when he stepped up to the dazzling Venus and said with a bow, "You win the wicked bellflowerl"

But there must have been a radical change in the human body between the days of Paris, and "Parce," or else the Greeks had more spinach and raisins in their diet than we do, for nowadays Beauty seems to be made and not born. We work for the way we look! That's true now, isn't itf Being beautiful is no child's play I When anyone sees the heaps of empty cold cream jars, powder boxes, mascara pots, perfume bottles, and other rubbish, in the dustbin, or takes an inventory of the hair-curling, manicuring, massaging, reducing equipment, and physical culture, behind the closed doors of the beauty parlour, or added up the cheque-book items marked "permanent wave, shingled bob and facial," it ie not hard to believe that beauty is a little laboratory course, all by itself. Of course, everybody has to decide individually how far to go on helping nature and where to leave the good old dame alone. Beauty doctoring, like economics, is more or less governed

by the law of diminishing returns; in other words, too much is enough. It can be graphed in a sort of cycle; when it's just right, it's just right, but when it'a more than overdone it begins to get raw. How a Girl's Character Can be Calculated. I have noticed that a girl's character can be pretty well calculated by her idea of what is good-looking. It takes as much keen judgment to know appropriate clothes, and how to wear them, as it does to pass a test in calcules. You can gauge a person's ideals by the colour of her lips as accurately as by her church-attendance record.' And a woman's personality just can't help sticking out all over her head when her hat is off. And another thing I have observed is: When it comes to reading the outward signs our men friends are right there and know their stuff. And then there's the little matter of your nose knowing. I have seen some of the men actually cough when they were hit full in the face with a whiff of perfume strong enough to knock over the Arc de Triumphe. At a soiree I went to the other day the man who was dancing with a certain woman—a cloud of condensed lily-of-the-valley—made for the open door, and—this is a positive fact!— I heard him ask for a gas mask. There is the other extreme, of course, which is nothing more or less than the plain rocks. If a girl doesn't bring her appearance up to par, and her hero leaves her sitting in the corner—whose fault is it? The business of looking just right is no trifling matter. Your Face. , Every day after you have had your bath, and cleansed your face with cleansing cream, use a cold hot-water bottle on your face and neck. Wrap up in a blanket, so you won't be cold, and place the hot-water bottle, filled with -very cold water, even iced water, on the face and neck. It is best to lie down and relax. When one portion of the face begins to sting, move the bottle to another portion. Use it on the neck and chest as well! This plan has the same effect on the face as has a walk on a cold winter day, and has the advantage of not drying

the skin. It wiU smooth out the tired lines and make you look fresh and youthful. It is a substitute for patting and massaging, aa it brings the blood to the face without stretching the skin. Your Elbows. If your elbows are rough, red, and unsightly, get from any chemist two lambswool powder puffs, a jar of good nourisldng cream and some adhesive tape. At night scrub the elbows with a brush and plenty of hot, soapy water, rinse them, and dry them carefully. Apply plenty of cream to the elbows and then spread it on the puffs. Then apply the puffs over each elbow and attach with the adhesive tape. Bend the arm before fastening them into place, and have the tape long enough to encircle the arm. The puff will remain on all night. After removing the tape and cream with warm water in the morning, always use plenty of cold water and an astringent. If tho elbows are in bad shape, wear these puffs as much as possible for a few days. A week will show an improvement, and a month will accomplish wonders. Your Hair. Most of us, in order to make the hair on our arms and legs less noticeable, have been using bleaches, and have found them unsatisfactory, because they make the hair a glistening golden yellow, which, of course, makes it so much more noticeable. However, if you will use a strong solution of baking soda at night, dissolved in water, letting it remain until morning, it will not only bleach the hair, but leave it without the objectionably glistening golden yellow gloss.

NOVEL MANNEQUIN PARADE.

There is no doubt about it, writes our London correspondent, English dressmakers are making determined efforts to snatch from France the lead in dress traditionally allowed that race. It is actually argued in one of the serious weeklies that Frenchwomen have become dowdy! Not merely that, but a Frenchman taking up the cudgels for his countrywomen acknowledges it to be true! But he has his excuses. This, however, by the way, and as introducing the tale of how for the first time in

history a dress parade has been given in a train, and that in one going at 70 miles an hour —the Pullman express for Harrogate, the Yorkshire Spa. The idea is a smart one, for the women who can afford to travel in a Pullman and are going to a resort in which the dress parade of the habitues is probably part of the " cure," is just the 'place for a mannequin to entice a holiday crowd to buy more frocks.

Provided by Maison Lewis, the dresses were worn by eight mannequins, who, by dint of good organisation, were able to effect their parade thrice between London and Harrogate. Usually mannequins carry on their work in a chilly and critical silence, but each girl was vigorously applauded as she performed the feat of gliding gracefully down the car as the train rushed on to the north. "The most difficult thing I've ever done," said one. " Every moment I was afraid I might fall on a passenger." The hats were the product of the Maison Arthur, and they were all very large, some of them nearly a yard across. Gone are the cloches beloved of the Duchess of York. And there lies a problem. You can't wear a big hat with a short skirt. Either skirts must get longer or women will have to stick to their little hats.

Dresses in printed chiffon and crepe de chine were shown. One was a white georgette frock with huge mauve spots, and worn with a wide brimmed mauve hat of Manila straw. A frock of the new silk serge in cherry colour had a white voile collar and front, 'and was finished with a wide black sash. Several dresses on princess lines were also shown. A novel river frock in tomato red georgette was bound with white, and had double looped panels on the skirt. A printed flowered foulard frock in white and black had the design coloured on the skirt, and was worn with a black and white crinoline hat edged with black velvet and decorated with long black velvet streamers. Many of the hats had turned down brims, and were bordered in velvet. All were simple and almost severe in line, and : designed to balance floating flounces and panels on the filmy frocks. Eight mannequins showed the 40 dresses and 160 hats.