THE CULT OF BEAUTY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 67, 20 March 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE CULT OF BEAUTY

CULTIVATE AN ATTRACTIVE SMILE

(By A SPECIALIST.)

WK women use up a groat amount of beauty product in a year. We

spend a great d,, ; ,i „f nio ney „„ hair-grooming, to say nothing of the raids on our exchequers for dress and trim! Yet we aren't nearly so pleading as we may think we are. Why 7 Because the face has gone stale, bored, sour, dull, or just plain uninteresting. because it has not a cheery light to reflect a glimmer of enthusiasm.

Just for fun (the kind of fun with a moral attached), to-morrow, when you are out, scrutinise faces for what is writ ten on them. On the street, where you happen to lx> lunching, on the bus," on the car. Take a peep into motors in which women are riding. See what you find in the way of facial expression.

You'll get a shock, I promise. You'll get a laugn, maybe, if you can see anything funny about a woman dressed like a millionaire and looking as if her children were on the verge of starvation; or, if you find humour in a woman w hose chauffeur spares her having to turn a knob, looking as if her husband had died, and left everything to a hated relative. Make up your own story about what faces register. It's a good game, and no end interesting. Some Are Bright and Charming. Take the dull, fat, over-dressed blonde, with the hat at a precarious angle, hardeyed, planning, perhaps, to quarrel with her huslwnd for not earning more money; or that mean-visaged minx with malice for everyone registering above the chic clothes. You'll be rewarded, however, now and again with a face that is so bright and charming you'll catch your own mouth corners going up in response. You may see in the crowd a face or two that you recognise instantly as the face of "one who is well known in the world, perhaps an actress, or perhaps a well-known cinema star. Magnetic it is! Radiant! And then you'll run into some giggling girls saying, "He said to me and I said to him," and you'll remember when you. too, were full of giggles, not with your problem, but with what to-morrow would bring. "O wad some power the jjlftie jrl'e us To see oorselves as ithers see us." But that game isn't gong to be of any good to us if we don't take a glance at a hand mirror, if necessary, to see what we ourselves are serving the passers-by. We may be giving them a. sour look without behig aware of it ourselves, and in spite of all that fine facial handiwork with the cosmetic arts, to say nothing of the new chapeau and frock we are flaunting so proudly, we are not so pretty as we think. Far be it from me to suggest the simpering smirk of the cat that swallowed the canary, or that smug, self-satisfied expression some have. All I want to talk about to-day is fiic waste of time and money on cosmetics, coiffures, etc., if the face is marred with expressions that turn a head away automatically. One thing is certain, and that is the whole beauty cause is lost, if you go about looking like a mask head, a woman who has been fed on pickles only, or like someone who has some awful mental trouble. The worst of these habits is that they "set" harder than any gelatine dessert. It takes a great deal of philosophical reasoning to melt them, too, when they are "set."

Faces Tell Their Own Stories.

The Importance of the Smile,

Keep Smiling All Sorts of Smiles. Keep smiling try a new expression as you d try a new hat or a new coiffure. It pays. You can stretch your mouth, iiikl you can show your teeth, but tlmt isn't smiling. It may become a trick, a terrible liahit. It's best to turn to some kindly thought, and then watch the youth miracle. It may take a week or ten" days to give the face a better expression, ltut it can be done. Never mind tackling the problem from the angle of an improved disposition. That will happen automat ieallv.

There are grudging smiles, there are extensive smiles, there are perfect smiles that are the product of Nature, encouraged ami trained by exercise. Biceps, legs, chest and shoulder muscles are not the only ones that are improved by intelligence in their direction. There are different sorts of smiles. There are smiles that are displays ot good or bad dentistry. There are smiles that are colossal, like the vast expansive one of Dickens' Mis. Kezzywig. Now and then we see a smile that is a mere crack in the face, a slit, through which nothingness appears. A smile may he a sudden illumination, or it may be a slow, soft glow. It may be a good-humoured breaking up of the features, or a furrow that startles tike beho'der by its ugliness. It may Ik? just a mass of little crinkles around the eyes. It is a part of wisdom for every woman to study her smile. If it is a perfect smile, let her shed its effulgence without let or hindrance, and with a thanksgiving to Nature that gave it to her. If it is not perfect, let her study how to obtain perfection.

Why the importance of the smile? Because it is reflected in ourselves. Smiles are the sunlight, and frowns thclouds of daily intercourse. We react happily to the smile, unhappily to llir scowl. The incalculable value of a smile is summed up in two old Londo.n street, sayings: "Keep smiling" and "Smile, damn you, smile." Theatrical manager-, skilled appraisers of womanly attractiveness, well know the value of a smile. One who was weary at rehearsals shouted at an exhausted chorus: "Then if you can't smile, at least show your teeth." A bachelor who was seeking a suitable wife, when a young woman in his o|li<e was suggested as deserving and desirable, answered with an emphatic "Not." •Why not?" asked his friend. "Because she always looked as though she wains to bite someone's head off." Her lark of the smiling habit cost her an excellent husband. The smileless girl is like a landscape beneath a cloud-covered sky. The smile conveys to us that the sun 1ih«« come out. from behind the clouds, the earth warms, everything is right with us and with those about us; let us be happy. That is the language of the smile. It is cheerfulness. It is interest in the event of the moment. It is welcome. It is a promissory note of happiness to 4>e. It is a healthy and happy infection. A smile kindles hope, without which mankind is poor indeed. It is a stamp of health. To all the world the healthy man or woman is a welcome sight. Defective strength and lowered vitality are expressed in drooping facia] muscles, and a too serious, even a sad expression. A smile is the symbol of courtesy, and courtesy we all know, keeps the creak out of the machinery of life. Smiles are miracle workers. Smiles are friend makers.