BEAUTY LOOKS BACK

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33435, 17 January 1974, Page 6

BEAUTY LOOKS BACK

At a time when technology is taking us further forward, there is in some fields a trend to return to the “good old days” of simple living. One of these fields is beauty care.

Most cosmetic firms have to offer products made from natural ingredients, but “Secrets of Natural Beauty” by Virginia Castleton Thomas, published by Harrap, tells you how to "do it yourself.” Using ingredients from the kitchen cupboard as well as some more exotic potions, Virginia Castleton Thomas gives recipes for all sorts of cosmetic products ranging from a complexion cream made from lettuce to a fine face powder made from finely crushed egg shells. Most of the recipes are fairly simple, and most of the ingredients are available in New Zealand. As well as potions for the skin manufactured from a wide variety of natural ingredients, there are recipes for perfumes, eating for beauty, hair care and exercise. She has obviously researched her information thoroughly, and believes that natural products are better than those from the chemist’s shelves. In the forword to the book, she says: “A young woman has only to look at her mother’s troubled skin and her own, and compare them with her grandmother’s smooth complexion to realise that grandmother’s simple applications must have been better.” A lot of her beauty hints are commonsense advice that has been used by generations of women, but she offers some rather unorthodox and intriguing beauty recipes. "Secrets of Natural Beauty” is available in both hard back and paper back editions, and contains (in hardback) 148 pages. A conversion table is printed in the preface to enable the reader to convert American measures into the British measures used in New Zealand.