Beauty At Your Fingertips

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

Beauty At Your Fingertips

Lovely Hands Can Be Acquired By Busy Housewives

T OVELY hands are more precious than the most price- ■ less jewels you can wear on your fingers. It you are blessed with slender fingers and filbert nails, guar them. If yours are just ordinary hands, then take trouble to make them really attractive.

TAAKE care of your hands in the | ■*• Kitchen. Roughness and chapped skin are your hands’ two worst enemies in the winter. After washing your hands dry them carefully, then rub in a hand lotion—equal parts of glycerine and rosewater are good, or, or course, there are many good preparations ready made. If you are working in the kitchen and often have your hands in and out of water, be careful never to go out into the air with them wet. That’s asking for trouble. Keep a box of oatmeal by the side of Hie sink. Then, when you have, to go out into the garden or. dairy, give them a quick drying on the towel and plunge them into -the oatmeal. Every atom of moisture will disappear and your hands will have a protective covering of oatmeal powder on them. Your nails need a weekly manicure and it is an excellent plan to have it done professionally every few weeks. A manicure routine to follow .at home is easy to learn, but requires practice to get good results. Here is a list of things you will need: A bottle of varnish ijjmover, cuticle oil or cuticle cream, emery board, and an orange stick, nail white if you like it, cotton wool, buffer, nail brush, good hand soap, and nail varnish.. Get everything ready before you begin and have a basin of hot water and a hand towel. The following routine is a good one: Damp a sma_ll piece of cotton wool with varnish remover, place on the nail, leave for a few seconds and take polish off with a downward stroke from the moon to the tip of the nail. Remove varnish from each nail in turn. File and shape the nails of the right hand first, then the left hand, with emery board. Never use scissors. A metai file is only necessary when the nails are very long. File from the corner of the nails toward the centre in one direction only. . Next soak a pad of cotton wool in cuticle oil and rub well into the cuticles of both hands. .Soak the nails of both hands for three or four minutes in the hot soapy water. Take out and dry thoroughly. Twist a tiny piece of cotton wool round the end of the orange stick, soak in the oil again and go round the cuticles, or else rub in the cuticle cream. Take the hoof end of the orange stick and gently push the cuticles back; Next apply nail white under the nails and wash the hands thoroughly. Dry carefully, polish each nail with the buffer, then apply the varnish.

This is done by steadying the hand on a table. Drain off the surplus varnish, outline the moon of the nail, then with three or four strokes brush the varnish to the tip of the nail. Wipe off the tip, leaving a rim of white nail showing. Allow the varnish to dry. Apply in the same way to the nails of the other hand. .With some varnishes one coat only is used, others look best with two coats.

If the hands should get chapped, give them a nourishing night-cap. Smother them in olive oil, slightly warmed, and massage it well into the skin, as though you were washing them. Press down the cuticles when the oil has softened them —you may as well do two jobs at once when you can. Now draw on a pair of old cotton gloves and take your greasy hands to bed. In the morning they’ll be much improved, but repeat the treatment for two or three nights. Never warm your hands directly in front of the tire. When they’re cold, massage them with olive oil till they glow, or else plunge them first in cold and then in hot water alternately. This

makes the blood run vigorously through the veins. f If your hands are very work-worn and you want to make them as smooth as velvet in a few minutes, try this: put a little pile of castor sugar in the palm of one hand and pour olive oil on to cover the sugar. Rub this into your hands, and leave on as long as possible. Finally, remove it with soap and warm water.