SKIN-DEEP SECRETS

Evening Star, Issue 23970, 22 August 1941, Page 4

SKIN-DEEP SECRETS

NEW ZEALAND MADE MANUFACTURERS' BOW TO BEAUTY Bounty is only skin deep—unci thorn is quite a lot o| it not as deep as that. Nowadays no onu objects to the aids to beauty that cover the chemist’s counters and occupy an important place in the department stores, and, in fact, there are plenty of New Zealanders making a living in providing them. No fewer than '2d companies are engaged in the manufacture of face creams, and most of them arc interested in several other cosmetics as well. Wo have not advanced as far as they have in Australia, where everything for adornment (with the exception of French perfumes) is now (produced within the country, but we are getting within reaching distance of that point, Actually, most cosmetics present few difficulties to the manufacturer.. Take a little amyl acetate (a paint shop will furnish it as some type of lacquer drier), and a modicum of clean, ordinary film, and you have nail varnish. If, of course you want it tinted, you can add some lino dye. And, naturally, if you want polish remover, leave out the film. The same recipe will do for corn cure, or it will heal wounds in short order, nr it will make banana flavouring, or mixed with amyl stearate and/or amyl butoarnte, it will produce almost any other flavouring in the gamut of Airs Beeton. Bouge has not. yet been entirely manufactured from New Zealand materials. That is only because the New Zealand potentials have not yet boon fully investigated. Haomotite is plentiful here, and luemotito is rouge powder. Some refinements are sometimes added. Rouge mixed with lard, or an equivalent, is lipstick, and this, too, can bo manufactured. ‘ Star ’ readers will remember that several months ago a Dunedin artist made bis own paint from local luemotito. A paint company followed np that story with inquiries, but evidently carried ’it no further. The artist’s painting is now in the possession of a ‘ Star ’ reporter, and the colours alone should testify to the excellence of the local mineral, even though the manufacture was carried out by the most primitive of methods. Still, there is no use made of the plentiful iron ore.

Soaps, shaving soaps, and creams, have Ifmg been made here, mainly under license from other countries. Face powder can be made from a product found in Fraser’s Gully, variously called diatomite, diatomic or diatomaccous earth, according to the degree of erudition or the tastes of your informant. There is a deposit that is practically illimitable in Fraser’s Gully, though the Dunedin supply comes from Middlemarch, where it is handier for contractors to dig. This does not make the best face powder. The crystals are small enough—lo million to the cubic inch—but thev are the wrong shape for the best results. The crystals of talc arc shaped like the component pieces of chaff. The crystals of diatomite arc diamond or sliver-shaped. Neveitholss, it is quite satisfactory for the cheaper grades of face powder. Eye shadow is one of those things which still remain in the murky depths of obscurity, as far as the manufacture is concerned. At least one Dunedin girl used to beg the big black pencils of reporters in order to make her own from tile shavings, and this was probably as good as any that could be bought. But all these details arc no doubt being taken care of by manufacturers. The New Zealand girl, if she is not now, will soon he flying New Zealand colours.