BEAUTY FROM THE FIELDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

BEAUTY FROM THE FIELDS.

Peat is now being boomed a3 a complexion beautifier, but its virtue# have been known for generations to the Irish colleens dwelling among the bogs. Some thirty years back a similar crazo set in for the use of lanoline, or wool grease (foi a somewhat similar purposo; and, during tho war, when girls took to farm work, many of them discovered anew for themselves, when shearing time came round, its supreme value as a skin tonic.

There were " no beauty parlours" in former days Consequently, the country girl had to go out into the fields and hedgerows and gather herbs, which she used to make her own toilet preparations. Many of them sffll do so, using recipes that have stood the test of centuries, and which have been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. A beautifier well known of old was that of wild strawberries mashed in spring water, and the resultant mixture rubbed vigorously into the flesh of the fact and neck. It stains, of course, but the stain soon wears off, leaving a velvety softness that lasts for many days. For sunburn, the face is washed with sage tea, and when high winds cause dryness of the skin a remedy i 3 to smear tho faco with the yolk of an egg before retiring to rest. Buttermilk, in which tho hard roe of a herring has been macerated is also used to remove tan and freckles. In rnanv rural districts girls gather tho roots of "the common bracken fern, dry them thoroughly, and pound them in a mortar. The result is starchy meal that makes a velvety faco powder of a creamy colour.