Made-up Beauties.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 999, 24 April 1891, Page 5

Made-up Beauties.

At a theatrical benefit given at one of the London thoatres on a recent afternoon, a very famous comic opera singer, of truly splendid beauty, sang a song. She was attired in street costume, and she had not painted her face. ‘ Why she looks positively ugly,’ said a young woman in one of the from seats to her companion. ‘ I always imagined she was so lovely.’ The singer was, in fact, as lovely as ever, but in leaving off her 1 make-up ’ the footlights of the stage threw a glare across her countenance in such a manner that every line was accentuated ten-fold, and her complexion was rendered ghastly. The actual beauty of Mrs Langtry or Mrs Potter has never been seen by those people who have merely witnessed them perform. Both of these women make up badly, and cannot possibly preserve the extreme delicacy of colouring and texture that is noticeable in them when viewed in the light of the street. If Lillian Russell were seen in the street at noontime as she is when acting, she would have a crowd of small boys following her, she would look so like a freak, with the purplish red spots on her cheeks and temples, the marble whiteness of her nose and ohin, and the heavy cakes of charcoal that cling to her eyelashes. Yet Miss Russell is one of the most Bkilful women at making up that the stage possesses and she obtains an effect of almost perfect beauty.