The Ideal Beauty

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 55

The Ideal Beauty

What it is, and How to Possess it.

By "ESTELLE." |

DO you know -what it is like to read a novel—one that begins with a heroine whose charms are not enumerated, but whose personality and environment seem to have eome resemblance to your own? And then, on page 4 or 5, to find something of this sort: "Her (the heroine s) hair rippled in soft, shining waves round her delicately tinted face. She had one of those peaoh-like skins that never seem to roughen or burn. Her eyes were hidden at the moment under long, silken lashes, but a dimple hovered at the corner of, her red mouth, as she pulled a rose to pieces between her white hands "-and so on. At this point, if you are analytic, you begin to compare this exquisite creature with yourself. With what results? To find that you are hopelessly at a disadvantage, and that you are lucky if you can find ono point in your looks that can vie with her fictitious charms. The story loses half its interest; you are no longer identified with the heroine. , .. . ... But has it ever occurred to you that with a little patience and perseverance, that flowery description, with one or two slight alterations, might bo applied to YOU? YOU CAN'T HELP YOUR FEATURES —BUT you can help your skm. your hair, your hands—and that is something. Look carefully at the description of your heroine. Nothing is said about her features, unless you count a dimple as a feature. Let us be systematic. , Her hair is described as rippling m shining waves." „ _ YOUR HAIR WOULD BE JUST AS PRETTY if you would shampoo your hair with stallax instead of that common soap or manufactured "wash" that you are ruining it with at present. If, owing to your unkind treatment, it is thm and inclined to split at the ends, you should try this simple home recipe:—One package boranium, obtained from any chemist, mixed with i-pint bay rum. Boranium possesses wonderful properties of renewing the strength, beauty, and natural colour of the hair. "Perhaps," you say, "this is all very well." Admitted that these preparations make the hair thick and. glossy, how can anything but Nature, or hot irons, produce "rippling waves"? Have you never heard of silmerine? , , A little liquid silmerine applied on the hair before going to bed and brushed out in the morning, will transform your straight locks into the most bewitching tight curls or fascinating "kinks," according to the amount used and your individual tastes. To return to our heroine. "How can I ever accomplish a peach-like skin," you ask in despair; "and, having secured it, how render it impervious to roughness and sunburn? No, it is too much." Nevertheless, there is much TRUTH IN OLD PROVERBS, and when you so glibly quote "Beauty is but skin deep," do you realise that you are stating a solid, undeniable fact —one on which a whole philosophy of beauty has been based? Below a skin that may be blotched, roughened, and discoloured, is a complexion as clear and as fresh as a little child's. But how remove the ugly outer layer, the pores of which are clogged with waste matter? The skin is a delicate fabric, and no force must be used. Mercolised wax, which contains oxygen, will, if applied like ordinary /cold cream, invisibly absorb the ugly outer _ cuticle, leaving the lovely new skin in all its glory. To protect this delicate skin from the devastating effects of wind and weather, bathe the face and neck with a little cleminite dissolved in water, which will form the lightest of films over the # complexion, at the same time giving it the much-coveted "peach-like bloom." > • As to the long, silky lashes, a little mennaline rubbed into the roots of the lashes with the tips of the fingers before going to bed will work wonders. If your hands are not as white as you would wish, a little lemon juice will remove bad stains, and bicrolium jelly will take away all redness and chapping. A week or two of this treatment will make that description applicable to you. _ If you sit and pull a rose to pieces, any critical observer will have time to notice charms in you which attract immediate attention, and which will bear the closest scrutiny.