Modern Perfumery

Southland Times, Issue 20111, 23 February 1927, Page 13

Modern Perfumery

{From Our Correspondent.) London. Perfume holds more personal allure than any other accessory. A Frenchwoman, after infinite trouble, settles’ upon a scent which she considers suited to her personality, and nothing new can tempt her to change it. With the perfume go bath salts, talc powder, and lipstick to match. Sache.s are a good way of creating that faintly elusive perfume which hangs to some women’s garments. Frenchwomen consider, and since they are a good authority their experience in the matter is worthy of heeding, that fair women should never attempt anything but an essentially feminine fragrance, and that it should be left to brunettes to experiment with the spicy Oriental scents, heavily steeped in the memory of Arabian gardens. Here again it is necessary to be prudent. Every woman wants her scent to be exclusive to herself. That is why it is just as well not to indulge in parma violet just because you have fair hair and wide blue eyes. Many other women, with similar attractions, will think along the same lines. It is possible, by consulting a good parfumeur, to obtain a perfume that most certainly finds its inspiration in a violet but which is original enough to make people pause to remember it. This discretion applies to the heavier scents. No sane woman wants to leave a trail reminiscent of the Indian Love Lyrics.

An excellent present is a bottle of a friend’s favourite perfume face powder or soap. There is an exotic perfume which takes its name from a starlit night, appearing in an unpolished blue glass bottle scattered with stars. Others, which declare their origin in the shape of the bottle, are presented in phials stoppered with a spray of lilac, or a posy of wallflowers. The most clever artists in make-up keep a variety' of powders, all scented with their particular perfume, for different shades of lighting. At the moment it is counted smart to appear in the morning, alawys providing that you have the skin for the experiment, with scarcely sufficient make-up to render it noticeable. Matters improve, however, as the day wears on, and during the afternoon a smart woman resorts to her rouge pot, and adds a little bloom to her pale appearance. If this becomes insipid as she becomes accustomed to it, she adopts, with her evening dress, an extremely healthy complexion toned down with some of the darkest powder in her possession.