Care of the Hands

Southland Times, Issue 21894, 21 December 1932, Page 5

Care of the Hands

BEAUTY FOR THE FINGERS. A famous portrait painter who is clever enough only to paint lovely women once said to me that hands were his favourite feature, the things he liked best to paint. Not eyes? No, definately not. “Eyes are given to you,” he said, “hands you make yourself.” He meant that so much of one’s character is revealed by them. This is true, and it is also true that we can make our hands look very much as we want them to, because they respond to treatment sooner than any other feature. Hands need a great deal of care, especially in cold weather, if they are to look white and lovely, and the nails like pink shining jewels. Even the shape of one's hands can be improved by massage and exercises just as the colour and texture is altered by the right cream or lotion. The hands need a soothing, nourishing cream to keep them looking young, just as the face does, and this should be massaged into them, starting from the finger tips and working towards the wrist. Their colour can be improved by attention paid to the circulation. Hands that are too sensitive to changes of temperature must-be made hardier by washing them alternately in very hot and very cold water. A few drops of hand lotion rubbed into them during the day will keep them soft and perfumed. Lemon juce will whiten them, and for really rough and bad coloured hands there is nothing better than the old-fashioned glycerine and lemon juice in equal proportions rubbed into them eaph night. How we go back to these old-fashioned recipes! Grandmamma is in fashion to-day. Here is another of her secrets. Stand a bowl of fine oatmeal in the bathroom, or in the kitchen if you have the washing up to do, and dip the hands in this after drying. You will never have chapped hands if you do this. Slim supple fingers are most attractive and you can make them so by practising the five-finger exercise on an imaginary piano several times a day. Only pretty fingers should wear rings, but this is an ideal, and I am afraid we shall always see short stumpy fingers with their selection of halfhoops. Rings grace a pretty hand, and one beautiful ring is better than two or three mediocre ones. A large single stone is the most becoming you can wear.

Finger nails must have their first aid in the winter, and if they are to look dainty and well cared for a daily manicure is necessary. The best time for this is in bed after a hot bath with your manicure box beside you. _ Not the old-fashioned kind full of wicked looking steel instruments (did anyone ever use them?), but the modern, home-made one that is a kind of medicine chest for the nails and contains softening cuticle creams and a little oil to be rubbed over the nails when they have besome brittle.

Those disfiguring white spots on the nails, said to be due to rheumatism or knocks, are hidden by the modern nail varnish which should be a delicate coral pink.