COSMETICS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1959, 15 April 1875, Page 4

COSMETICS.

t - (FEpM THE QTTEEN.)

If the fashion of dyeing the hair and of:, altering the hue of every portion of the countenance is to continue in its present ▼iqlenceL.it ..would, certainly, be advisable that.' its votaries should study in some slight degree the ordinary rules of. colour. It would be well, for instance, if they ascertained that straw-coloured hair is, in the natural subject, rarely found in conjunction with well-defined coal-black eyebrows ; also, that black hair bin hardly be believed in when the eyebrows and laihes are unmistakably sandy. It is, we presume, useless at this advanced period of the disease for us to uplift our voice against the practice itself. Every woman possessed of a grain of common sense is as well aware as we are that sunny gleams for golden tresses, and other kindred nostrums^ can only consist of chemical preparations which are utterly ruinous to the hair, and will probably leave her bald at an early age j that powders, whether of Ninon de l'Enclos, or Aspasia, or of Phyrne, or of any equally proper person, can at the best-—^ c., most harmless— only.hardeu the skin by preventing the natural prespiration, and render it yellow and wrinkled leng befoe itstime, and at the worst are composad of mineral ingredients capable of producing the gravest mischief; that rough' so soon renders sallow the cheek to which it is habitually applied as to render its retention almost unavoidable.; and that belladonna applied to the eyes is fearfully apt te produce paralysis of thej optic nerve. AH these thingis, as we say, are well inojEn^to any, woman,~with .a, .grayi of common sense; but, alas! there would seem to be many unbliest with that unspeakable j: if t, and—feeling sure, as we said before, that no words of ours would turn them from their: course—we merely raise our voice to beseech them to remember that What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. It seems absolutely impossible topersuade alady whoindulges in self-orna-mentation that the powder on her face is not perfectly invisible, whereas, on the contrary, her countenance more resembles * flour-bag than a fresh and healthy skin. Then* again, many of the metallic powders have a curious habit of changing colour when exposed to heat. We ourselves, th« other day, encountered a lady whose face became quite mauve after she had stood for some minutes in front of the! fire. Traces of the powder are also apt to adhere, to veils, and ladies should be careful not to touch rouged cheeks with either glove or handkerchief. If it is absolutely ,necessary to happiness that jpowder should be applied, they had setter rub a film of cold cream on the part to be painted, and then apply the powder with cotton wool'; this prevents the contact with the skin, and! keeps the pores' open.: It can hardly be too often or too strongly impressed upon ladies what a mistake in taste it is to attempt to change the colour of the hair. Nature is a skilful artist, and blends her colors:so deftly that a change in the tone of one rerider^all the rest, 10 to speak, out of tune. And 10 the operator generally finds, and, when •he has turned her nut-brown locks into daffodil-colored low, discovers that the complexion, which. had before been so dear and fair, looks muddy, brown and discolored. Of course immediate recourse is had to powder puff and rouge pot; but the fair artist invariably forgets that there are some spots the deftest fin- ; gers can Dot reach,, such as the roots of I the hair, the skin showing through the •ye-brows, <fee, and that the first time she is seen in a iitrong light her secret is discovered. Then as to the eyebrows themselves, the common method of coloring them is by dusting with powder of the desired shade with a camel's - hair brush, and the invariable result is that after a short time the nose assumes the appearance of having been lightly dredged with snuff. If the lady's heart is set on changing the colour of her eyebrows, the best method j is with liquid dje, so applied as not to touch and stain tine skin. Another beautification(P), feaxlfully on the increase, is the habit of staining black the inside rim of the eyelids ; this is supposed to give great softness and lustre to the eyes, and is certainly less deleterious than the belladonna which it has in a great degree supplanted. Still it is a somewhat ticklish operation to perform. A small fiat silver bodkin damped in rose-water is dipped into " kohl." (which in plain English means powde red antimony), and is then drawn gently along between the closed eyelids. The effect certainly is to make the eyes look large and soft, but no one, however charitably disposed, can ever for ra^ instant doubt that the effect is artificially produced, as no human being ever yet had black edges to white eyelids. Borne may fancy that in pointing out mistakes in the art of face decoration (painting and paperhanging, as we heard « gentleman describe it not long since), we are encouraging ladies to prosecute it. Such is far, indeed, from our intention. It is bad enough, to see elderly women endeavoring vainly to repair the ravages •f time by this laborious and unsatisfactory process; but it is simply disdusting to "see girls of 17 and 18-covered with powder, paint, and looking like indifferent copies of women of whose very existence they should be—though, alas ! in these fast daygi they are not—unaware. We only plead that if they will insist on disfiguring themselves in the ideal belief that they are malting themselves beautiful for ever, they should at least do it skilfully, and spare us as much of the unpleasant details of the process as they conveniently can, besides giving an occasional thought ins to what colors are sometimes, even if but rarely, seen tof ether in nature. One question more. s there really a woman in existence blind enough to beiieve that paint and powder are ever undiscovered.