CULT OF BEAUTY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 579, 8 October 1932, Page 20 (Supplement)

CULT OF BEAUTY.

Make the Most of Your Best Points. KEEPING AGE AT BAY.

(By

A BEAUTY SPECIALIST.)

Very few women realise it, but in feature, figure or facial expression, some particular point can usually be found, and the comments of friends give the clue. The next step is to cultivate the beauty-point or stress the flaw until it has the unusualness of piquancy. The tip-tilted nose needs the pushed-out chin to bring it into prominence, and the face the expression of implied wit. The large mouth can lose its heaviness in good-natured smiling that characterises its owner as a laughter-loving personality. The tendency to raise an eyebrow can, with persistence, become an attraction as arch as it is artful. With shell-shaped ears, a woman can brush her hair from them, and wear unique earrings—daring, but always in the same design—and with a well-shaped head, she can forsake waves that soften the face, and draw her hair closely into the shape of her head. Possessing eyes of a distinctive colour, sho can give it prominence by reproducing it in her clothes. Or, with eyes that are expressive, she can adopt a manner best suited to them. They are invariably the index of one’s character, and the art of using them to their best advantage is the secret of many women’s charm. The generality that all plain women have pretty ankles may not be strictly true, but they invariably have some good points that can be stressed. A woman with pretty hands can keep them well manicured and wear an unusual, though not necessarily expensive ring, to attract attention to them, and with well-shaped feet all their extravagancos can go into footwear.

Food For The Mind. A food is best absorbed when you enjoy it. This is as true of mental .as of material food. You should provide your mind with meals that will satisfy its tastes. Jt is difficult to discover your aptitudes. Self analysis is helpful. If I you suspect that you have a gift forj dressmaking, for instance, you should leave other metiers alone, and try dressmaking. If, on the other hand, your taste runs to millinery, to the making of pretty hats, learn to be a proficient milliner, and start a little shop of your The world lias room enough for every type of individual taste. Opportunities are seldom denied to those who know their own minds. You are liable to suffer from mental inefficiency if you choose a profession ill-suited to your temperament. Your mind will never attain its full stature. Variety sharpens the appetite and helps the digestion. The mind thrives if it is served with many courses of food instead of with one or two large dishes. Your memory will benefit, you divide the time at your disposal among different types of mental work. You should not neglect light literature. It oils the machine oi the mind and keeps it fit for serious work. A great deal of mental energy is allowed to run waste in mind-wandering. In many cases, this is more a system than a disease. It signals that all is not well in your system. You may be doing work that is not congenial to your particular temperament. You may have been over-feeding your mind with things that it cannot absorb. If you use your will and resolve to win back the normal, healthy, useful functioning of your mind, you will probably succeed. By doing away with mind wandering, you will raise your economic level. You will feel happy in the possession of a weapon whose strokes will never go wrong and whose strength will be increased by By 30, the pretty woman, the average pretty girl, has passed the summit of her looks. The woman whose mirnl fives and grows is often more lovely and more attractive after 30 than before. An intelligent woman is generally an attractive one. 1 don’t mean by intelligence, “intellectuality.” Intellect may or may not form the large part of intelligence. In itself, merely “knowing” has no value, and highbrowisin is as desiccating a quality a* stupidity, and even more boring. The quality 1 mean, and which is so much easier to feel than describe, the quality which keeps a woman beautiful past (’>o, because its presto ice in them has kept at bay the ageing forces, the thick-

emng and. shrivelling influence of character, is a woman’s capacity to learn and feel by every kind of experience. This is no mere generalisation. Look at the women who are still lovely at 45, beautiful at 60. Neither cosmetics nor plastic surgery lias produced in them an effect of synthetic youth. They are not the women who by attendances at beauty parlours and observances of cults and creams, wear themselves out in exhausting imitation of girlhood. Watch them in their contacts with people. Each one of them is interested in life, learning and feeling, giving out interest and sympathy. Their minds are active. Bound up with this activity of mind and spirit, there is activity of body. A certain organic health and vitality are undoubtedly connected with the endurance of beauty. Water. Cold water to drink every day and a thorough cleansing of the face every night with cold cream before going to bed, will keep the skin in good condition, while a mixture of lemon juice and cold water makes an excellent lotion for freeing the pores from spots and other blemishes, and for counteracting a shiny nose. Plenty of water for the face is also good, but the water, of course, must be soft water. I met a lady the other day who had had a long sejour in a Turkish harem, and she had many opportunities of studying the methods employed by the Turkish women in attaining that rare beauty which seems to distinguish those of the w T ell-to-do classes, and she has come to the conclusion that their skill far surpasses that of our Western beauty doctors. Ordinary-looking girls, who, after a treatment, had emerged genuinely lovely, is a common occurrence. She gave me one recipe, and I pass it on to my readers. It is that of cold W'ater for the complexion. It is to the frequent application of cold water to the skin that they attribute that cool, marble effect which is so prevalent among them.