CULT OF BEAUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

CULT OF BEAUTY.

THE POWER OF THOUGHT. MODIFY DISFIGUREMENTS. (By A PARIS BEAUTY SPECIALIST.) "Pretty is as pretty does," a wise man told us a long time ago. But he might have said, "Beauty is as Beauty Thinks." That is what the moral psychologist would tell us if he could leave off analysing human motives long enough to talk about mere beauty. We know that a sick person can hold to the thought "I will get well," and he will get well. Why shouldn't the plain woman hold to the thought "I will be beautiful," and acquire beauty? Saying "I will be," instead of "I am," gives her the future to strengthen her faith. We can all believe in what the future holds for us, when we can't see anything in the present.

It can't be done in a day, this growing to beauty. Nor in a month, nor in [a year, perhaps. How long it will take, depends on you. But the worth-while things are not acquired instantly.

Every woman must remember that seeds of beauty, like any other seeds, should be carefully chosen. When we want poppies to grow, we plant poppy seeds, we don't plant morning glory seeds and believe that poppies will come up. "What kind of beauty do I want?" That is the question each girl must ask herself. The one who is tall, will no doubt sigh to be small. The blonde will want raven hair. The browneyed girl will covet the blue eyes of her sister. They are sighing after the moon 1 They are trying to get poppies from morning glory seeds!

Beauty is of No Particular Type.

There is a peculiar beauty that belongs to each individual woman. This is the beanty that must be her ultimate goal. Beauty is of no particular type, or size or colourings. The Venus de Milo is heroic in her proportions. Helen of Troy had red hair, if we can believe legend. Ninon de Lenclos was fair, La Pompadour dark. ( eould name hun dreds of other beautiful women, eac' lovely in her own particular way. Are they judged by their colouring, or the naze and shape of their features? Thev are not. Whether a woman is fair oY dark, large or email, she must be true to her type. She should try to visualise the sort of woman she would be if she could, with her own colouring and features. Then, let her look into her mirror, a full-length one, if possible, and see where she falls short of her ideal. She must keep this ideal of herself ever before her, if she wants to attain it.

Is it possible to change the features, the size of the nose or the colour of the eyes? This is not possible, alas! Up to time of writing, no beauty specialist has been found to achieve a miracle •of such gigantic proportions. Charlatans, there are, who profess to alter your nose, change the shape of your chin or the shape of your eyes, but, the disastrous failures on record, show us plainly the madness of such operations. However, it is possible to modify all disfigurements, until they sink into insignificance beside the beautiful points. The shape and size of the mouth can be changed by changing the way we use and abuse it. The disposition shows in the mouth. Look at the mouth of the fretful woman, the sullen one, the catty one, the happy one. Each is characteristic. The beauty of the eyes depends, not on their colour, but on their soulpower. Shallow eyes mean a shallow soul, hard ones an unresponsive or disillusioned soul, beautiful ones a soul that walks in beauty. The beauty of brows and lashes, however, which so enhance the eyes, is within any woman's power to cultivate.

The hair, the skin, the poise of the head, the size of the arms, the fullness of the neck, the charm' of the hands, and the way we use them, are what we make them. It isn't the size of hands and feet that make them beautiful or ugly. It is the way we use them. Tiny feet, handled like shovels, never are beautiful; small, white hands that look ineffectual and weak never are chosen by artists who portray. Hair is not beautiful, because it is black or golden or ashes, but because it is clean and shining and becomingly arranged. While We are Waiting.

While we are waiting for our beauty to grow and flower we can be learning many things that a beauty needs to know if her beauty is to be realised and recognised by others. It is essential that she should walk well. She should learn also* to use her hands beautifully. Her voice is another asset that should not be ignored. If she puts into it now all the beautiful tones she can, she will never reget the time devoted to it. She should think about her clothes, too, and learn to choose them wisely. However inexpensive they may have to be, they have the same possibilities, the same subtle power of colour and line ,that the richest and most expensive materials have. I say nothing about the physical care of the body. Most women know how to beautify their hair and their skins, and to regulate their weight. What they want to understand is that every woman can have some kind of beauty, no matter how hopeless she may seem to herself. T'he man who said '"Beauty is only skin deep," didn't mean beauty at all. He meant prettiness, which may be entirelv superficial. The woman who is really * beautiful is the one who has learned how to "snatch a grace beyond the reach of art." Beauty Hints.

(1) The eyebrows must be kept well brushed and by persistent care can be pinched into graceful lines. A heavy eyebrow can bo trained with very little effort. The brush should be small and rather stiff and firm. It will at once cleanse and invigorate. (2) Sage tea, with a few of alcohol added, will darken the eyebrows without injury. Coconut oil makes an excellent tonic to increase the growth.

(3) Cocoa-butter is excellent foF,massaging a dry skin. So is lanoline, and it is more readily absorbed. (4) Many doctors maintain that uric a ® sd is a deadly enemy to beauty, and that meat should therefore be eaten not oftener than once a day. («>) It i* not a crime to rougre, but „ , nge badly =