HERBS RETURN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 49, 26 January 1938, Page 13

HERBS RETURN.

New things soon become old-fashion-ed. That’s what'we call progress! Oscasionally the order is reversed and things labelled quite definitely “out of date” return to favour. Take herbs. They have never really gone out of use, but it is amazing how they have leapt into the limelight lately, especially in beauty preparations.’Delightful names like rosemary, lavender and marigold are scattered through the pages of all the old herbals. You will find camomile—the more you walk on this the better it grows —thymes, any number of them, bergamot, burdock. In the pages of a modern treatise on beauty culture and hairdressing oil or spirits of rosemary, lavender, pr bergamot oils are frequently found in various formulaee for hair tonics and dressings and beauty preparations. One beauty salon, some of whose products are bought by members of the Royal Family, specialises in herbal beauty preparations. Among the skin foods made from marigolds there is one for massage, another for a foundation for powder, and a third is an emollient. Marigolds, it is said, have a soothing and whitening effect on the skin. Then there is mint. We are apt to think of this only as made into mint sauce to eat with lamb, but it also forms one of the ingredients in a cleansing and refreshing mouth-wash. Again, sleep is known to be one of the best beautifiers, and _so what chance has anyone of keeping up to standard in appearance if they don’t get enough rest? If you cannot drop off at night there. are pillows filled with sleep-inducinig herbs. Or pillows and cushions stuffed with dried plants, sweet-smelling and sedative for invalids.

There are dozens of other items you will find in any list of beauty preparations—bath salts, sachets, powders. The Duchess of Kent was seen buying some sachets, a large howl of pot-pourri and an old-fashioned clove ball at a recent exhibition. Instead of the well-known oatmeal bag you can use bath-bags filled with rosemary, thyme and other herbs. Apart from the usual perfumed luxury bath salts there are special ones like pine or thyme. So„ if you suffer from nerves you fling thvme salts into the bath ; for the sleepless there is a concoction of lime, flowers; to whiten the skin marigold salts should bo your choice.