THE PATCH BOX.

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 59

THE PATCH BOX.

By Barbara Stanwood. Are shower baths good for one? ” seme one wrote to me the other day. Of course they are. Shower baths help the circulation and are, besides, the very cleanest kind of finish for the daily tub. If it’s possible, that final rinse to remove soapy water is a very important part of the bath. Too many of us feel that soaking in a tub of water is all that is necessary for cleanliness. As a matter of fact, that is only half of it. A good scrubbing w’ith soap is as necessary as the water This applies particularly to the feet. . . Feet that are tired and ache are one of the surest causes of facial wrinkles. If your feet trouble you I advise attention to the feet themselves, and to the shoes as well as a first cure for wrinkles; when your feet are comfortable again is quite soon enough to begin on other treatments to banish the wrinkles. A new’ fashion from the Continent is black finger-nail enamel. A woman I know achieved a “ succes fou ” with her nails in black, and wearing a black frock and black-and-white' cameo jewellery. The idea, however, is recommended only for the daring and beautiful and certainly not for anyone wanting to make an impression (favourable) on a man. * ¥ ¥ Evidently -the trials and problems of the woman w’ho travels have finally come to the cosmetician’s ears. There is the new travelling version of a particularly compact and stunning manicure set. All the essentials are there—the liquids in bottles cleverly placed so that they are nonspillable, the cotton, emery boards and orangewood sticks in a glass container. The whole effect is a very smart one. Then there is a cream, soap which has been on the market for a little while, and now comes in convenient tubes. It is delightfully scented and very nice to use. It is recommended for office draw ers as well as suiteases. v * v It is an excellent precaution never to indulge in any facial massage while you have any infected pimples or acne, no matter how lightly it appears on your face. You are only too likely to spread the infection. Keep your face just as clean as you can with soap and water until the infection is over. * * •¥ Do you use one shade of rouge and one shade of lipstick no matter what the time of day, and no matter w’hat frock you are wearing? Like Punch’s advice to those about to marry the answer is “ Don’t.” Natural is the best way to describe to-day’s smartest make-up. But the subtly natural effect suitable for the daytime may not be quite definite enough for evening. Take a good frank look at it sometime in electric light and see. Also, some frocks take one shade of rouge and others a quite different one. Two tricks with rouge, which are w’orth knowing about, are as follows: If your chin is not as prominent as you would like, and particularly if your nose is rather too prominent, a little rouge on the chin will help a lot. If you want to look your very best, and discover dark circles under your eyes, try covering the shadows with the faintest possible suspicion of rouge, powdering over it of course. « ¥ ¥ A little attention at your own dressing table once a day will really keep your hands lovelier than a professional manicure once every week or ten days. The secret of being beautifully groomed is not so much looking stunning on special occasions as looking well all the time. If you take just a few minutes. every day to keep your nails just at the right length and filed to their most becoming shape, the skin under them bleached and free of stains, and the polish at the same degree of brilliance, you need never

be ashamed to have anyone look at your hands. t And remember two important things: Every time you dry your hands—andTlo dry them thoroughly—-push the cuticle at the.base of each nail back very carefully with the towel; and remember a little application of cuticle oil rubbed into the cuticle thoroughly ’every single night. - o ¥ * » Preventive medicine applies to hair as well as to general health. Fifteen minutes every day invested in care for your hair is the best way to prevent unseasonable grayness, unmanageable hair, falling hair, and other common difficulties. The old ounce of prevention finds its modern equivalent in several ounces of good hair tonic, a clean hairbrush, and as much elbow grease as you can muster. This daily brushing and massage with tonic, which I recommended so strongly, should keep the normal scalp free from dandruff if .it is regularly practised. Dandruff which is very heavy, itching, or which forms sores of any kind should send you to a hair specialist at once for treatment. VAt last someone has done it. The powder puffs, large and small, with which we have all been enthusiastically rubbing off the dirt and germs from our faces one minute and energetically scrubbing them back in the next will soon, I think, be as “ passe ” as the old cloths which were once used to remove cold cream. You can now buy a supply of specially made powder applicators which can be used once and thrown away. Or, of course, used one day in your compact and then thrown away. This is a real contribution to the cause of clean faces. -—Ladies’ Home Journal.