PAINTED FACES.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 88, 8 September 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

PAINTED FACES.

(From %\\Q,Cornhill Magazine.) The enamellers and artists who prey upon the weakness of the would-be fair probably believe, as their victims believe, that if the deceit can be effected, all is pure gain.. And when the painted . surface is but small, this is' in some sense true, a small part of the skin may be destroyed without sensible injury — and painting of enamelling it is tantamount to destroying it, for the enamel prevents transpiration, and the skin, recollect, is a breathing organ. Experiments have often shown that if an animal be prevented from breathing by its skin (as when a coat of varnish is laid over a considerable surface) it dies in agony ; and it is very often that deaths from extensive burns and scalds i are due less to the direct injury, or to i the nervous shock, than to the supression of this breathing function over a I large surface of the skin. Herein you perceive at once the danger of painting ior enamelling, aad the absurdity ;of that fiction, once very generally believed in respecting the late Madame Vestris, of whom it Was said ' that her arms, neck, and face were covered with a coafc of enamel which ' required her to sit for an hour before the fire to dry. Those who knew that agreeable and accomplished actress off the stage are aware that she allowed the brown of her brunette complexion to appear undisguised, however liberally she may have applied rouge and pearl powder when on the stage. And those who are instructed in physiology know ; that this pretended coat of enamel would j not have left her life enough to sit before the fire while it dried. Understand, therefore, deal' madam, that if you allow the erfameiler to cover any but an inconsiderable surface, it is at considerable risk. Understand, moreover, that unless the small patch be rerroved^from steady gaze, it will infallibly be detected by any eye that rests upon it ; for however skilful the art may be with which the color of the surroundi ing skin is imitated, the inevitable differences in the reflection of the light falling on the two surfaces — differences which depend on the absence of the downy hair, and the insensible moisture, no less than the smoothness of the painted surface wanting the many crossing lines of the skin— -betray the secret. . Many women refrain from washing their faces, on the absurd supposition that washing " injures the complexion.'' They simply remove the dirt by a little cold cream, rubbed off by a cambric handkerchief. Others use milk, or ; milk and water, for the same purpose. "It softens the skin," they believe. Understand the nature of the complexion, and you will see that these notions are as rational as if a painter, i dissatisfied with the flesh tints of his picture, thought &o improve them by > cold-creaming the coat of varnish which ; protects the colors from the air and ! dust. For, in sober truth, the epider- j mis, or outer skin — 'that which alone can j be attacked by cream, milk, or cosmetics — is as . essentially separated from the coloring elements of the complexion, as the coat of Tarnish is separated from the colors on a painted canvas. The outer skin is a layer of dead cells ; it may be rubbed off, and thus expose the delicate surface of the skin beneath ; it cannot be modified by external agents into any beauty of living texture. Keep it clean, and it is sufficiently transparent to let tho coloring matter, which lies beneath, shine through it. Complexions depend on this coloring matter, and on the distribution of the minute bloodvessels, neither of .which are injuriously affected by water, or advantageously by cream and cosmetics.