Beauty—and the Middle Years

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 24

Beauty —and the Middle Years

Many a woman, when , he reaches the age of 45. feels that her life is over and that she had better, metaphorically speaking, don a cap and ribbons and retire gracefully into middle age.

This is a great mistake, for pf, r . ticularly in these days there is no reason why a woman of 45 should not be as attractive and charming as j girl of 20 years younger. Certainly she must take a little more witi her appearance, but surely this is aa hardship, as she will have more leis. ure time than she has had for manv years and can afford to indulge in * few beauty treatments and treat her skin with some extra good skin creams and lotions.

She must face the fact that she is a middle-aged woman, and she must plan her life accordingly. She will not feel as energetic as she did when she was 20 years younger, and, of course, she will not be able to stand fatigue so well.

She must be careful to steer a course between tw o extremes, that of over-tiring herself and that or “letting herself go” and becoming flabby ans lazy. If she tries to do too much she will look haggard and accumulate a mass of wrinkles, but even this is pieferable to several double chins and heavy breathing.

On the whole, middle-aged women are more apt to eat too much and play a lot of bridge than they are to overexercise, so be warned against this, a 3 the first step toward preventing yourself being middle-aged ia appearance, even if you are so in years.

THE BEST EXERCISE O ” ALL! The woman of 45 needs much less to eat than her daughter, and she should choose her diet rather carefully. Plenty of salads, fresh fruit, wholemeal bread, and fish are what she should choose, never much meat nor strong pickles and beer and stout.

If she is careful about what she eati she will not suffer from that ugly fixed colour which so many middle-aged women have, and which is so unbecoming. Another drink to avoid is strong tea, as tea-drinking can teikl to become a vicious habit.

The woman of 45 must try to take plenty of exercise, for she must realise that she is not in any waydecrepit, merely rather less active. Of course, if she has been accustomed to playing a lot of tennis and golf all her life she can continue :o do so, belt if not it is better to take walks, as walking exercises every muscle in the body without straining it. Probably, if you have been a busy vomau all your life and have had to look after a family of children your complexion may look a little neglected, but it will not be difficult to put it right. One of your greatest difficulties may be that your complexion is apt to be red down to the jaw-bone instead of shading into a nice creamy tinge. You can do a great deal to improve this by diet. If you will dincontinue tea, spirits, and meat, substitute fresh fruit, honey, milk, and eggs, or fish, you will be surprised and delighted at the difference voa will find in your colouring. Be very, very careful to guard against constipation, which is one of the middle-aged woman's greatest bugbears, but dropping tea and meat out of your menu w’ill help you in this w r ay. There are many lotions on the market which will help your skin to lose that weather-beaten appearance. Anything containing cucumber is excellent, and there are magical preparations which will tone it down beautifully. Of course, the powder you use has also a great deal to do with how you look, and on a red skin you must never use a white powder. A MOOT POINT

"When you have reached middle-age it is often a good plan to alter your style of hairdressing, and invariably this small change will work wonders.

There is always a good deal of discussion about the question of ‘"makeup,” but surely middle-age is the one moment when just a touch of it is permissible. Girls shouldn’t need it; it i» incongruous for old people, but during middle-age it adds just the touch that is essential. A Woman of 45 should not use any flamboyant make-up. rather one which makes her look softly brilliant. Th e lip-salve should be a rich damask rosi red and the powder a warm shade <’t w hatever is her natural colouring. A tea-rose shade of pow-der, blendinc into a deep rose pink, will be the most becoming.