£10,000,000 SPENT ON FACE POWDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 9

£10,000,000 SPENT ON FACE POWDER.

Tim craze for cosmetics has reached a zenith never before attained in modern times. Civilised countries in all parts <;f . the* world are annually employed in a gigantie manufacture of beauty aids and improvers that are to be found on ho fringes of the lands whore the warpaint of the savage is left behind.

Statisticians have approxima< ed that he annual sum of money spent in \merica by women oru cosmetics and heir ancillaries amounts to one hundred million pounds, which may bo contrasted with the £G8,(100,000 the amount of rhe entire naval programme for 1921.

Miss America’s habit of powdering her nose alone cost ten million pounds each year, an amount of money calculated to be sufficient to build a giant Dreadnought and leave three hundred thousand pounds for other purposes. Reefs of coral, lip-salve, mountains of powder, lakes of liquid rouge, and miles of eye-brow pencils are annually being imported into this country to give an artistic finish to the complexion of the proverbial English rose. Shaded powders to resemble the petals of exotic flowers, among which ranks the orchid. • are included in the latest range of face ; powders introduced into a London I beauty shop. Vanity hags io conceal cosmetics that, are intended for use in restaurants. ; theatres, and other public places, take 1 the form of many original articles. ' Small bouquets of flowers pinned to the dross to hide powder-puff and lip-salve ‘ are much in vogue at present. “Powders and routes are harmful if’ they are used excessively, because they ! close up the pores of rhe skin," said a prominent doctor to a Daily Express re- J presentai ivo. “'Painting on eyes and eyebrows is likely to have a had effect, because it irritates and inflames the skin. Powder, used moderately, however, is not at all harmful, and a little powder on n shiny nose doos much to . improve a wpxuapx appearance."