BELLES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1942, 12 September 1889, Page 4

BELLES.

The luxurious habits of New York women have grown (says a writer in the New York Times) nearly to rival the stories told of Popsea, who had bushels of fresh rose leaves picked every night to sleep on and who took a daily morning bath of asses’ milk to keep her skin soft and satiny. This is not quite the form that luxury takes here, but the amount of time*and labour spent in the care of person and the preservation of beauty is something calculated to surprise the people who give it no attention. The maid has ceased to be sufficient attendance, her time being more or less absorbed by the toilet and cognate matters, so the present plan is to engage the services of a woman who goes out by the day or hour, and whose cards read “ ladies’ toilets.”

She has entire charge of the persons of her customers, and it is her duty to see that they are kept beautiful. Once or twice a week she rubs, combs, brushes, clips, and cleans their hair, undertaking to keep it soft, sleek, and thick. She manicures tbe nails, and uses and recommends such pungents as are warranted to keep tbe bands soft and white. She is a pedicure as well, and keeps her customers’ feet in as perfect condition as their hands. She has a thousand different

DEVICES FOE BEAUTIFYING THE FACE, and undertakes to ward off wrinkles by her rubbings and emollients. She trains eyebrows'in the way they should, go, removes superfluous hair, induces eyelashes to thicken and lengthen; keeps the skin smooth, fresh, and fair, and declares she can .'make the lips keep their bloom without the use of rouge., She looks after the figure, too, having a system called the “ Swedishmovement,” by which.she tightens up

FLACCID MUSCLES, rounds thin throats and lean arms, and removes any of the disfigurements of outline that have resulted from tight lacing and the abnormal tendency of the flesh to any one part of the body. She reduces flesh, too, and undertakes to develop symmetry. Her principal occupation, however, and the one best relished, by her luxurious employers, is

MASSAGE, BATH. The tub is filled with warm water, quite as hot as can be comfortably borne, and into this is thrown a .bath bag, consisting of a little sack of cheesecloth loosely filled with almond meal, powdered orris, and grated soap. The water turns soft and milky as the contents of the bag dissolves, and the skin is rubbed with the bag, which makes a smooth violet-perfumed lather, and leaves the flesh as soft as a child’s.

THE BATHEE IS EUBBED DEY, and rolled in a big sheet of Turkish towelling, and then every inch of the body is carefully rubbed, kneaded, and ninched with hands moistened in violet water, which impregnates the skin with a faint, flower-like perfume. This takes the place of exercise in a great measure, and women who are too indolent or too busy to walk or practise in a gymnasium finds this keeps the skin in equally good condition, and is a more luxurious method of setting the blood in circulation. Another fancy of these dainty women is

TO SLEEP IN SILK. They have long abjured any other wear for underclothes, and now there are being shown in the shops that eater to all the new whims of the sex sets of silk sheets and pillowcases in all colours. With these goes the beautiful East Indian blankets, woven entirely of raw silk, and dowa spreads covered with surah or satin. These sheets and pillowcases are hemstitched, with a crest or monogram embroidered in one corner. Some of them have a delicate vine embroidered along the edge, or a broad band of Aranu work. They are of all delicate colors, and white [and black.