WHY LADIES USE PAINT AND POWDER.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 794, 28 March 1871, Page 3

WHY LADIES USE PAINT AND POWDER.

No one who goes much into society, especially in London, can fail to notice how Ycry common the use of paints, powders, and cosmetics has become of late years. This fashion we owe, with many others, to the constantly increas. ing intercourse with the Parisians. Few Frenchwomen have good complexions, at least what English people consider as such—a clear skin, with a bright healthy bloom on it; and since the Empress of the French has resigned as the queen of fashion in Paris, golden hair and a fair complexion have become the great desideratum amongst the usually raven-haired and dark or sallow skinned Parisians. Thus the use of powders, dyes, paints, and cosmetics has become a necessity to the women of fashion in Paris ; and no one can doubt this fact who has been in society in Paris, or who has seen the Bois de Boulogne when filled with the beau monde, amongst the fairer portion of which a perfectly natural face is rather the exception than the rule. It is a great pity that Englishwomen, who have not the same excuse for using artificial aids for the complexion, should have copied the Parisians in this much to-be-condemned fashion. For it is impossible, believe me, to conceal the use of artificial aids for any length of time. However careful you may be, there are lights in which the paint and blanc de perle, &c, though smoothed by the powder puff, will show their presence, and then the charms of the colouring vanish when they are seen to be false.