THE QUEST AFTER BEAUTY

Ladies' Mirror, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 July 1922, Page 35

THE QUEST AFTER BEAUTY

Common-sense and the Complexion Specialist

THERE'S something very disconcerting in reading advertisements of different creams, soaps, methods, or in going about to different beauty shops, because they seem to contradict each other; they seem, in fact, to give the direct lie to each other. But it is well to remember that all the good proprietors and creators of these various things are in earnest; they believe in and respect their work. They all have the same fundamentals, namely, the firming up of muscles that the wear and tear of life have pulled loose and lax; the preservation of the texture of young skin, thinness, clearness, softness; the stimulation of the. circulation for the sake of colour in skin and hair and eyes, and also for the glossiness and thickness of hair, that young, alive look that worry and wear and tear (not time) take away from one; the retention of the contour of youth in the body, a beautiful slimness. elasticity, buoyancy, a battle against the scrawniness of age or the thickening of the waistline and the throat and between the shoulders in the back; a harmony externally with the type mentally. Those of them who have chosen a soap method have got good results from it. Those who think soap is ruinous and use only cold-cream have got good results from it. The soap people have got best results from skin that was too oily, or not delicate. The cold-cream people have got their best results from dry and delicate skins. Some of them believe in one another, but most of them think they have the only really satisfactory method known. Diagnose your own skin; is it dry or is it oily? If it's oily are you sure that your intestines are in good order. If it's dry, how are your nerves? If it is eruptive go to a good skin specialist who is a doctor, or. if you can't do that, go to a good every-day doctor and find out if there is anything wrong with you inside. If you have acne, try a daily mask of herbs, and if that doesn't cure you, go to the best skin specialist you know of or can find out about. Acne can be cured; it is often a long process, but it can be cured. Wrinkles, blackheads, thick skin —there is a cure for every one of them. Travel light. When you have found out the kind of thing that works for you, stick to it. Experiment until you find your own. This is true not only in regard to beauty methods, but to the kind of clothes you wear, the kind of life you want to lead, the kind of husband you want to own, the kind of human beings you want your children to be, the kind "of work you want to do. the kind of people you want as friends. But be sure you experiment intelligently. Take your hair, for instance. There are many, many good tonics

on the market. But back of all tonics is one fundamental fact—the massage of the scalp is more than half the cure. And the right kind of massage, with the cushions of the fingers, held firmly but not Dressing hard, or the cushioned lower part of the hand. Making the scalp loose and the circulation strong is the fundamental. Learn to massage properly, diagnose your hair, get the kind of tonic it ought to have and stick to it. And for the face, the fundamentals are not to stretch the skin or muscles, but keep the pores fine, lift, lift, train the muscles to stay taut as they do in youth; not to feed an oily face with more oils, but get the glands active; not to dry out the dry skin with anything that has glycerin in it in any preponderance. Keep it clean, keep clean inside, find a pure, good coldcream, if you use creams, or a good, pure, mild soap, if you need soap, and stick to them. Read the best beauty articles you know of—don't scatter over the whole field; go a few times to the. best beauty specialist you can find —The Ladies' Mirror can give you a list—try her method out faithfully, and if it agrees with you, stick to it. If you don't see a decided change in a month's time, it isn't the right method for you If you use Madame So-and-So's cleansing cream, give it a fair trial. Remember also that her other preparations are devised to work in harmony with it. Here is a point which is sometimes overlooked. It's all this awful bothering that makes us look dragged and worried and shallow and all alike. Then sit down in your nice, clean, fairly empty house, and say: "Just this one winter, at least, I am going to own myself. Of course, I can't absolutely, but just as far as I can. If the earth suddenly turns over and stands on its head, I'm not going to bother. I'm just going to hang on, clutch the few people I love, and see it through • without turning a hair. "If I'm the ugliest woman I know, I'm going to find a perfectly quiet, clean-cut way of making that ugliness striking and magnetic. I'm not going to stay in any old place life chooses to put me. I'm going to ride Life just this one winter, instead of its riding me!" Sooner or later, life has a way of jumping up suddenly and thrusting out its chin at you. And when it has once done it, the fight is on, and it won't stop until one of you has proved yourself the master. The quickest way to command life is to travel light, to throw away all the things you don't need, to make the number of things just as small as you can make it. And then fight! Fight for beauty in your life. And freedom. Your family won't lose by it. Own yourself! The great beauties of history were the great lovers, " the great livers, the people who kept their emotions young and plastic.

Clean house this winter. Throw out all the litle, petty, messy things that bind your wings. Lifethis life here, anyway—is so destructive of women; unless they refuse to be destroyedto be snowed.under by trifles. *