Just for fun….
I’ve been meaning to do something about this for ages. Every morning when I smoothe on a dab of two of my daytime moisturizing lotion I think of my best friend. Maybe it was because she was two years older than i—but everyone was because I was two years ahead of myself—and she fussed about her face. The fact is I didn’t, fuss that is. I never learned what to do about mu face (until it was too late). Anyway, I had spent the night at Nancie’s place and in the morning she offered me her favourite cosmetic-no, toiletry.
“Good for your skin,” she said.
So I poured some into my hands prepared to wash my face with the contents.
“No,” she cautioned me. “Not so much. Just a few drops.” And I remind myself every morning not to use too much of my daytime lotion.
It was Dorothy Gray Orange Flower Water. Does anyone remember it? I looked it up. It was an astringent, better for you than soap and water.
“How astringents work
Astringents appear to have a cooling and/or tightening effect on the skin but the mechanism by which they work was not well understood. One suggestion is that they affect keratin, the main skin protein. Salt bonds in keratin are affected by pH and temperature and will only form if the skin is slightly acidic or cool. If the salt bonds are broken, the keratin molecules move further apart from each other and the stratum corneum swells. If the skin is cooled, the salt bonds reform producing a tightening effect on the skin.
A cooling affect on the skin can be achieve by adding materials such as alcohol that evaporates quickly; splashing cold water on the face; using an ice pack; or by applying an aromatic compound such as menthol, sage or camphor that stimulates the cold sensing nerves in the skin to constrict the surface blood vessels.” (Online info)
! I haven’t used soap on my face since I was nine years old.
Here are a few more memories; try them on for size (or age).
Ben Hur perfume. You could get it at Woolworth’s.
Chen Yu Nail polish. (“Long lasting nail lacquer with silk proteins. Anti-impact formula, rapid drying and incomparable shine. 18 tones.”
Halo shampoo. (In 1938 the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company in Jersey City, N.J., introduced Halo, the zero soap shampoo. Their slogan was "Soaping dulls hair, while Halo glorifies it." The product came with a double-your-money back guarantee.)
And here’s something I remember all by myself:
“Ipana for the smile of beauty',
Sal Hepatica for the smile of health.”
Is that too remote for you?