There are some products that never leave you. You can smell them and feel them even though you may not have touched or even seen them since the last time there was a year of the Metal Rat!
A recent post about hand cream immediately made me think of a product called Nulon. It was very PINK and had a lovely smell and it was the sort of thing that, as an affordable little luxury, you’d get as a gift for a birthday or Christmas. The only image I can find doesn’t do it justice. This bottle was the seventies plastic and not the original glass and has clearly aged less than gracefully.
My Moms beauty routine was simple. Oil of Ulay moisturizer and a little lipstick and if someone had bought it for her a rub of Nulon on the hands too. She didn’t buy hand lotion for herself.
My Mums Mum Granny Gibson was very partial to talc especially Yardley’s Lavender and again this was used like a perfume on special occasions only. Granny Barr was older and never dreamed of using anything other than soap and water. Any soap would do but if it was Pears she’d be delighted! I think she even washed her hair with soap!
I spent a lot of time at my friend Carols house and her Mum was younger and a little more adventurous than mine. No foundation or blusher or eye makeup but she might have a brighter colored lipstick than my Mum and she had Ponds Cold Cream that was very thick and exotic and had to be used very sparingly. Carol and I sampled it in secret! Just the tiniest touch!
The funniest product of all that Mrs Braithwaite had was a hair gel called Dippity Do! You could set your hair for a week with this. It was to all intents and purpose pink super glue and gave us the giggles.
All these items came in small bottles often glass or in thin metal tubs and were used in tiny amounts and treasured like gold.
Does the abundance we have today diminish our ability to appreciate the beauty of something as simple as a little dab of cream? As my Mum often would say “little pots of powder little dabs of paint makes a girls complexion look like what it ain’t”
Maybe that’s why all the wrinkle creams don’t work. We just use too much of them!
Blessing # 599 – Mini Magic
