We've Come a Long Way, Baby - Part One

My first experience with skin care came when I was about five years old.  My mother used a "special" soap designated for her exclusive use.  It smelled heavenly and with an odd shape about it.

I was mesmerized as she would pat her face with a white cotton square she made herself.  She would move on to her foundation and rouge, yes, it was rouge in those days.  Small round tins with dark pink or red pigment she put on her cheeks.  The ever present eyebrows with a dark brown pencil and lipstick.  No moisturizer, sunscreen, nada.  Horror of horrors!

After dinner, she would resort to Pond's Cold Cream to remove the makeup.  Pond's began selling in the 1840's in a shop in New York and is still sold to this day.  Pond's had a thick consistency and she used a tissue to remove it. To this day, it's still a bitch to remove!  It does remove the make up though.   

At some point and I don't remember when or even if it she used it only periodically, I saw her use another "cleanser" - Noxzema.  Again, this was a product that went back to the early 1900's.  I think the use of Noxzema became more popular in the 60's when it was known for the slogan..."take it off, take it all off".  Pretty racy stuff back then!

I began my personal skin care about the same time I discovered The Beatles, music and boys.  Every morning, I used the "heavenly, odd shaped soap" which did indeed leave my skin soft.  At night, I locked myself in the bathroom to "draw" eyebrows on my face, put lipstick on and the bright pink rouge that made me look more like a juvenile streetwalker than the elegant makeup my mother sported.  I would then proceed to remove the make up with...you guessed it...Pond's Cold Cream. There is something about the smell that brings back the best of memories to this day.  

My skin care regimen was short lived.  For six months, I religiously had a "skin care" routine.  I began to feel grown up and looked forward to the day in which I could wear real makeup to go out.  in public. For the moment, though, it was limited to those evening moments when I locked myself in the bathroom to "paint" myself.  My mother eventually added another component to her makeup routine - Maybelline Mascara - CAKE mascara. 

A dry, black block of pigment (God only knows what it was made of).  You would wet the brush and then slide it against the block and a thick liquid was formed or a pretty thin one if you used too much water.  This was used to brush your eyelashes in an upward motion much like the mascaras of today.  

The first time I tried mascara was the end of my "skin care" for quite some time.  That night, I was going to remove my "makeup" with the pleasant smelling cream in the blue cobalt jar that my mother even used effectively on our sunburns. Being a young 13 year old and the fact that consumers didn't read labels back then, I had no way of know what ingredients were in the blue jar. Noxzema contained camphor, menthol, phenol and eucalyptus.

As I dipped my finger into the jar, the smell filled the room with the dreaded concoction that would cause me to end my "skin care" for the next five years.  Noxzema did indeed remove the mascara but as the ingredients began to seep into my eyes and cause me to put Chubby Checker to shame with my dance moves...I decided skin care was not worth the pain.  

After using numerous towels to "come clean", I ran out of the bathroom with red swollen eyes and blackened streams slipping down my cheeks.  I have never owned a jar of Noxzema since...my days of makeup and skin care were over...