Saving Face

I like to watch QVC & HSN when they feature makeup and skin care experts because I often learn a new technique. The other day I was applying makeup and listening to the Smashbox makeup artist give the latest tips and I thought how so many of us are all still little girls at heart, playing with our makeup. The QVC lady said "Nighttime skin care is back"! Well now, I never knew it had gone out of fashion. I've always applied a day cream and a night cream. I learned it from my mother. She used Charles of the Ritz Revenescence every morning and every night on her beautiful skin. Althought Mother was not a vain woman, she was dedicated to her skin care regimen. When I was growing up in the Fifties, our family belonged to a local country club and my mother was one heck of a golfer. She would come home every Tuesday, Ladies Day, with that outdoorsy fresh air smell tinged with a bit of salt. I loved that smell. All the ladies played golf on Tuesdays after which they gathered in the grill room to eat, drink cocktails and play bridge or gin rummy. One woman in particular fascinated my Mother. Her name was Mary Alice and she apparently never went to bed without her makeup intact nor did she allow her husband to see her in the morning until she'd reapplied it and done her hair. As I recall, Mary Alice was a chic blonde with a chignon who wore false eyelashes and blue eye shadow. My mother was a brunette with dark brown eyes and a ready smile. She never wore eye make up because her eyes would tear and she'd rub it all off. She had a rosey complexion enhanced with a creamy rouge and powder. Her one stickler was lipstick. She always had it on. But that was all. She could not figure out why a nice looking "gal" with a good figure who was, most importantly, a good golfer felt she had to have her make up on before her husband saw her. Don't get me wrong. My mother was always put together; she just wasn't a fanatic about it. And, I don't think she was particularly concerned about whether my father saw her in make up or not. Amen to that!