THE LEAVES WERE changing, the days were shortening-time for a visit to the salon to bleach out the tan you worked on all summer. In the 1920s, a “healthy” tan became fashionable as women shed restrictive clothes, took up sports and painted their faces. For white women, at least, skin color became another style to put on and take off-one that often came in a most unflattering red; the first sunscreen didn’t come along until the ’30s.
Amount spent by U.S. women on lotions and creams in 1926: $50 MILLION.
Rank of cosmetics and skin care among items consumers were least likely to cut back on after the Iraq war began in 2003: 1
Time that women generally look their best, according to Helena Rubinstein in 1931: 3 P.M. SUNDAY. When they look their worst: 1 P.M. SATURDAY.
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“God has given you one face, and you give yourselves another.”
–SHAKESPEARE, “HAMLET”
