Since the face, the neck, and the upper chest are the parts of your body most exposed to air, light, and dust, it is imperative that you give them the greatest share of your attention in order to preserve their fresh-ness and bloom. And the most important means of preserving them is com-plete cleanliness.

Every woman has her own method of cleansing her face: some use noth-ing but cream, and some prefer soap and water above all else. Most likely both methods are necessary and should be used together; but every rule has its exceptions, and if you have grown accustomed to using one of these two methods to the exclusion of the other, and have found that it has preserved your complexion satisfac-torily, do not give it up for another. In general, however, it is best to use both methods together at least once a day, before going to bed, and then to resort to one or the other from time to time in the course of the day.

Before Bed

Massage your face, your neck, and the upper part of your chest with a generous quantity of

cleansing cream (cold cream), for it dissolves the greater part of the dirt and softens what remains, making it easy to clean off with soap. Then, after a few min-utes, wipe off the cream and the dirt dissolved in it with a soft cloth, and begin at once to wash your face with lukewarm water and soap. Let the soap you use be of the pure kind that does not irritate the skin. Work its lather in with your fingertips in a light semicircular motion from below upward, moving from the front toward the outer side of the face. And do not forget to do the same for your neck and upper chest as well. Then wash the soap off completely with lukewarm and then cold water, until you are sure that not a trace of soap remains on your skin.

Dry Skin

If you are one of those with dry skin (which may happen owing to heat or the severity of the weather, and espe-cially between the ages of thirty and forty), use soap only before bed, and in the manner we have described; after that, massage your face and neck with the cream

known as tissue cream or nourishing cream or skin food, or any of the creams containing a gen-erous quantity of lanolin, which softens the skin; wait a few minutes, then wipe it off gently, leaving a little of it on your skin until morn-ing. During the day, cleanse your face with cream only.

Oily Skin

There are women whose complexions secrete oily substances in excess, and their trouble is the reverse of the former. The cause of this is usually eating too much fatty food and dishes fried in ghee. If you are of this type of woman, replace some of the fatty foods with vegetables and fruit, and wash your face with soap and water several times a day instead of using cream. And if cream cannot be dispensed with, use cleansing cream instead of cold cream or tissue cream or skin food, and beware of sleeping with any trace of cream on your face.

In some cases it may be advisable to use a soft brush to work the soap over the face a few times a week, on condition that you cut down on its use

at once if you find that it has begun to irritate the skin of your face.

Blackheads and Whiteheads

Both result from the accumulation of dirt and dust in the channels of the skin's oils. The difference between them is that the former appear as black points on the surface of the skin, while the latter remain white gatherings beneath the skin. As for blackheads, the most effective means of getting rid of them is to steam the face several times a week with cloths moistened with hot water, then to rub the face well with soap (with the finger), especially around the blackheads, and to wash it thor-oughly with lukewarm and then cold water. This method softens the skin to a degree that makes it easy to be rid of these blackheads by a slight pressure of the fingertips or with a spe-cial instrument made for the purpose (a blackhead remover). Afterward the face must be washed with cold water and the traces of the blackheads wiped with alum or with the 'egg plaster' (below), to close them and to pre-vent dirt from gathering in them a second time.

Whiteheads may be harder to be rid of, although in most cases they can be removed by the very method followed above. If you do not succeed in this,