recovers its vitality and vigor.

It is essential to remove one's makeup before sleeping, or before an afternoon rest, so that the complexion may rest during that interval and regain its freshness.

What is the best way to wipe off makeup, Olga Chammas asked her? Cream and tonic, of course, came the answer once more...

Yes, Holzman went on, that is the best of methods... When you apply cleansing cream (or cold cream), work it well into the face with light circular motions that do no harm to the skin and the muscles, and wipe away the excess after it has seeped into all the pores... Then use the tonic, a solution that removes the cream; it contains a little alcohol, which cleanses pimples without burning them as rubbing spirits and cologne water do...

Cleansing the complexion is done in two stages: the first to remove the dust, and the second to remove the cream, the foundation, what the pores secrete, and the dead cells that cause so much trouble.

And never use water and soap at all!

Here Edvick broke in to object, though she had not wished to force her way into the discussion: I believe nothing cleanses the face like pure native soap and water. My proof is my own complexion, on which all my life I have used nothing but our soap — the soap of Lebanon, made from olive oil — and never once have I been troubled by any complexion problem...!

We looked long at Edvick's face and agreed that her fresh complexion had never been harmed by olive soap. And each of us began to recall how her mother, or her aunt, or some other possessed a pure and beautiful complexion and had never in her life used anything to wash her face but soap and water...

Holzman laughed and said, I admit that olive soap is good, but the quantity of alkaline matter it contains is large; it harms the skin and burns it, nor does it cleanse as it should... And I can prove it to you: if I put a little cream on a piece of cotton and wiped Edvick's face with it, some dirt would appear on the cotton, for all the purity that shows itself to you.