ASCP Skin Deep

MARCH | APRIL 2020

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ASCP & you THEN & NOW This year, we're taking a look back at the origins of some of today's most effective skin care treatments, including a few that are downright scary. We've come a long way, baby! THEN Like many hot skin care treatments, beauty masks are not new. Ancient Greeks slathered on yogurt and honey as an antiaging treatment (sound familiar?), and during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), beauty masks were concocted from powdered eggshells, alum, borax, ground almonds, and poppy seeds. Rubber masks appeared in the late 1800s and were touted as a way to do everything from sweat out impurities to erase wrinkles and skin imperfections. The 1920s brought the famed Elizabeth Arden Vienna Youth Mask, a paper mask with tin lining connected to a box that supplied low levels of high-frequency electrical currents. (Today, we refer to this treatment as microcurrent.) In the 1940s, several of Helena Rubinstein's masks were popular for tightening and lightening. Other early masks contained heating coils, ice, and slices of fruit. Most of these ideas were on the right track, creating a foundation for today's skin care masks. NOW Can you name a manufacturer that doesn't off er some type of mask? Masks to attack dark spots, blackheads, and large pores. Masks to cleanse, exfoliate, and hydrate. Masks that contain every ingredient imaginable. And most recently, sheet masks that are convenient, eff ective, and aff ordable. The modern face-mask craze began in South Korea, and beauty enthusiasts around the world have jumped on board, extolling smooth, soft, and healthy results. For esties, masks are the perfect add-on or retail suggestion. Under Cover Love beauty masks? You won't believe how long they've been around by Mary Barthelme Abel 80 ascp skin deep march/april 2020 In 1938, Helena Rubinstein introduced the Beautilift Mask. Rubinstein recommended that it be used for 20 minutes once or twice a week (while, of course, smoking a cigarette). Patented in 1875, Madame Rowley's Toilet Mask was to be worn while sleeping to "encourage sweating to soften and clarify the skin by relieving the pores." Working ladies could fi ght wrinkles and skin imperfections by wearing their rubber beauty masks to the offi ce.

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