510 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS the durability and attractiveness of lipstick, nail enamel and eye make-up are all strongly dependent on the subjective attitude of the particular user to the shade worn and it is important to be aware of this. As this is a professional panel and will spend most of its time testing either one's own or competitive products, its members will develop good critical faculties. Products can be tested in the early stages of formulation, and unsatisfactory products eliminated, for the chemists will hardly be able to escape criticism at such close quarters. This type of test procedure has little in common witb. the use of women members of the laboratory staff on a haphazard and occasional basis of product testing. In the field of skin care products, such as the moisturising creams and• lotions, night creams of all types and the so-called medico-cosmetics, there is an unbridgeable gap between the illusion of eternal youth and the hard reality of advancing age--a gap which cannot be closed by any cream.. Scientists tend to regard with much cynicism the extravagant claims made by copywriters. In addition, certain well meaning champions of the public good seize upon these particular cosmetics to paint the picture of an unscru- pulous industry selling worthless products at high prices to foolish, gullible women. The nett result of these factors could be the product[on of a negative attitude to the formulation of better skin care products. The outlook for altering the appearance of the skin by the use of medico-. cosmetics is not encouraging. The use of therapeutic substances, as in the pharmaceutical industry, to produce definite changes in or on the body may produce undesirable side-effects. The risk involved has to be calculated and, as recent history has shown, can be tragically wrong. There may be some justification for this risk in the pharmaceutical industry, but none whatever in the cosmetic 'industry. For this reason, the incorporation of' therapeutic substances into cosmetics must be carried out in such a way that no one can possibly be harmed, either because of undue sensitivity or through prolonged use or mis-use. This imposes limitations on the type and dosage level of therapeutic substances available for incorporation into medico- cosmetics. Even when an active ingredient is discovered which produces. visible changes on the skin, the permissible dosage and potency of the agent will be at such a low level that on!y a small minority of women are likely to experience any real benefit. Fortunately, this apparent deadlock does not mean the prohibition of legitimate skin care products. To return once more to the pharmaceutical industry, a substantial number of products of no proven value are prescribed by doctors and used by grateful patients this includes, for example, "tonics", sedatives and tranquillisers. Just as women seek eternal youth, knowing that it cannot be achieved, so do many people seek tranquillity in a tablet, knowing that the real prob!em is the life they live. The desire to have some actual product

MODERN COSMETICS--ILLUSION AND REALITY 511 for illnesses which are either fanciful or the cure of which will never be found in a tablet, is so strong that no doctor could refuse to prescribe. Similarly, the desire of women to stay young in appearance needs creams ß and lotions to reinforce and encourage the illusion. On this basis, the average :skin care cream is just as necessary and no more fraudulent than the well known compound of g!ycerophosphates "tonic". Although there is no .cream which will arrest the appearance of age or turn the clock back, there is evidence to support the theory that women who have regularly used skin .care preparations have better skins than those who have not. Expensive packaging will convey to the user the idea that a product is .considered worthy of a luxury pack, whereas a cheap pack can only reinforce .her own doubts about the value of all such products. Additionally, as the putting on and cleaning off of night creams over a period of ten or twenty years can become rather boring, a package and product is required which will convey a certain sense of uniqueness and pleasure. Measured in this way, some of the skin care products on the market are either well below the standard required or possibly formMated to another conception a!to- .gether. For example, one could formulate skin care products along so called "'medical" lines, on the basis that all "do you good" preparations are more or less unpleasant. This might account for the continued existence of the ,traditional greasy, heavy night cream in which the perfume has utterly failed to cover the basic unpleasant odour of the fats and other ingredients. The pharmaceutical industry, however, has moved completely away from this concept of medical preparations in the last decade and development work has been carried out to make medicaments more acceptable to the user, for there is more likelihood of the patient continuing the dosage if the medicine is not unpleasant to take. In persuading women to use skin care preparations as early as possible in life and to continue with their use, it is equally necessary to develop products which are not repugnant either to the user or to any other person in the vicinity. The oily, unaesthetic night cream has no more place in the present-day bedroom than the wearing of curiers or the habit of taking •out one's dentures overnight. Elegance and pleasure must also be strongly associated with the product and pack of the moisturising or day creams and lotions. It must be dis- tressing to purchase a moisturising cream named "Heavenly Petal Dew" ,only to find that it will not pour readily out of its bottle, or that, in the case .of a polythene pack, all that is left of the perfume is a strong candle-like •odour. The cosmetic industry today is expanding at a rate well in excess of the average increase for industry generally. From this, one can only conclude that not only are more women buying cosmetics but that all women are