The morning news., 1889-05-05
PROFIT IN COSMETICS.
Immense Fortunes Built Up By the
Use Of Facs Powders.
From the Chicago Herald,

From the Chicago Herald.
Cosmetics was the topic of an interest
ing paper read by Prof. Albert f. Ebert,
president of the Illinois board of pharmacy,
at t annual meeting OF the Woma Is
Physiological Institute at No 45 Randolph
street yes erday afternoon. Unfor unate y
for the public good, and especially for the
good of wonankind, there was buta small
audie. CO of some fifteen or twenty ladies
The professor laid out efore his
hearers a small drug store stock
of cosmetics, consisting Of tox
or q bottle Of almost every
noted make, and then proceeded
to tell what they were made of, and what
they actually ST. and what they sold for
at retail, proving that the whole busi less
was a / outrage ,us swin1l as regards price,
to say nothing of palming off on a colidl G
public as an innoce 1t aId harmless lotion,
or pow Ter, no,trum made of dangerous
and hurtful drug The component parts
If the most WI ,e.y kno vn face powders are
chalk, starch, magnesia, bismuth AMI oxile
of ri &c, some of them being a 'mbinatlon
of two or more ingredients. while others.
and by long odds t 10 most of them, are
nothing bat French chalk pure and simple.
What the profe said va; not s. mus a
coudemnatiol OF the use of cosmetics as it
was an expanat n OF the swindles prac-
tice by m ,nufactu' ers.
There a e 1000 of these preparations"
he said, land one firm alone In this city
lists 1000 of the H. Then he read seven
simple formulas and gave the ma es of a
halt dozen elements, and Slid that every
complu sold, under whatever n lms, m
tanned nothing he had not named. This
little pot" ne sail, holding up cream
''has at present wonderful reput aGion on
the sire igth of the secret for mula, said to
have been ths secret of a fam rus French
wonan's beauty. What is lt2 Common
zinc oxide ground in eq ial parts of water
and glycerine and Derfum I'd with rose. |
will give you the formula nd he did so.
at has pretty ribbon about it, and sells
for 81 80 or SIS doz IN. What does i costs
Ten cents.n Then he showed the ladies
wnat they were buying wnen they pur-
chased another cream Of vide reputation.
"You pay 81 50 for it. 1t Is . pretty bottle
and h dds eig ounces; seven OF then are
pure water, the other is calomel. Cost Of
calomel for q d zen bottles, IS cent '; st
of bottles, 25 csnts; filing and corking, 8
cents; total, 66 cents; retail, ais"
Magnesia, the professor stated, is not
nearly so conmo lv us ax Is gene ally
supposed; 1t is too fluffy and lacks adhering
pr ,perties. One nam for u facs pjwder is
flake white" and if lady goes into a
drug store asking for that article she gets
nOLQl. x Dut buc WuN6 leaC, Hlhub
from zinc In chalk, lime Is pred ninat-
ing feature and cannot he . bnt bs in
furious to the skin. He produced box of
popular powder hat sold at retail at 81 5 ;,
a I'd then said it was no hing but French
chalk, pure and simple, a ID that one cent
would be an ext ,rtiolate price for the
amount cont i led in the box. He was very
sarcastic over the recon- ne idations from
noted chem SITS and printed OF the labels
and over the testimonials from ac iresses
and singers, aud while on this subject
elected laugh as he mentioned the name
II a well-known and popular downtown
ciergymau.
metics,n sud the doctor, "is greatly over
dra Sn. Face preparati ms have a lsglti-
mate use. and, pro perly used, arc no 10 g
ha mful than perfumes. ri c, when present
in DO vders, posse Sc SON. curative powers,
a I'd bisnuth is only slightly injurious The
principal trouble IS econti ued apIlica-
ii ~ Of powders nd this stopping up ~ the
capillaries of the face. Most face powders
are only zinc, bsmuth, uagneSil and chalk.
Lead and mercury seldom enter into them.
Tlese are more fieque tly found in washes,
which get their only merit from the glyce-
riae or oil in wheat elements are ground.
In all Of them there is no difference except
as o name"
DR.. Ebert had some figures which showed
that S62, ,J0J, ,00J we're spelt in Americl each
year for cI.ine,ics. of which, S25 0OO0)O
were reinvested IN advertising, and that the
remainder, S37 7,0O0,0OO. "as nrnh-.