odourofdevonviolet.com
The Scent That Captures That "1930s Moment"!
All material copyrighted to odourofdevonviolet.com © 2014
or to the various credited sources © 2014
...Ladies Who Don’t; Keep It Vintage; Sentimental Emporium;
Memory Lane; Manifest Destiny; Times Past; A Touch
Of Class; Cast Offs From Old Brass; Ain’t It Shockin’
The Price of Butter?; We Never Should Have Gone Decimal
In The First Place; Never Had It So Good; Whatever Happened
To…?; Do You Remember When…?; Those Were The Days;
Step Back In Time; Never Mind The Future; It Happened There;
If There Weren’t Any Scroungers You’d Have to Invent Them;
Mint Imperial; Scrimp It; Put YourFeet Up For A Bit; A Cup
Of Char; Charva Palaver; Laid Out In Lavender; Devon Violet…
XXIX
THE RESTORATION ROOMS has just opened up on the corner
Of Valance Road, in the unoccupied gloss-framed shop, hunter
Green curtains bowed in windows like funeral parlour drapes:
Bygone goods mark its opening: a 1930s green mangle, or
Wringer, a late 1940s walnut bureau and matching Attlee
Settlement replete with bakelite accoutrements; VELVET
Has a new Thirties’ range of papier-mâché floral-papered
Escritoires, gallimaufries of knickknacks engorged with
Union Jacks and litanies of KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
Souvenirs for tourists of timewarp Britain, cheap flights
To the Thirties: coasters, dish-towels, aprons and framed
Pictures; VINTAGE LEAVES are offering discounts for
Their services: 'Choicest Oriental and Indian teas
Served in China cups’; while KEEP IT VINTAGE is baking cakes
From halcyon recipes, rising like decorated icinged graves,
And serving up Turtle soups with black soda bread –
The acquired taste of stag antlers stacked up in its window;
And, in the shadowy stucco-moulded corner of a white
Wedding-cake backstreet, MRS. CANUTICACQ’S EMPORIUM
Is chocablock with bakelite and brica-a-brac curiosities
Sporting hand-written price-tags, prices quaintly out of reach…
But all these quixotic attractions play second fiddles to the latest
Range of DEVON VIOLET perfumes, talcum, soft soaps, aftershaves…
O those stinging DEVON VIOLET aftershaves –DV boasts
The most comprehensive portfolio of chauvinistic aftershaves,
Gels and creams, talcums, balms, sprays, spices, perfumes –
Unafraid to call a spade a spade or play a tune with spoons…
XXX
Self-emulsifying polyol stearates were introduced from
The 1930s; the testers for these were originally patented
Under Telgin. This marked something of a distillatory
Renaissance: now all materials were heated and mixed together,
Then poured into containers –this revolutionised the process
Of vanishing cream manufacture, making it considerably
Simpler (deNavarre, 1975). Creams were supremely softer
Than the traditional stearates but unfortunately often
Lost their pearly sheen. Nevertheless, Vanishing Creams
Had a non-greasy advantage which rendered them eminently
Suitable for daytime use by women with oily skin. As well as
Allowing powder to stay intact on the face, they were also
Advertised as protecting the skin from ‘chapping winds’
And ‘sooty breezes’. The presence of a humectant was used
As the basis for claims that they helped reduce loss of moisture
From dry skin… And then there was HAZELINE SNOW:
Doubtless there were certain coteries who used make-up
Liberally, but it certainly wasn’t common, and the jars and
Flasks contained eau-de-cologne as opposed to true scent,
While cold cream was used as a broad lubricant. Chapped
Hands carried glycerine. The chic Parisians were pioneers
Of foundation medium –many milky English wives dashed
Across the Channel to purchase the dinky tubes of POND’S
ERASMIC VANISHING CREAM, and share them out among
Their friends like scarce and illicit indulgences. This marked
A true advance in cosmetics: the powder stuck to one’s nose
So one needn’t squint downwards with one eye to check if it had
Acquired that type of uncomely polished look, so frowned-upon,
A proboscis taboo… DEVON VIOLET VANISHING CREAM
Will moisturise those parched falanges, cleanse and gentrify
Oily skin of dermatological parasites, leaving them smooth
And fragrant, all vagrant blemishes rubbed out -vanished!
[paraphrased from http://www.cosmeticsandskin.com/aba/vanishing-cream.php]
