Vintage Beauty Secret: Ponds Vanishing Cold Cream and Witch Hazel, is older than Maybelline

Chinka Temmuz 04, 2021

Nana in 1978, 77 years old.

When Nana was a teenager during WW1, she was already a fan of the miracle cream that kept her skin moisturized while also removing her Maybelline. As more expensive moisturizing creams became available through the years, Nana continued her nightly routine with Ponds Cold Cream. In fact she made a science out of it until she perfected it into a facial as good as it gets.

Here's Nana's secret to flawless dewy skin, a trick that kept her looking 20 years younger than her actual age, until the day she died at 77.

As a girl, I'd sit in her bathroom at night watching her apply ice cold Ponds Cold Cream, which she kept in the refrigerator right next to the tea bags she had ready to depuff her tired eyes.

"Darling, first you remove all your Maybelline, face makeup and lipstick with Ponds," she'd say, washing her ponds off with a hot towel, holding it on her face for a minute until it cooled down.

Next she'd reapply the Ponds, but this time, sitting down in her chair in front of a magnifying mirror where she could study every line on her face.

"Always stroke up, never down darling," she'd say as I followed her example for the next two or three minutes. She'd stroke her neck 100 times, then do the same thing with her face, using quick strokes from the chin, to the cheeks, around the temples and up to the forehead.

"It takes practice," she'd say making sure I did it correctly.

"Do it again darling, but this time start at the chin, go around the nose and up to the forehead until your skin is bright pink from the blood coming to the surface."

Once she was satisfied with the results, she'd apply a hot towel several times until all traces of the Ponds were removed, then wash her face with Neutrogena skin soap.

Once this labor of love was finished, she'd apply her home made mud pack (Check out the recipe for Nana's Mud, by scrolling down through my blog), apply the tea bags to her eyes (also found in past blogs), lay on her hydroculators (this too, just scroll down) and relax listening to classical music for the next half hour.

When she washed off the Ponds, or the mud pack, she'd soak a cotton ball with Witch hazel, wipe it over her face and neck as an astringent, than apply eye cream, face cream and hand lotion. She'd top it all off by brushing her hair 100 times, looking radiant when she finally went to bed.

To this day I still practice most of Nana's beauty tricks and I must say my skin looks pretty good for my age. Give it a try once a week or more if you have time and experience a facial as good as any professional could give you.