I kind of got the impression from the 100+ comments on my post about my Nanny’s birthday party, that y’all are interested in two critical pieces of information.
1. What is Nanny’s skincare regimen and has she made some sort of lucrative deal with God? And if so, how can you get in on that action?
2. What does that cat eat and does it include a growth hormone cocktail?
I can’t help y’all with the cat. It’s a Persian and it consists primarily of fur. If I had to guess, I’d say that if you shaved it bald it would look like a ferret.
It would also quit hacking up hairballs.
But Nanny read all your comments and has agreed to share her skincare secrets. However, I feel compelled to let you know that you can rest assured she has withheld some piece of information in here somewhere because she never gives away all her secrets.
It’s like the recipes for her cinnamon cake or her fudge. I can come close to duplicating them, but something is still missing.
This is the email that Nanny sent me (cut and pasted word for word):
“My complexion care began at an early age – like when I was about 13. We didn’t have clothes dryers back in those days so we had miles of clothes lines where we hung the wash out to dry. Maybe it had something to do with my growing taller, but it became my turn to hang the laundry out to dry.
Now, the wash consisted of tons clothes and sheets (so many that I still have nightmares about them). I feel certain that is why I hate Mondays to this day. Everyone knew that Mondays were ‘wash day’.
I say that to say this: My Mama who had the most beautiful skin in Texas allowed absolutely no sun to come in contact with her baby’s precious skin—-ever! Bonnets were worn from birth forward. Matter of fact, all girl babies were probably born wearing them.
However, she did try to train me in the sharing of chores with my siblings. So, there I went with a basket of freshly washed clothes and sheets. I had to wear a big bonnet with ‘slate’ that extended at least 12 inches out from my face. Not one ray of sunshine was permitted on my face.
Beyond the bonnet, I was required to wear long stockings pulled up on my arms all the way to my shoulders. These ‘arm’ stockings were pinned to my blouse along the shoulder seams.
My skin never had a freckle – much less a tan. I never learned to swim – same reason, no sun! To this day I am terribly afraid of the water. However, I called my daughters bluff by ‘teaching’ them both how to swim just by coaching from the sidelines.
But, that is another story, and I won’t digress further – as my granddaughter, Big Mama, tends to do.
As I mentioned before, my Mother had gorgeous skin so she taught me proper skincare. No soap (too drying) – I think Witch Hazel (an herb or shrub of some sort I think) ointment cleaned and was a good night cream. No moisturizer, just powder when I was a teenager.
Later she introduced me to Ponds cream. Yes, it has been around a long time, and it is still good.
By the time I was a senior in high school, a line of makeup came out called Luziers. I had everything a girl at that time could ever want in order to look good and take care of her skin. I used it for years while my girls were growing up.
Whenever I was running late, and friends would ask where I was, Big Bob got a kick out of saying, “Oh, she’s still home sitting in front of the mirror fighting with ‘them’ Luziers.” He could be such a smart aleck sometimes!
Sometime during the late 50’s or early ’60’s, someone introduced me to Avon products. It was nice to have sales and delivery right to to your home.
Through the years, I have tried various brands of this and that. Currently, I am using Abolene cleansing cream, Oil of Olay intensive night cream ($9 at Walgreens), sometimes EB5 as advertised by Penneys, Loreal foundation.
The one big extravagance that I adopted thirty years ago is Alexandra de Markoff daytime moisturizer. It is expensive but one bottle lasts forever and is worth its weight in gold.
If I stay in a dry climate for 3-4 weeks, I come home and keep my skin covered in Vaseline as much as possible. A little uncomfortable – but again, it can work magic.”
Can I just laugh about her reference to staying in a “dry climate”? She lives in Beaumont, TX. Everywhere else in the world is considered a “dry climate” compared to Beaumont, including Houston.
I can attest to the generous use of Abolene cleansing cream. It is one of the smells of my childhood. Any night I spent with Nanny ended with us watching Johnny Carson while she coated her face with Abolene and then wiped it off with a soft cloth.
She was also a pioneer of a product that’s now called Frownies, although I believe in those days they were called Wings.
Or maybe I just called them Wings because when I tried just now to Google “Wings” all that came up was a list of feminine products.
I never understood why someone would sleep with something pasted on their forehead, but now that I wake up with eight different creases in my forehead every morning, it seems a perfectly logical thing to do.
So there you have it. How to look fab at 90.
Of course I’ll also need a time machine to erase all the summers I spent baking in the sun.
There are some things that even Abolene can’t wash away.