Life — February 5, 1920 — page 47: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is an advertisement, not a cartoon. It promotes Rigaud perfume and cosmetics from a Paris address (16 Rue de la Paix). The ad features a stylized photograph of a woman applying makeup—specifically rouge and face powder—presented as part of the "Mary Garden Perfume" line. The copy uses flowery, pseudo-scientific language typical of 1920s beauty marketing, claiming the products contain "rare flowers" with special "sympathetic vibrations." For modern readers, this reflects the era's aggressive marketing of cosmetics to women, combining luxury branding with pseudoscientific claims about fragrance and beauty products that would likely face regulatory scrutiny today.