Never to Busy to Be Beautiful

It might be a little more artful these days, but advertisers have always known that when it comes to making the fairer sex feel inadequate, weight and looks are the easiest targets. From an age when a woman wasn't complete until she'd bagged her beau, this collection of postcards brings you the ads for lotions and potions that promised love and eternal happiness (or your money back). They are skin-refreshing, figure-restoring, corn-busting, corset-typing, blackhead-eradicating, flesh-reducing, wrinkle-dissolving, smile-enhancing, compliment-inducing wonder preparations for the busy girl about town.

These kitschy collections of old ads and magazine covers—little albums of suppressed memories—are designed for instant dispatch to friends, family, and loved ones. Each consists of 23 color postcards.