Return to Glamour

Since the coming of the commissars, Hungarian women, who used to be among Europe's most chic, have turned pale and proletarian. Reason: the commissars banned cosmetics. One result: a black market in smuggled lipsticks and rouge.

Finding vanity invincible, Hungary's Communist bosses recently opened state-owned beauty parlors in Budapest. Government-operated plants began to turn out face powder, creams, shampoos, etc. But the stuff was shoddy, the kissproof lipstick ran, and women went back to the black market. Last week, retreating but not beaten, state stores were selling "imported cosmetics" at up to twelve times the price of the local products. Even so, many were ersatz products wearing fake French and U.S. labels.

In Soviet-controlled Germany, the Communists also retreated a little before creeping Westernisms. On sale now in state-run stores in Stralsund: a soft drink called "Cofa-Cola."

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