Once upon a time, everyone carried handkerchiefs. Usually linen, sometimes cotton, often decorative and white. Ladies carried delicate lacy ones, gentlemen carried large monogrammed ones, children carried ones printed with juvenile or educational images.
In 1924, Kleenex came out with tissue paper squares that they marketed to women as makeup removers. The description provided to the patent office was “absorbent pads or sheets for removing cold cream.” Ads encouraged women to be like the movie stars, and remove your makeup with cold cream and Kleenex tissues. According to the official Kleenex site, the first magazine ad appeared in 1925 in Ladies Home Journal touting “the new secret of keeping a pretty skin as used by famous movie stars.” Soon, ads were in all the major women’s magazines like McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Redbook.
In 1926, executives discovered that more people were using the tissues as disposable handkerchiefs than for makeup, and they adjusted their advertising accordingly. In 1929 colored tissues were introduced; in 1930, printed tissues; and in 1932, the pocket pack.
This is good to know, but the characters in my Roaring Twenties series, which takes place in 1924 and 1925, must still use handkerchiefs. I could write a scene where a woman removing her cold cream with a disposable tissue, but I’m not inspired by that idea . . .