a plaster

Hi,
I'm curious what's the meaning of "plaster" - in the context of cosmetic products

Can you supply a sentence using 'plaster' in this context. We can then make a more informed guess at an answer. 👁 Smile :)

For example, a description about a body scrub: "It [..] effectively sloughs away dead cells and ink, plaster, self-tanning lotion traces"

It seems rather odd to me. Ink and tanning lotion are liquids that might dry on the skin and create a film that needs to be scrubbed away. Plaster wouldn't do this, to my knowledge.

I've never seen a skin-care product tout its ability to remove ink and plaster. That is truly strange.

Assuming you've summarized the context correctly, it seems to be saying that in addition to doing the thing that body scrubs are ordinarily supposed to do, which is slough away dead skin cells, this one is also supposed to remove ink, plaster and self-tanning lotions. I'm guessing that plaster here is used in its conventional sense of "that stuff that is smeared on walls to give them texture."

If you were putting up drywall you might get plaster bits on you and need to scrub them off.

You haven't given us the actual source of the quotation. If we knew it was BrE that would suggest that 'plaster' meant a Band-Aid, a thing which leaves traces on the skin, rather than the white stuff that goes on walls.

Here's the link:
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/loccitane-en-provence-grape-set

I would think it's Merriam's first definition of plaster (especially the "broadly" part):

a medicated or protective dressing that consists of a film (as of cloth or plastic) spread with a usually medicated substance <adhesive plaster>; broadly: something applied to heal and soothe

Plasters are also discussed at skin care sites, such as this one:

Generally Plasters are placed in layers of thin material to protect the skin as well. Plasters tend to be stronger in nature and should be monitored to avoid any skin reactions to strong herbs such as garlic or mustard.

One used to hear about "mustard plasters" quite a bit. I haven't heard the term in quite a while.

The only reason I lean toward the "stuff on one's walls" definition of plaster is that the advertisement also mentions another thing that definitely doesn't have anything to do with skin care, and that's "ink." If the ad turns out to be BE (I took a quick look but I couldn't tell), the adhesive bandage definition might work as well.

annjuks said:

dead cells and ink, plaster, self-tanning lotion traces

That's certainly a weird mishmash of disparate things, whether plaster means the BrE thing (#7), the mustard plaster thing (didn't those go out with TB?), or the stuff you slap on walls👁 Eek! :eek:


EDIT: As Kate just said👁 Smile :)

If I may point out just one more thing...

I don't know the sex of every WR regular, but I think most of you who have responded to this thread, except Wyoming Sue, are men. For the sake of those of you who aren't regular purchasers of cosmetics and skin care products, I'd just like to point out that is a really weird ad for a scrub. And I mean w-e-i-r-d, weird. Here is the sort of thing ad copy for scrubs usually says: "Removes dead skin cells, allowing your skin's natural vitality to shine!" or "Gives your skin that youthful glow!"

Talking about making your skin glow and regain its youthful vigor is de rigueur; talking about scrubbing away those dead skin cells is normal; and talking about self-tanning products is a bit unusual but explicable. Talking about anything else, particularly ink or plaster - whatever definition you use - is positively peculiar.

Edit: So my point is that I'm not sure applying logic - e.g., "It's a skin care product so surely the plaster referred to has something to do with skin?" - is going to help much in interpreting it. If the copywriters considered the product's effectiveness in removing ink - ink! - to be a selling point, almost anything is possible considering plaster. And that's why my guess is that the meaning is either the plaster on the wall or the plaster that you get out of a box of adhesive bandages are the most likely interpretations. But it's such an odd ad that I would not be terribly surprised if I'm wrong.

Yes, ewie, a mishmash, but I do see something they have in common — as long as we assume that "plaster" is the 'BrE thing' (what my gran called "sticking plaster") — they can all be very hard to remove from skin.

Ink-stained fingers were very common in the days when fountain-pens were the norm. The adhesive from old-fashioned plasters clung to the skin like glue and needed a scrubbing brush and solvent to get it off. And presumably self-tanning lotion stains skin, 'cos it's designed to!

Whereas the kind of plaster you slap on walls comes off skin easily with soap and water, and wouldn't need a special product.

If I'm right, the ad does seem rather outdated (yes Kate, weird even). The ballpoint pen put an end to schoolboys' ink-stained hands, and modern plasters don't leave adhesive gunk on your skin (even if they do still rip a few hairs off!). As for self-tanning lotion, ummm, I don't know — I've never used it.

Ws👁 Smile :)

The ink here could mean temporary tattoos, made by henna or ballpoint ink, I can understand if someone with a temporary tattoo wants to scrub it away when it starts to fade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_tattoo

I followed the link but didn't see the quoted text on that page.

Parla, if you meant annjuks' link to kaboodle.com in post #8, you have to click on the little red "see more >>" link.

Ws👁 Smile :)