I like to collect things that are about everyday life, [and] this is what I wanted to talk about today–this is called Kleenex lipstick tissues, and this says it’s for your handbag.

[The packaging says] ‘to shape lipstick, blend rouge and eyeshadow, wipe away mascara, and remove excess makeup, to wipe off fingernail polish, clean eyeglasses, and camera lenses, keep Kleenex handy in your handbag.’

The interesting thing is that it is also related to the history of packaging because the back side and the inside are advertisements for the Curtiss Candy Company which was based here in Chicago. And the subject of the advertisement is ‘Watch your health. Meat shortage. A product called Tasty Soys’.

And then there are patent numbers [for the folded Kleenex design], which was patented to the Package Advertising Company in New York. So I looked up the patent numbers, and it tells you what follows the original patent. [The patent was filed] in 1932, and awarded in 1936,
The cool part is where [the patent document] shows subsequent patents that had to refer to this patent because of the way that something folded, and there were patents issued from 1953…up until 2001, which references this object for everything from disposable lens shields to dispensers for plastic bags.

This belongs in the Museum of Kleenex or Museum of Makeup Mistakes

Exhibited by Vicki Matranga

Transcript edited by Susan Golland