Aqua Manda

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

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Aqua Manda

Post by Jo »

Does anyone remember the toiletry trends we had? I'd not been at CH long when everyone seemed to go wild about Yardley's Sea Jade talc. The common consensus held that Miss Morrison also used it. Not long after that, the next fad was Coty's Aqua Manda, which was altogether much more funky, came in an orange container with a tortoiseshell lid. It was supposed to be an orangy scent, though it wasn't quite like fresh oranges - it was a very distinctive scent. As well as talc there was also foam bath and probably perfume as well.

I was reminded of it the other day, much in the manner of Proust's madeleines, by a shower gel that I am currently using - Champney's Citrus Glow. Not quite as strong as Aqua Manda, but definitely a hint of the same scent - brought back memories of bathtimes at Hertford. There was also Aqua Citra, in a yellow container and supposedly smelling of lemon, but it never caught on in quite the same way.

Can it really be 40 years ago??? :shock: :shock:
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Post by englishangel »

Funny that, the first thing that sprung to mind was that it was by Christopher Collins. I Googled it and it was by Goya, the company had been taken over by Christopher Collins. A lovely perfume.
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Re: Aqua Manda

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Yes Goya, that was it - not Coty. Gosh, just Googled it too, and found the soaps in very 70s packaging.
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Aqua Manda, Jo - oh, nostalgia! I imagined the name meant "Acqa Manda-rin"?

I certainly do remember it - I loved it, and still do love a little whiff of something sweet-orangey-spicy. Not long ago, I had some "biological essential oil" bathroom cleaner which smelled wonderfully of sweet oranges and I found myself dreamily cleaning away, actually enjoying the activity - and now I realise why!

Aqua Manda, as you say, came in an orange plastic container, with mock tortoiseshell lid which had an orange-tree raised motif. I had the powder and the foam bath. I must look out for your Champney's Citrus Glow!

It's a wonderful thought - Miss Morrison as a Sea Jade. Her proud figurehead setting out oceanwards...

Denise Brownlow, whose basket I did, had a tube of pink Avon Mint face mask. It struck me as the height of sophistication!

Then, mid-sixties, Petticoat magazine instructed us that, if one had a round face, it was advisable to bring a little bit of front curl round onto the cheeks, and, to glue it there, there was a product called "Kiss-Curl". It came in a cute little gold bottle.

My father, taking me home at the end of my first term, was so horrified by the state of my hands (rough, red and stained with Bluebell) that he stopped the car, rushed into a chemist and bought me a bottle of Jergens hand cream. Fantastic stuff. No use trying to smuggle it past Millie though. Millie, (sorry if I'm repeating myself) had confiscated my little bottle of Goya Black Rose scent at the beginning of the term, and had displayed it as a warning to others on the windowsill of the Wardrobe Room. She returned it to me on the morning of Long Sat. "Give this rubbish back to your mother" she said.

Remember the first hair conditioners? The heaven of non-tangled hair after shampooing? No 1 was a black and white bottle of "pure protein" conditioner, which claimed to mend split ends. Split ends, I believe, were high on our agenda, since we all tied our hair back with rubber bands. But I can't remember the name of the product. After that, the extremely popular Cream Silk. I've already written some time ago, of my undercover activities that led to the discovery that Barbara Borgars - magnificently glossy chestnut hair - used Estolan. And Phine Maude kept her plait shiny with Linc-O-Lin Beer shampoo.

Alex Thrift had a passion for SR peppermint toothpaste. I always think of her when I see it. As soon as I met Susan Evans at DR's funeral, my olfactory memory snapped into action. Susan Evans was always drenched in Revlon "Intimate".

But, if anyone finds any other Aqua Manda smellalike, I shall have my nose down on the trail!
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by gillieg »

there followed an aqua citra - lemon of course. does anyone remember dry shampoo? My daughter uses it - I think I may have read about it on this website earlier so apols for the repetition.

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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by midget »

Perfumed bath foam? hand cream? We had to put up with school soap Wheen's Superb. The wheens factory was somewhere near Liverpool St station, and you could smell it from the train.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Angela Woodford »

I was walking past the Exeter Body Shop. There in the entrance was a promotion for their new Body Butters. I paused for a sniff and a charming assistant leapt out to encourage me.

"I like this one best!" she said, anointing me with a little of the Satsuma-scented Butter. Instantly, I was back in Upper Bathroom, adding some Aqua Manda essence to the foaming torrent in the bath I'd bagged! Lovely. :D

"When you are selling to somebody my age" I squeaked excitedly "tell them that this Butter will remind them of Aqua Manda; the scent we all once wore."

"Aqua Manda?" she said thoughtfully. "OK... Aqua Manda! So - would you like to buy some?"

"I'm economising" I said, and fled.

But, for the next hour, I was sniffing my hand and feeling seventeen again.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Ajarn Philip »

Angela Woodford wrote:But, for the next hour, I was sniffing my hand and feeling seventeen again.
Then get your a*se back there and buy some!

Angela, aren't we due one of your long and so very entertaining reminiscences...? Pretty please?
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Re: Aqua Manda

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As mentioned in an earlier post on this thread, creamy linco-lin beer shampoo- that came in small plastic containers shaped like a tiny beer- barrel -takes me back to once-a-week hair washing :shock: at Hertford. One of the few luxuries we had.I still buy it now and again, in sachets now tho; the smell is still the same.....evocative of those basic bathrooms we had at CH .
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by englishangel »

There was a green shampoo (Polyherb?) which smelled like a compost heap, but gave amazingly shiny hair.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by midget »

The only liquid shampoo I remember from that time was Drene, which cost a lot more than the powder shampoos. The latter had to be mixed with warm water (in a tooth mug) and it was the very devil to get all the lumps out. If you didn't you spent most of the afternoon trying to rinse your hair clean. and there were no conditioners either, which could be quite annoying on a frosty day.
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englishangel wrote:There was a green shampoo (Polyherb?) which smelled like a compost heap, but gave amazingly shiny hair.
Well remembered Mary! :clap:

Polyherb must have been the first herbal shampoo. How I wish it were still available for amazingly shiny hair; it was really attractively presented too in a very elegant bottle.

Maggie - that school soap sounds truly disgusting. I'm trying to remember what was provided in the cloakroom... was it something carbolic? Whatever it was, it was always filthy from après-sports hand sluicing! My memories of Drene are of a golden shampoo in a sachet and the ad was of a blonde goddess with tiny stars scattered in her hair. Oh! the Sixties! Remember the Jane Asher ads for Breck shampoo?
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by fra828 »

I remember using dry-shampoo on about third day after washing my hair, as it looked greasy by then. If you brushed it in properly, it did freshen your hair quite well (but only if you were fair(ish) as I was - probably no good on dark hair, as would look as if you'd tipped a tin of talc on it !) :lol: The odd thing is, I can't remember anyone else using it!
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Fjgrogan »

Dry shampoo was one of several things that I had never heard of before CH. I also remember experimenting with Eucryl tooth powder; believe it or not I had never used toothpaste in a tube at home; we had something called Gibbs Dentrifice which was a solid block in a round tin. Shampoos which I first 'met' at CH included Vosene (I now realise that the distinctive smell was rosemary) and Sebbix. My favourite toiletry was Max Factor's Electrique - I believe there were a couple of others in the range as well.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Angela Woodford »

Fjgrogan wrote:Dry shampoo was one of several things that I had never heard of before CH. I also remember experimenting with Eucryl tooth powder; believe it or not I had never used toothpaste in a tube at home; we had something called Gibbs Dentrifice which was a solid block in a round tin. Shampoos which I first 'met' at CH included Vosene (I now realise that the distinctive smell was rosemary) and Sebbix. My favourite toiletry was Max Factor's Electrique - I believe there were a couple of others in the range as well.
No, I'd never come across dry shampoo, either. Quite a few of us had some (a white puffer container) and the effect on dark hair, if not brushed out very thoroughly was rather horrible :lol: ! My parents had Gibbs Dentifice - bright pink it was - I still remember the taste! And that of Eucryl powder, which clung in clumps on a damp toothbrush. The trick was not to moisten the rest of the powder in the tin... Then, oh the excitement, my father brought home a tube of Signal Toothpaste with stripes!

Sebbix shampoo! Oh thank you Frances - a yellow shampoo in a square bottle.

I've never, never forgotten the shame of my poor mother, who, having read the Things To Bring To CH list, was reduced to whispering to the assistant in Boots that we needed a fine tooth comb. If this had been overheard - what would the neighbours have thought?
"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognise a cunning plan if it painted itself purple, and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again.""
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