complexion

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put a new complexion on (something)

To alter the appearance, perception, or interpretation of something; to recontextualize something so as to suggest a new or different interpretation. The information given to us by the former secretary certainly puts a new complexion on the incident. I recommend that we drop the charges for now. The leaked email chain detailing his protests against the company's policy puts a new complexion on his sudden firing last week.

put a different complexion on (something)

To alter the appearance, perception, or interpretation of something; to recontextualize something so as to suggest a new or different interpretation. The information given to us by the former secretary certainly puts a different complexion on the incident. I recommend that we drop the charges for now. The leaked email chain detailing his protests against the company's policy puts a different complexion on his sudden firing last week.

See also: complexion, different, on, put

schoolgirl complexion

Very clean, healthy, unblemished, youthful skin. All of these beauty products try to convince you that they'll give you a schoolgirl complexion, but it's all a total con job. What's your secret for keeping that schoolgirl complexion of yours?

schoolgirl complexion

Fresh, glowing, unblemished skin, as in She's fifty but she still has her schoolgirl complexion. This expression, alluding to the beauty of young skin, was invented for an advertising campaign for Palmolive Soap, which ran from about 1923 through the 1930s and claimed to preserve one's schoolgirl complexion.

put a new/different comˈplexion on something

change the way that a situation appears: What the police officer had just told me put quite a different complexion on the mystery.

See also: complexion, different, new, on, put, something

schoolgirl complexion, a

Beautiful skin and coloring, without lines, wrinkles, or other signs of aging. This term owes its origin to the advertising campaigns for Palmolive soap, an American product. Allegedly the soap would give or preserve “that schoolgirl complexion,” a slogan used from about 1923 through the 1930s. An earlier version was peach-bloom complexion, used by Emerson in an 1860 essay (Conduct of Life: Beauty) and surviving in a still current term, peaches-and-cream complexion.