“medicaments for ‘instant beauty’ in the hands of all”
“People’s Surroundings” in Observations, 1924, p. 67, l. 32.
Moore dropped this reference to a beauty product after Selected Poems (1935); she had 
supplied a short note in 1924, “‘instant beauty’ : advertisement.” It is likely she referred to an advertisement for three “instant beauty” products, Pompeian Beauty Powder, Pompeian Day Cream, and Pompeian Bloom, offered as a bonus to buyers of a yard-tall print of actress Marguerite Clark entitled “Absence Cannot Hearts Divide.”
Clark (1883-1940) played ingenue and young women roles on Broadway and in early silent films, starring as both Topsy and Little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She retired in 1921 to be with her husband on their Louisiana plantation. Compared to Mary Pickford, she had a large following, and in 1920, she posed for this color panel for the Pompeian Company. For “a dime,” readers of Cosmopolitan for November could acquire the print and the beauty products and “instant beauty.”
Marianne Moore: Poetry 