Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic.

The line reframes “beauty” as something generated from within rather than applied from without. By calling joy “a woman’s best cosmetic,” it suggests that vitality, ease, and a genuine enjoyment of life are more transformative—and more convincing—than makeup or other external enhancements. The remark also carries a subtle critique of beauty culture: it acknowledges the social pressure on women to look a certain way, then counters it with an ethic of self-possession and emotional well-being. Read generously, it’s an affirmation that confidence and pleasure in living register visibly; read skeptically, it still assumes women are evaluated cosmetically, even while offering a healthier route to that ideal.