Pumpkin purported to be powerful product

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Everyone knows it's pumpkin season. Soups will soon be on fall menus. Carved jack-o'-lanterns will be in windows. And the Thanksgiving pie is, well, an old story.
But the member of the gourd family is also considered a powerful beauty product ingredient. At any rate, it's a good marketing tool.
With more than 100 minerals, pumpkin is purported to be useful as an exfoliant, cleanser and for firming the skin, says Lucky magazine.
It is included, for instance, in Zia's Pumpkin exfoliating mask, Bath and Body Works Purifying Face Mask and a home fragrance oil by the Body Shop.
Paula Begoun, a consumer activist with her own skin-care line, brushes off Zia's pumpkin mask with the comment that it's better used for trick-or-treat in her book, "Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me".
But Lucky says the scent alone makes it a worthy consideration. Research has shown men rate the pumpkin smell the sexiest of all.