Chapter IX: Part II: Health and Beauty (3)

557. _Orris-root Tooth-powder._--Mix equal quantities of finely pulverized and sifted orris-root and prepared chalk. Charcoal may be used instead of chalk, in both these receipts, but it must be prepared with great care, else its grittiness will injure the enamel of the teeth.

558. _To whiten the Teeth._--Mix honey with finely powdered charcoal, and use the paste as a dentifrice.

559. _Wash for the Teeth._--One ounce of myrrh, powdered, and dissolved in one pint of spirits of wine. A little of this dropped on the tooth-brush, is excellent for the teeth and gums.

560. _To remove Tartar from the Teeth._--1st. The use of the tooth-brush night and morning, and at least rinsing the mouth after every meal at which animal food is taken. 2d. Once daily run the brush lightly two or three times over soap, then dip it in salt, and with it clean the teeth, working the brush up and down rather than--or as well as--backwards and forwards. This is a cheap, safe, and effectual dentifrice. 3d. Eat freely of common cress--the sort used with mustard, under the name of small salad; it must be eaten with salt only. If thus used two or three days in succession, it will effectually loosen tartar, even of long standing. The same effect is produced, though perhaps not in an equal degree, by eating strawberries and raspberries, especially the former. A leaf of common green sage rubbed on the teeth, is useful both in cleansing and polishing, and probably many other common vegetable productions also.

561. _Obs._ Soap is not at all a desirable medium for cleaning the teeth, as, though it may whiten for the time, the alkaline process destroys the enamel.

562. _To fill a decayed Tooth._--When a tooth is too much decayed to be filled by a dentist, or the person is at a distance from one, gutta percha will be found an useful expedient. Drop a small piece of this substance in boiling water, then taking off as much as will probably fill the tooth nearly level, press it, while soft, into the cavity. Then hold cold water in the mouth on that side, to harden it. It has been known to preserve a tooth two years at least, and keeps it free from cold.

FOR THE DRESSING-TABLE.

563. _To make soft Pomatum._--Beat half a pound of unsalted fresh lard in common water; then soak and beat it in two rose-waters; drain it, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy; let it drain from this; add to it some essence of lemon, and keep it in small pots.

564. _Or_: Soak half a pound of clear beef marrow, and one pound of unsalted fresh lard, in water, two or three days, changing and beating it every day. Put it into a sieve, and, when dry, into a jar, and the jar into a saucepan of water. When melted, pour it into a basin, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy; drain off the brandy, and then add essence of lemon, bergamot, or any other scent that is liked.

565. _Hard Pomatum._--Prepare equal quantities of beef marrow and mutton suet, as before, using the brandy to preserve it, and adding the scent; then pour it into moulds, or, if you have none, into phials of the size you choose the rolls to be. When cold, break the bottles, clear away the glass carefully, and put paper round the rolls.

566. _Or_: Take equal quantities of marrow, melted and strained, lard, and castor oil; warm all together; add any scent you please; stir until cold, and put into pots.

567. _Pomade Divine._--Clear one and a half pound of beef marrow from the strings and bone; put it into an earthen pan or vessel of water fresh from the spring, and change the water night and morning for ten days; then steep it in rose-water twenty-four hours, and drain it in a cloth till quite dry. Take one ounce of each of the following articles, namely: storax, gum-benjamin, and odoriferous cypress powder; half an ounce of cinnamon, two drachms of cloves, and two drachms of nutmeg, all finely powdered: mix them with the marrow above prepared; then put all the ingredients into a pewter pot that holds three pints; make a paste of white of egg and flour, and lay it upon a piece of rag. Over that must be another piece of linen, to cover the top of the pot very close, that none of the steam may evaporate. Put the pot into a large copper pot with water, observing to keep it steady, that it may not reach to the covering of the pot that holds the marrow. As the water shrinks, add more, boiling hot--for it must boil four hours without ceasing a moment. Strain the ointment through a linen cloth into small pots, and, when cold, cover them. Do not touch it with anything but silver. It will keep many years.

568. _To make Jessamine Butter._--Hog's lard melted, and well washed in fair water, laid an inch thick in a dish, and strewed over with jessamine flowers, will imbibe the scent, and make a very fragrant pomatum.

569. _Rowland's Macassar Oil._--This is made by boiling castor oil, scenting it with oil of roses, and coloring it, while warm, with alkanet root.

570. _Macassar Oil._--Common oil, three quarts; spirits of wine, half a pint; cinnamon powder, three ounces; bergamot, two ounces: heat them together in a large pipkin, then remove it from the fire, and add four small pieces of alkanet root, keeping it closely covered for several hours. Let it then be filtered through a funnel lined with filtering paper.

571. _Wash for the Skin._--Four ounces of potash, four ounces of rose-water, two ounces of pure brandy, and two ounces of lemon-juice; put all these into two quarts of water, and when you wash, put a table-spoonful or two of the mixture into the basin of water you intend washing in.

572. _To make Milk of Roses._--To one pint of rose-water, add one ounce of oil of almonds and ten drops of the oil of tartar.

N. B.--Let the oil of tartar be poured in last.

573. _Almond Paste._--Blanch half a pound of sweet almonds and a quarter of a pound of bitter almonds, and beat them to powder in a mortar with half a pound of loaf sugar; then beat them into a paste with orange-flower water.

574. _Almond Powder._--Blanch six pounds of bitter almonds, dry and beat them, and press from them one pint of oil; then beat them in an iron mortar, and pass the powder through a sieve. Keep it from air and moisture in a glass jar. Used instead of soap for washing the hands, it imparts a singular delicacy to their appearance.

575. _Violet Powder._--This preparation is universally applied for drying the skin after washing, especially at the joints, which, if left even damp, produces chaps and chafing, often followed, if neglected, by inflammation. Violet powder is best prepared by mixing three parts of the best wheat starch with one of finely-ground orris-root; the latter adds to the drying power of the starch, and imparts, at the same time, an agreeable odor like that of violet--hence the name of the mixture. It is also prepared by perfuming starch with essential oils, without the addition of orris-root: but, though the scent of the powder is stronger, and to some more tempting to use, it is far less beneficial in its application. The scent, acting as a stimulant to the skin, increases rather than abates any tendency to redness. Unperfumed powder is, therefore, the best to use, dusted over the part with a little brush made of swan's-down, called a puff.

576. _Another Powder for Chaps, &c._--Take dry hemlock bark, powder it, by rubbing on a fine grater; then sift this powder through gauze or muslin, and sprinkle it lightly on the part chapped. It is a safe and certain curative.

577. _Pearl White._--Bismuth dissolved in aqua-fortis, is pearl white. This, though at first it whitens, afterwards blackens the skin, as all preparations from lead do; and therefore none of them are safely to be used.--_Dr. Moyes' Lectures._

578. _Pot-pourri._--Put into a large china jar the following ingredients in layers, with bay-salt strewed between the layers: two pecks of damask roses, part in buds and part blown; violets, orange-flowers, and jessamine, a handful of each; orris-root sliced, benjamin and storax, two ounces of each; quarter of an ounce of musk; quarter of a pound of angelica root, sliced; a quart of the red parts of clove-gillyflowers; two handfuls of lavender flowers; half a handful of rosemary flowers; bay and laurel leaves, half a handful of each; three Seville oranges, stuck as full of cloves as possible, dried in a cool oven, and pounded; half a handful of knotted marjoram; and two handfuls of balm of Gilead, dried. Cover all quite close. When the pot is uncovered the perfume is very fine.

579. _A quicker sort of sweet Pot-pourri._--Take three handfuls of orange-flowers, three of clove-gillyflowers, three of damask roses, one of knotted marjoram, one of lemon-thyme, six bay-leaves, a handful of rosemary, one of myrtle, half of mint, one of lavender, the rind of a lemon, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Chop all, and put them in layers, with pounded bay-salt between, up to the tip of the jar.

If all the ingredients cannot be obtained at once, put them in as you get them; always throwing in salt with every new article.

580. _Hungary Water._--Mix one quart of spirits of wine; half a pint of water; and three-quarters of an ounce of oil of rosemary.

581. _Lavender Water._--Mix in a quart bottle three drachms of oil of lavender; one pint rectified spirit of wine; shake them well together, and add an ounce of orange-flower water, an ounce of rose-water, four ounces of distilled water, and, if you like, two or three drachms of essence of musk.

582. _Rose-water._--When the roses are in full bloom pick the leaves carefully off, and to every quart of water put a peck of them; put them in a cold still over a slow fire, and distil gradually; then bottle the water; let it stand in the bottle three days, and then cork it close.

583. _Another._--Take two pounds of rose leaves, place them on a napkin tied round the edges of a basin filled with hot water, and put a dish of cold water upon the leaves; keep the bottom water hot, and change the water at top as soon as it begins to grow warm. By this kind of distillation you will extract a great quantity of the essential oil of the roses by a process which cannot be expensive, and will prove very beneficial.

584. _Tincture of Roses._--Put into a bottle the petals of the common rose, and pour upon them spirits of wine; cork the bottle, and let it stand for two or three months. It will then yield a perfume little inferior to attar of roses. Common vinegar is much improved by a very small quantity of this mixture being added to it.

585. _Honey Water._--One ounce of essence of bergamot, three drachms of English oil of lavender, half a drachm of oil of cloves, half a drachm of aromatic vinegar, six grains of musk, one and a half pint of spirits of wine. Mix and distil.

586. _Honey Water._--Take one pint of spirit as above, and three drachms of essence of ambergris; shake them well daily.

587. _Sweet-scented Water._--Put one quart of rose-water, and the same quantity of orange-water, into a large and wide-mouthed glass: strew upon it two handfuls of jessamine flowers; put the glass in the _balneum mariæ_, or on a slow fire, and when it is distilled, add to it a scruple of musk and the same quantity of ambergris.

588. _A very fine Scent._--Take six drachms of oil of lavender, three of the essence of bergamot, sixty drops of ambergris, and two grains of musk. Mix these into a pint of the best rectified spirits of wine.

589. _To whiten the Hands._--Take a wine-glassful of eau de Cologne, and another of lemon-juice; then scrape two cakes of brown Windsor soap, or the same quantity of pure white soap, to a powder, and mix well in a mould. When hard, it will be excellent for whitening the hands.

590. _Camphor Cerate for Chapped Hands._--The following receipt was given to the contributor by a maid of honor to Queen Victoria. It is an excellent one. Scrape into an _earthen_ vessel one ounce and a half of spermaceti and half an ounce of white wax; add six drachms of pounded camphor, and four table-spoonfuls of the best olive oil. Let it stand near the fire till it dissolves, stirring it well when liquid. _Before_ the hands are washed, rub them thoroughly with a little of the cerate, then wash them as usual. Putting the cerate on before retiring, answers very well. This quantity costs about twenty-five cents, and will last three winters. The vessel it is kept in should be covered, to prevent evaporation.

591. _Paste for Chapped Hands._--Mix a quarter of a pound of unsalted lard, which has been washed in soft water, and then in rose-water, with the yolks of two new-laid eggs, and a large spoonful of honey. Add as much fine oatmeal or almond-paste as will work into a paste.

_Or_:--Blanch one pound of bitter almonds, and pound them smooth in a marble mortar; add half an ounce of camphor, one ounce of honey, quarter of a pound of spermaceti, pounded and mixed with the almonds, till it becomes a smooth paste. Put it into jars, and tie it down till wanted.

592. _To prevent inconvenience from Perspiration of the Hands._--Ladies who work lace or embroidery sometimes suffer inconvenience from the perspiration on their hands; which may be remedied, by rubbing the hands frequently with a little dry wheaten bran.

593. _Another._--Any of the milder kinds of soaps will be found to answer the purpose of keeping the hands clean, soft, and as white as nature will permit.

594. _For preserving the Nails._--One ounce of oil of bitter almonds; one drachm of oil of tartar per deliquium; one ounce of prepared crabs'-eyes. Mix up with essence of lemon, to scent it.

La Forest recommends rubbing the nails with lemon as a detergent.

595. _To whiten the Nails._--Mix two drachms of diluted sulphuric acid, one drachm of tincture of myrrh, and four ounces of spring-water. Cleanse the nails with soap, and then dip the fingers in the mixture.

596. _To remove Stains from the Hands._--Dip your hands in warm water, and rub on the stain a small portion of oxalic acid powder and cream of tartar, mixed together in equal quantities. Keep it in a box. When the stain disappears, wash the hands with fine soap or almond cream. A box of this stain powder should always be kept on hand.

597. _To make Wash-balls._--Shave thin two pounds of new white soap into about a tea-cupful of rose-water, then pour on as much boiling water as will soften it. Put into a brass pan a pint of sweet oil, half an ounce of oil of almonds, half a pound of spermaceti, and set all over the fire till dissolved; then add the soap and half an ounce of camphor, that has first been reduced to powder by rubbing it in a mortar, with a few drops of spirits of wine, or lavender-water, or any other scent. Boil ten minutes, then pour it into a basin, and stir it till it is quite thick enough to roll into hard balls, which must then be done immediately. If essence is used, stir it in quickly after it is taken off the fire.

598. _Essence of Soap, for shaving or washing hands._--Take a pound and a half of fine white soap, in thin slices, and add thereto two ounces of salt of tartar; mix them well together, and put this mixture into one quart of spirits of wine, in a bottle which will hold double the quantity of the ingredients: tie a bladder over the mouth of the bottle, and prick a pin through the bladder; set it to digest in a gentle heat, and shake the contents from time to time, taking care to take out the pin at such times, to allow passage for the air from within. When the soap is dissolved, filter the liquor through paper, to free it from impurities; then scent it with a little bergamot or essence of lemon. It will have the appearance of fine oil, and a small quantity will lather with water like soap, and is much superior in use for washing or shaving.

599. _Naples Soap._--Put into a pipkin or saucepan half a pint of ley, (strong enough to bear an egg,) with two ounces of lamb suet and one ounce of olive oil; simmer them over a fire until they be thick, when pour the mixture into a flat pan, cover it with glass, and expose it to the heat of the sun for seven weeks, stirring it once a day: the soap will then be made, and may be perfumed with a few drops of oil of ambergris, which should be well mixed. Put the soap into small jars, and it will be improved by keeping.

600. _Transparent Soap._--Put into a bottle Windsor soap, in thin shavings; half fill with spirits of wine, and set it near the fire till the soap be dissolved, when pour it into a mould to cool.

601. _Genuine Windsor Soap._--To make this famous soap for washing the hands, shaving, &c., nothing more is necessary than to slice the best white soap as thin as possible, melt it in a stew-pan over a slow fire, scent it well with oil of caraway, and then pour it into a frame or mould made for that purpose, or a small drawer, adapted in size and form to the quantity. When it has stood three or four days in a dry situation, cut into square pieces, and it is ready for use. By this simple mode, substituting any more favorite scent for that of caraway, all persons may suit themselves with a good perfumed soap, at the most trifling expense.

602. _To make Lady Derby's Soap._--Two ounces of bitter almonds, blanched, one ounce and a quarter of tincture of benjamin, one pound of good plain white soap, and one piece of camphor the size of a walnut. The almonds and camphor are to be beaten in a mortar until they are completely mixed, then work up with them the tincture of benjamin. The mixture being perfectly made, work the soap into it in the same manner. If the smell is too powerful of the camphor and tincture of benjamin, melt the soap by the fire, and the perfume will go off. This soap has been tried by many persons of distinction, is excellent in its qualities for cleansing the skin, and will be found greatly to assist the complexion, the ingredients being perfectly safe.

603. _To make superior Honey Soap._--Cut into thin shavings two pounds of common yellow or white soap; put it on the fire with just water enough to keep it from burning: when quite melted, add a quarter of a pound of honey, stirring it till it boils; then take it off, and add a few drops of any agreeable perfume: pour it into a deep dish to cool, and then cut it into squares. It improves by keeping. It will soften and whiten the skin.

604. _Paste for Chapped Lips._--Put four ounces of olive oil into a bottle with one ounce of alkanet root; stop it up, and set it for some days in the sun, shaking it often until it becomes perfectly bright; then strain the oil from the alkanet, add to it one ounce of white wax, and one ounce and a half of clarified mutton suet: let the mixture simmer a little while over a slow fire. When it begins to cool, mix with it a few drops of any essential oil.

605. _Chapped or Sore Lips._--May be healed by the frequent application of honey-water, and protecting them from the influence of cold air.

606. _Lip Salve._--Melt together an ounce of white wax, the same of beef marrow, and three ounces of white pomatum, with a small piece of alkanet root, tied in muslin; perfume, when cool, with attar of rose or any other essence. It should be strained while hot.

607. _Bad Breath from Onions._--A few leaves of parsley eaten with vinegar, will prevent any disagreeable consequences from eating onions.

608. _Wash for the Mouth._--An excellent wash for the mouth is made of half an ounce of tincture of myrrh and two ounces of Peruvian bark. Keep in a phial for use. A few drops in a glass of water are sufficient.

609. _Eau de Cologne._--Mix essence of bergamot, lemon, lavender, and orange-flower, of each one drachm; essence of cinnamon, half a drachm; spirit of rosemary, and honey-water, each two ounces; spirits of wine, one pint: let the mixture stand two weeks, then put it in a glass retort, the body of which immerse in boiling water contained in a vessel placed over a lamp, while the beak of the retort is introduced into a large reservoir (a decanter, for example): keep the water boiling, while the mixture will distil into the receiver, which should be covered with cold wet cloths. In this manner Cologne-water may be obtained as good as the best Farina, at one-fourth the price. A coffee-lamp or nursery-furnace will best answer to boil the water.

The above is the most simple method of _distilling_, without the regular _still_.

610. _To make Eau de Cologne._--Rectified spirits of wine, four pints; oil of bergamot, one ounce; oil of lemon, half an ounce; oil of rosemary, half a drachm; oil of Neroli, three-quarters of a drachm; oil of English lavender, one drachm; oil of oranges, one drachm. Mix well, and then filter. If these proportions are too large, smaller ones may be used.

611. _A very pleasant Perfume, and also preventive against Moths._--Take of cloves, caraway seeds, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, and Tonquin beans, of each one ounce; then add as much Florentine orris-root as will equal the other ingredients put together. Grind the whole well to powder, and then put it in little bags, among your clothes, &c.

612. _Method of extracting Essences from Flowers._--Procure a quantity of the petals of any flowers which have an agreeable fragrance; card thin layers of cotton, which dip into the finest Florence or Lucca oil; sprinkle a small quantity of fine salt on the flowers, and lay them, a layer of cotton and a layer of flowers, until an earthen vessel or a wide-mouthed glass bottle is full. Tie the top close with a bladder, then lay the vessel in a south aspect to the heat of the sun, and in fifteen days, when uncovered, a fragrant oil may be squeezed away from the whole mass, little inferior (if roses are used) to the highly-valued attar of roses.

613. _Curious small Cakes of Incense for perfuming Apartments._--Take equal quantities of lignum rhodium and anise, in powder, with a little powder of dried Seville orange-peel, and the same of gum benzoin, or benjamin, and beat all together in a marble mortar: then, adding some gum-dragon, or tragacanth, dissolved in rose-water, put in a little civet; beat the whole again together; make up this mixture into small cakes, and place them on paper to dry. One of these cakes being burnt in the largest apartment, will diffuse a most agreeable odor through the whole room.

614. _To perfume Linen._--Rose-leaves dried in the shade, cloves beat to a powder, and mace, scraped; mix them together, and put the composition into little bags.

615. _To make an excellent Smelling-bottle._--Take an equal quantity of sal-ammoniac and unslaked lime, pound them separately, then mix, and put them in a bottle to smell to. Before you put in the above, drop two or three drops of the essence of bergamot in the bottle, then cork it close. A drop or two of ether, added to the same, will greatly improve it.

616. _Aromatic Vinegar._--Throw into two pounds of acetic acid one ounce each of the dried tops of rosemary and the dried leaves of sage, half an ounce each of the dried flowers of lavender and of bruised cloves. Let them remain untouched for seven days; then express the liquid and filter it through paper. This is useful in sick rooms.

617. _Lavender Vinegar._--Prepare a stone jar or bottle, and to each pint of vinegar put into it, add half an ounce of fresh lavender flowers; cover closely, and set it aside for a day or two; then set the jar upon hot cinders for eight or ten hours; and when cold, strain and bottle it. It is a refreshing perfume.

618. _Spirit and Oil of Roses._--A few drops of attar of roses, dissolved in spirits of wine, form the _esprit de rose_ of the perfumers; and the same quantity dissolved in fine sweet oil, their _huile antique à la rose_.

619. _Essence of Musk._--Mix one drachm of musk with the same quantity of pounded loaf sugar; add six ounces of spirit of wine: shake together, and pour off for use.

Musk is seldom obtained pure: when it smells of ammonia, it is adulterated. To preserve it, it should be made quite dry; when to be used as a perfume, it should be moistened.

620. _Odeur Delectable._--Mix four ounces of distilled rose-water, four ounces of orange-flower water, one drachm of oil of cloves, two drachms of oil of bergamot, two grains of musk, one pint of spirits of wine. Macerate thoroughly, and add one drachm of essence of musk. This delicious scent is a universal favorite with the ladies of the _beau monde_ in Paris.

621. _Eau D'Ange._--Pound in a mortar fifteen cloves and one pound of cinnamon; put the whole into a quart of water, with four grains anise-seed; let it stand over a charcoal fire twenty-four hours; then strain off the liquor and bottle it. The perfume is excellent, and will be useful for the hands, face, and hair.

622. _Shaving._--The hone and razor-strop should be kept in good condition. The German hone is best: it should be frequently moistened with oil, and laid up in a place where it will not readily become dry: if it be rubbed with soap, instead of oil, previously to using, it will give additional keenness and fineness to the edge of the razor.

The strop should also be kept moist with a drop or two of sweet oil: a little crocus and oil rubbed in the strop with a glass bottle will give the razor a fine edge; as will also a paste made of tutty powder and solution of oxalic acid.

Mr. Knight, president of the Horticultural Society, has invented the following apparatus and method of sharpening a razor: Procure a round bar of cast steel, three inches long, and about one-third of an inch in diameter; rub it smooth from end to end with glass paper; next, smear over its surface a paste of oil and the charcoal of wheat straw, and fix the steel into a handle. To set a razor, dip it in hot water, raise its back, and move it without pressure, in circles, from heel to point, and back again; clean the blade on the palm of the hand, and again dip it into hot water. This newly invented apparatus may be purchased at any cutler's.

A very small piece of nitre, dissolved in water and applied to the face after shaving, will remove any unpleasant sensation, though the first application may be somewhat painful.

623. _Shaving Liquids._--1. Rub in a marble mortar an ounce of any fine soap, with two drachms of carbonate of potassa. When these two substances are incorporated, continue rubbing, and add gradually a pint of lavender-water, or any other odorous water made by dissolving essential oils in alcohol sixty degrees above proof. When the whole is well combined, filter the liquid, and bottle it for use. To make a lather, put a few drops into a wine-glass of tepid water; dip your brush in the mixture, and, when rubbed on the face, a fine lather will appear. 2. Dissolve any quantity of fine soap in alcohol, either with or without perfume. Use it according to the preceding directions.

624. _An Easy Shave._--The operation of shaving may be robbed of its unpleasant sensations by rubbing the chin over with grease, or a sweet oil, before the application of the razor. The best razor-strop in the world is one's own hand, moistened with its own natural oil or perspiration. Sharpen the razor thus before you wash your hands, and you will find this natural strop most efficacious. After shaving, to allay irritation, wash the chin with Portugal water.

625. _Composition for Shaving, without the use of razor, soap, or water._--Mix one pint and a half of clear lime-water, two ounces of gum-Arabic, half an ounce of isinglass, an eighth of an ounce of cochineal, a quarter of an ounce of turmeric-root (made into powder), an eighth of an ounce of salt of tartar, and an eighth of an ounce of cream of tartar, together: boil them for one hour at least (stirring up the mixture during the whole time of boiling, and be careful not to let it boil over), clear it through a sieve; then add two and a half pounds of pumice stone, finely pulverized; mix the whole together with the hands, by the assistance of the white of two eggs, well stirred up. Then divide the cake into twelve small ones. Dry them in the open air for three days; put them into an oven moderately heated for twenty-four hours, when they will be ready for use. Apply them, with a gentle friction, to the beard, and they will produce the effect of shaving by rubbing off the hair.