We are now in a position to understand the extreme importance of the
complexion from an amorous point of view, and to see why the care of the
complexion has almost monopolised the attention of those desiring to
improve their personal appearance, as shown by the fact that the word
“cosmetic,” in common parlance, refers to the care of the skin alone.
Books containing recipes for skin lotions, ointments, and powders are so
numerous, that it is not worth while to devote much space to the matter
here. As a rule, the best advice to those about to use cosmetics is
_Don’t_. Every man whose admiration is worth having will infinitely
prefer a freckled, or even a pallid or smallpox-marked, face to one
showing traces of powder or greasy ointments, or lifeless, cadaverous
enamel, opaque as ebony blackness.
If a woman’s skin is so morbidly sensitive as to be injured by ordinary
water and good soap, it is a sign of ill-health which calls for
residence in the country and the mellowing rays of the sun. Where this
is unattainable, the water may be medicated by the addition of a slice
of lemon, cucumber, or horse-radish, to all of which magic effects are
often attributed. The black spots on the sides of the nose may be
removed in a few weeks by the daily application (with friction) of lemon
juice. For pimples and barber’s itch a camphor and sulphur ointment,
which may be obtained of any chemist, is the simplest remedy. For a
shiny, polished complexion, and excessive redness of the nose, cheeks,
and knuckles, the following mixture is recommended by a good
authority:—Powdered borax, one half ounce; _pure_ glycerine, one ounce;
camphor-water, one quart. Borax, indeed, is as indispensable a toilet
article as soap or a nail-brush. After washing the face, exposure to the
raw air should always be avoided for ten or fifteen minutes.
“A certain amount of friction applied to the face daily will do much,”
says Dr. Bulkley, “to keep the pores of the sebaceous glands open; and,
by stimulating the face, to prevent the formation of the black specks
and red spots so common in young people, I generally direct that the
face be rubbed to a degree short of discomfort, and that the towel be
not too rough.” Slight friction also helps to ward off wrinkles.
Two or three weekly baths—hot in winter, cold in summer—are absolutely
necessary for those who wish to keep their skin in a healthy condition;
and no elixir of youth and beauty could produce such a sparkling eye and
glow of rosy health as a daily morning sponge bath, followed by
friction—care being taken, in a cold room, to expose only one part of
the body at a time. The importance of keeping open the pores of the skin
by bathing is seen by the fact that if a man were painted with varnish
he would suffocate in a few hours; for the skin is a sort of external
lung, aiding its internal colleague in removing effete products,
dissolved in the perspiration, from the system.
The debris and oily matter brought to the surface of the skin and
deposited there by the perspiration cannot be completely removed without
soap. Unfortunately, this article has done more to ruin complexions than
almost any other cause, except smallpox and the superstitious dread of
sunshine. Many people have a peculiar mania for economising in soap. If
they can buy a piece of soap for a farthing, they consider themselves
wonderfully clever, regardless of the fact that it may not only ruin
their complexion, but produce a repulsive skin disease which it will
cost much gold to cure. Do they ever realise that these soaps, which
they thus smear over the most delicate parts of their body every day,
are made of putrid carcasses of animals, rancid fat, and corrosive
alkalies? Has no one ever told them that if a soap is both cheap and
highly perfumed it is _certain_ to be of vile composition, and injurious
to the skin? After washing yourself wait a moment till the soap’s
artificial odour has disappeared, and then smell your hands. That vile
rancid odour which remains—if you knew its source, you would immediately
run for a Turkish bath to wash off the very epidermis to which that
odour has adhered.
What has ruined so many complexions is not soap itself, but bad soap. A
famous specialist, Dr. Bulkley, says that “there is no intrinsic reason
why soap should not be applied to the face, although there is a very
common impression among the profession, as well as the laity, that it
should not be used there.... The fact is, that many cases of eruptions
upon the face are largely due to the fact that soap has _not_ been used
on that part; and it is also true that, if properly employed, and _if
the soap is good_, it is not only harmless, but beneficial to the skin
of the face, as to every other part of the body.”
“A word may be added in reference to the so-called ‘medicated soaps,’
whose number and variety are legion, each claiming virtues far excelling
all others previously produced.... Now all or most of this attempt to
‘medicate’ soap is a perfect farce, a delusion, and a snare to entrap
the unwary and uneducated.... Carbolic soap is useless and may be
dangerous, because the carbolic acid may possibly become the blind
beneath which a cheap, poor soap is used; for in all these advertised
and patented nostrums the temptation is great to employ inferior
articles that the pecuniary gain may be greater. The small amount of
carbolic acid incorporated in the soap cannot act as an efficient
disinfectant.”