Morals of Paint and Powder.--Antique Toilet Arts.--Washington
Ladies.--Making Up the Face.--Whitening the Arms.--Tints of
Rouge.--To Make French Rouge.--Milk of Roses.--Greuze Tints.--Coarse
Complexions Caused by Powder.--Color for the Lips.--Crystal and Gold
Hair Powder.--Dyeing Blonde Wigs.--To Darken the Hair.--Champagne and
Black-Walnut Bark.--Doom of the Complexion Artist.
The time has gone by when it was a matter of church discipline if a
woman painted her face or wore powder. Nor is it any serious reflection
on her moral character if she go abroad with her complexion made up
in the forenoon, however it may call her taste in question. All who
paint their faces and look forth at their windows are not visited with
hard names, else the parlor of every house on the side-streets of New
York might have its Jezebel waiting the dinner-hour and the return
of masculine admirers. George declares he could never own a wife who
used powder; and yet Annie comes down, looking innocent in her pink
bows, with a little white bloom on each temple, and a suspicious odor
of Lubin’s Violet floating round her. I don’t think George meditates
divorce on that account. There is something noble and ingenuous in the
sight of an uncovered skin; but we reconcile ourselves to the pearly
falsehood, accepting the situation with the false hair, not so gray as
it is in front, and the long, artificial-shaped nails, and the cramped
feet. Every body knows they are inventions, and accepts them as such,
like paste brilliants at a theatre.
The arts of the toilet are as old as Thebes. The painted eye of
desire, the burning cheek and dyed nails, were coeval with the
wisdom of Alexandria. Of old the Roman ladies used the fine dust of
calcined shells and the juices of plants to restore their freshness
of color. There is no end to the modern contrivances for the same
purpose. Crushed geranium leaves, and the petals of artificial roses
which contain carmine, friction with red flannel, and the juice of
strawberries, are homely substitutes for rouge. The women of the South
are more given to the use of cosmetics than their Northern sisters.
Perhaps Washington sets the example to all the states; for nowhere else
is seen such liberal use of paint and powder, skillfully applied, as
at the capital. There women paint for the breakfast-table, and carry
the deception every where. The Spanish-American ladies make the absurd
mistake of supposing their rich complexions and dark eyes are not more
enticing to Northern eyes than our own cold beauties; so, by the help
of toilet bottles, they present faces like Lady Washington geraniums
from nine in the morning till they ice themselves to frozen whiteness
for the evenings. Whited sepulchres is the phrase forever ringing in
one’s head at sight of this folly. What indignation has seized one at
sight of Madame ----, the witty and enviable, who had the weakness to
mask her lustrous, tropical, Murillo colors--which enchanted every
Northern heart--with poor plaster of burned oyster-shells! It was very
well for the Treasury blondes, who looked like human peaches till one
saw them close, to dabble in white and pink. It suited their style. For
these superb Creoles and Sevillians, never!
Both from principle and preference, this book discountenances paint and
powder. It believes that a woman needs no other cosmetics than fresh
air, exercise, and pure water, which, if freely used, will impart a
ruddier glow and more pearly tint to the face than all the rouge and
lily-white in Christendom.
But if she must resort to artificial beauty, let her be artistic about
it, and not lay on paint as one would furniture polish, to be rubbed
in with rags. The best and cheapest powder is refined chalk in little
pellets, each enough for an application. Powder is a protection and
comfort on long journeys or in the city dust. If the pores of the skin
must be filled, one would prefer clean dust, to begin with. A layer
of powder will prevent freckles and sun-burn when properly applied.
It cools feverish skins, and its use can be condoned when it modifies
the contrast between red arms and white evening dresses. In amateur
theatricals it is indispensable, the foot-lights throwing the worst
construction on even good complexions. In all these cases it is worth
while to know how to use it well. The skin should be as clean and cool
as possible, to begin. A pellet of chalk, without any poisonous bismuth
in it, should be wrapped in coarse linen and crushed in water, grinding
it well between the fingers. Then wash the face quickly with the
linen, and the wet powder oozes in its finest state through the cloth,
leaving a pure white deposit when dry. Press the face lightly with a
damp handkerchief to remove superfluous powder, wiping the brows and
nostrils free. This mode of using chalk is less easily detected than
when it is dusted on dry.
The best foundation for Lubin’s powder is gained by soaping the face
well, and taking care not to rinse off all the smooth, glossy feeling
it leaves. Dry the face without wiping, and the thinnest layer of oil
is left, which holds the dry powder, without that mealy look which
Lubin is apt to leave. To whiten the arms for theatricals, rub them
first with glycerine, not letting the skin absorb it all, and apply
chalk. The country practice is to substitute a tallow candle for the
glycerine; but ours is a progressive age. At least the moral feeling
leads one to spare an escort’s coat-sleeve.
Rouge needs consideration before rashly applying. There are more tints
of complexion than there are roses, and one can only be successful by
observing the natural colors of a beauty of her own type. Some cheeks
have a wine-like, purplish glow, others a transparent saffron tinge,
like yellowish-pink porcelain; others still have clear, pale carmine;
and the rarest of all, that suffused tint like apple blossoms. By
making her own rouge a lady can graduate her pallet--that is to say,
her cheeks--at pleasure. The following preparations have the virtue,
at least, of being harmless, which can not be said of most paints and
powders. Red-lead, bismuth, arsenic, and poisonous vegetable compounds
are used in the common cosmetics. Bismuth is most frequent; and its
least effect is to give the cheeks it has whitened a crop of purplish
pimples, which would indicate that the wearer was freely “dispoged” to
the same tastes as Sairey Gamp. The hideously coarse complexion of many
public singers is partly due to their use of bismuth powder. An old
dispensatory gives the following formula for a harmless cosmetic under
the name of Almond Bloom:
Take of Brazil dust, one ounce; water, three pints; boil, strain, and
add six drachms of isinglass, two of cochineal, three of borax, and an
ounce of alum; boil again, and strain through a fine cloth. Use as a
liquid cosmetic.
Devoux French rouge is thus prepared: Carmine, half a drachm; oil of
almonds, one drachm; French chalk, two ounces. Mix. This makes a dry
rouge.
The milk of roses is made by mixing four ounces of oil of almonds,
forty drops of oil of tartar, and half a pint of rose-water with
carmine to the proper shade. This is very soothing to the skin.
Different tinges may be given to the rouge by adding a few flakes of
indigo for the deep black-rose crimson, or mixing a little pale yellow
with less carmine for the soft Greuze tints. All preparations for
darkening the eyebrows, eyelashes, etc., must be put on with a small
hair-pencil. The “dirty-finger” effect is not good. A fine line of
black round the rim of the eyelid, when properly done, should not be
detected, and its effect in softening and enlarging the appearance of
the eyes is well known by all amateur players. A smeared, blotchy look
conveys an unpleasant idea of dissipation.
For the finger-tips, alkanet makes a good stain. An eighth of an ounce
of chippings tied in coarse muslin, and soaked for a week in diluted
alcohol, will give a tincture of lovely dye. The finger-tips should be
touched with jewelers’ cotton dipped in this mixture.
Hair-powder is made from powdered starch, sifted through muslin, and
scented with oil of roses in the proportion of twelve drops to the
pound. Crystal powder is glass dust, obtained from factories, or
powdered crystallized salts of different kinds. A golden powder may be
procured by coloring a saturated solution of alum bright yellow with
turmeric, then allowing it to crystallize, and reducing it to coarse
powder. This certainly has the merit of cheapness.
Color for the lips is nothing more than cold cream, with a larger
quantity of wax than usual melted in it, with a few drachms of carmine.
For vermilion tint use a strong infusion of alkanet instead of
poisonous red-lead. Keep the chippings for a week in the almond-oil of
which the cold cream is made, and afterward incorporate with wax and
spermaceti. Always tie alkanet in muslin when it is used for coloring
purposes.
When blonde wigs are not attainable for theatricals, a switch of dark
hair may be bleached by soaking in strong vinegar, and colored by an
infusion of turmeric in Champagne, or by the liquor obtained from the
tops of potatoes ready to flower, mixed with water, suffering it to
steep twenty-four hours. This is too poisonous ever to be used on the
head with safety.
The walnut stain for skin or hair is made precisely like that for
cloth, by boiling the bark--say an ounce to a pint of water--for an
hour, slowly, and adding a lump of alum the size of a thimble to set
the dye. Apply with a little brush, such as is used in water-colors, to
the lashes and eyebrows, or with a sponge to the hair. Wrap the head in
an old handkerchief when going to sleep, or the moisture of the hair
will stain the pillow-cases.
But one thing must be said: the woman who has once taken to painting
and coloring must go on painting and coloring; rarely, if ever, does
the complexion regain its bloom, the skin its smoothness, or the hair
its gloss. In most cases the operator must go on deepening the hue, and
in no case can he or she be sure of the shade or tint which successive
applications will produce.