Récamier’s Training.--Diana of Poitiers, Bath.--High Beauty of
Maturity.--The Worth of Beauty.--George Eliot on Complexions.--Dr.
Cazenave.--Barley Paste for the Face.--Prescriptions of the
Roman Ladies.--To Remove Pimples.--Cascarilla Wash.--Varnish for
Wrinkles.--Acetic Acid for Comedones.--To Remove Mask.--Lady Mary
Montagu.--Habit of Italian Ladies.--Wash of Vitriol.
The motto that used to haunt our souls over copy-books, “No excellence
without great labor,” is as true about personal improvement as any
thing else. Few celebrated beauties have gained their fame without
use of those arts which must be the earliest of all, since we have
no record of their first teaching--the arts of the toilette. Madame
Récamier, who exercised more power by her beauty than any woman of
modern times, was bred by a most careful mother, versed in all the
mysteries of training. Her exceeding delicacy of complexion arose from
the protection she gave it, never going out except in her carriage,
and scarcely knowing what it was to set foot to the ground. Margaret
of Anjou and Mary Stuart, in earlier times, were wise as serpents in
the magic of the toilet, disdaining neither May dew nor less simple
lotions for cheeks whereon the eye of the world was to dwell. Diana
of Poitiers bequeathed a legacy of value to her sex in commending the
use of the rain-water bath, which preserved her own beauty till, at
the age of sixty-five, no one could be insensible to her. Ninon de
l’Enclos left the same testimony. It is intolerable that women have not
the ambition to preserve their health and charms to the latest date,
and give up their cases so shamefully soon. An intelligent maturity
chisels and refines the face to a high and feeling beauty; that is to
the attractions of youth what the aristocratic head of Booth would
be beside a pink-and-white lady-killer of society. This serene and
finished expression should find physical favor to accompany it. Nor is
this to be gained, as many say, by leading a passive, emotionless life.
People of vivid feeling are the youngest. Their quick alterations of
mood make the face clean cut, yet do not settle it in uniform furrows.
Both grief and joy, yearning passion and utter renunciation, are needed
to sculpture finely the statues for remembrance. No one professing
the loftiest aims, who understands human nature, can despise the care
of personal beauty when, combined with moral worth, its influence is
so irresistible. Look at the portraits of those renowned as moral
and intellectual heroes; it will be found their greatness was rarely
associated with physical repulsiveness, and though their faces in the
conflicts of life grew seamed and worn, yet in youth they must have
been more than ordinarily remarked for beauty of a high order--Columbus
and Galileo and Whitefield will do for examples. And if the reader
go through the range of feminine celebrities, from the poets to
missionary biographies, “with portrait of the original,” not one face
in ten will dispute what I have said.
Least of all let any woman heed smiling scorn of her weakness in taking
pains to secure a good complexion--the real clearness and color, if
she eschew the coarse pretense of powder and paint. George Eliot,
with her masculine sense, bears witness to the irresistible tendency
to associate a pure soul with a lucent complexion. No woman can be
disagreeable if she have this saving claim; and there will be no
apology for adding a few estimable recipes for the purpose from the
collection of a foreign physician, Dr. Cazenave. He recommends the
following as a composition for the face:
Three ounces of ground barley, one ounce of honey, and the white of
one egg, mixed to a paste, and spread thickly on the cheeks, nose, and
forehead, before going to bed. This must remain all night, protecting
the face by a soft handkerchief, or bits of lawn laid over the parts
on which the paste is applied. Wash it off with warm water, wetting the
surface with a sponge, and letting it soften while dressing the hair
or finishing one’s bath. Repeat nightly till the skin grows perfectly
fine and soft, which should be in three weeks, after which it will be
enough to use it once a week. Always wash the face with warm water and
mild soap, rubbing on a little cold cream when exposing one’s self to
the weather. This paste was used by the Romans. With this, care _must_
be taken to bathe daily in warm water, using soap freely, toning the
system with a cold plunge afterward, if one can bear it.
For pimples use this recipe: thirty-six grains of bicarbonate of soda,
one drachm of glycerine, one ounce of spermaceti ointment. Rub on the
face; let it remain for a quarter of an hour, and wipe off all but a
slight film with a soft cloth.
The best wash for the complexion given is cascarilla powder, two
grains; muriate of ammonia, two grains; emulsion of almonds, eight
ounces: apply with fine linen. The frightful discoloration known as
_mask_ is removed by a wash made from thirty grains of the chlorate
of potash in eight ounces of rose-water. Wrinkles are less apparent
under a kind of varnish containing thirty-six grains of turpentine in
three drachms of alcohol, allowed to dry on the face. The black worms
called comedones call forth the simple specific of thirty-six grains
of subcarbonate of soda in eight ounces of distilled water, perfumed
with six drachms of essence of roses. But I prefer the advice of a
clever home physician, who lately told me that he removed comedones
from the faces of girls who applied to him for the purpose by touching
the head of each with a fine hair-pencil dipped in acetic acid--a nice
operation, as the acid must only touch the black spot, or it will
eat the skin. Remembering that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu quoted the
habit of Italian ladies to renew and refine their complexions by a
wash of vitriol, I begged to know how such a heroic application could
safely be made. The answer was that muriatic acid, sixty per cent.
strong, diluted in twelve parts of water, might be used as a wash, and
gradually eat away the coarse outer envelope of the skin, if any one
had fortitude to bear a slow cautery like this. Lady Mary records that
she had to shut herself up most of a week, and her face meantime was
blistered shockingly; but afterward the Italian ladies assured her that
her complexion was vastly improved. On the whole, the typhoid fever is
preferable as an agent for clearing the complexion, being perhaps less
dangerous and more effective.