"Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid."
--_Thomson._
The road to beauty has never been better known than it was to the Greek
and Roman women of centuries ago, yet they did not begin to have the
resources in cosmetic arts that we have now. But they bathed
incessantly, believing that cleanliness and health were the vital
points in their endeavors to be lovely. They went in for athletic games
to a large degree, and thereby hangs the secret of well-developed
figures and fine, stately carriage. Creamy lotions for the face, made
mostly of almond oil and the oil of cocoanut, were their complexion
solaces.
No doubt these beauties of the past centuries had more time than we for
their baths and games, but nevertheless let us make a strong, stern
effort to follow in the wake of their excellent teachings. Surely they
proved the wisdom of them in their own incomparable beauty.
Speaking of baths reminds me of Mme. Tallien, the beautiful French
woman, who lived in the time of the first Napoleon. She went in for
baths galore. Let me tell you what she did.
She gathered together all the strawberries or raspberries that the
corner grocery could supply. These were mashed to a pulp and the
bathtub filled. In this Mme. Tallien bathed until the idea of milk and
perfumed baths appeared to her fancy. There were many absurd and
useless fads those days as well as wise beautifying practices--just the
same state of affairs as now confronts us.
How much more rational than Mme. Tallien's notions were the methods of
Diana of Poitiers, who, history tells us, was fresh and lovely at
sixty-five! She left the berries and things to their rightful place,
the breakfast table, and each morning took a refreshing bath in a big
tub of clear rain-water. There has nothing yet been found, even in this
progressive age of electric elixirs and beautifying compounds, that can
equal this old-time aid to loveliness.
With the delightfully convenient bath-rooms, that even the most
ordinary apartment or flat has now, bathing is not a matter of trouble
and bother, but is, instead, an invigorating pleasure. I believe firmly
in the need of the daily bath. Not the thorough scrubbing, mind you,
but the quick sponging and the plunge. Let the thorough scrubbing be at
least twice during the week, and the five-minute plunges on other days.
Certain it is that one is much refreshed by the dipping luxury, and
still more certain is the fact that in no other way can the flesh be
kept healthy and firm. To those who are robust enough to stand it, the
cold bath is very good, but I would not advise it as a general thing
for women. For actual cleansing warm water and pure soap are necessary.
The shock of cold water immediately closes the pores, and they then
retain all the impurities that they should cast out. The temperature of
the water for the daily tepid bath should be about seventy-five or
eighty degrees, never more than that.
Whether or not the bath should be taken at night or in the morning is a
question which each must decide for herself. While it has often been
claimed that a bath at night will quiet the nerves and make one sleep
sweetly, I have known many persons who found it an utter impossibility,
as it caused them to be restless and wide-awake. One reason why the
bath before going to bed is desirable is that a soothing emollient can
be applied to the face, neck and hands, and thus will the skin be
whitened and beautified. After a warm plunge the pores of the skin are
opened and in excellent condition to absorb a good skin food or a
pleasant cream.
Bath bags are simply luxuries. They are pleasant ones, to be sure, but
they should never take the place of the flesh brush. It is best to
follow the scrubbing with a gentle washing with a bath bag, for the
almond meal and the orris root will give a charming, velvety appearance
to the skin. They should never be used a second time, as the bran
frequently becomes sour after a drying. So, if you are of an economical
turn of mind, you will make your bath bags very small, just large
enough to serve for one beauty bath.
A little starch thrown into the bath will sometimes whiten the skin.
Salt is not cleansing at all, but is very invigorating and a pleasant
tonic if one is worn out and languid. Turkish baths are splendid
complexion-makers, but must not be indulged in too frequently. If the
skin is dry and feverish, a dry bath--or massage--with oil of sweet
almonds will promote a healthy skin and bring about good circulation.
Constant bathing is the best remedy for excessive perspiration. But
this is not really effective unless a little benzoin is added to the
water, and the armpits well dried, and dusted with powder afterward. A
good bathing powder for this purpose is made of two and one-half drams
of camphor, four ounces of orris root and sixteen ounces of starch.
Reduce to a fine powder and tie in coarse muslin bags.
Remember that a coarse complexion, with black, disfiguring, open pores,
can be almost entirely cured by keeping the pores of the body free from
sebaceous matter. Have the bathtub carefully scoured each day, as the
oils and dust washed from the body invariably collect on the sides just
where the water reached. For the thorough cleansing have the tub half
filled with warm water. Use a coarse rag, a bath brush and large,
coarse towels. Before stepping into the water wash the face and neck
well with castile soap and a camel's-hair brush, this being
particularly necessary when the pores are clogged and acne has formed.
Rinse thoroughly and dry with gentle pats. When using the brush, do not
forget to let the scrubbing go well down onto the chest, lest your neck
will be bleached white and nice only part of the way.
Once in the tub, go over the body briskly with the flesh brush, using
plenty of good soap and not being at all sparing of elbow grease. This
scrubbing is very invigorating, for it exercises the muscles and stirs
up one's blood as well. After the scrubbing use the bath spray, letting
the water get gradually chilled. The drying should be brisk and quick,
and a warm robe of some sort must be donned while the hair is being
combed for the night, the teeth brushed and the face anointed with a
pure home-made cosmetic. Then go to bed. If you don't find a prettier,
fresher complexion with you next morning, then I'll miss my guess, and
will take up another occupation than that of doling out beauty advice.
Quireda Bath Bags:
One pound of fine oatmeal.
One-half quart of new clean bran.
Two-fifths pound powdered orris root.
Two-fifths pound almond meal.
One-fourth pound white castile soap, dried and powdered.
One ounce primrose sachet powder.
Dipped in tepid water and used as a sponge these bath bags make a
velvety lather that softens and whitens the skin in a way that
warms the cockles of one's heart.
DIET
_
"Good food is the basis of good conduct, and consequently of
happiness; more divorces are caused by hash than by
infidelity."--_Hetty Green._
The object of eating is nourishment to build up the nerves, the
muscles, the blood, the tissues, and, in fact, the whole body. Judging
by woman's mad devotion to things she should not eat, this is a piece
of information which has never before been confided to her.
Let the food be well cooked, daintily served and delicately
flavored--for all that aids digestion with persons of sensibility and
refinement--but see to it that the ingredients are wholesome and of the
best and freshest qualities. A fifteen-cent lunch at one of the
tearooms, where dishes are prepared with some idea of the rules of
hygiene, is much better than a twenty-five-cent course dinner at a
cheap restaurant. This is a hint for the business girl who lunches
downtown.
Ripe fruits, served upon green leaves, are always appetizing, even if
there is nothing more than toast or rolls to go with them. Cereals,
such as rice, barley or hominy (they must be steamed for hours), served
with rich cream, make ideal luncheons. A baked apple, a bit of rice
pudding, or a custard--they, too, are worth the while and the price.
Eggs, either boiled or carefully scrambled, or made into an omelet,
flavored with a dash of parsley, and chops or fish delicately broiled,
are substantial viands. Soups or broths, breads, fruits and an
occasional salad make desirable luncheons. A noonday meal of creamed
potatoes and green peas is not to be despised, and it's a godsend to
the poor stomach that has been heroically tussling with cocoanut
pudding, fruit cake and chocolate rich enough to own a castle in
Europe. Such dishes as Italian spaghetti, with tomato sauce and
Parmesan cheese, or celery or cress salad, with no other dressing than
the best olive oil and a teaspoonful of vinegar, will do very well.
There is no economy in buying badly cooked luncheons. Seek quality, not
quantity, and, so far as health and good looks go, you'll find yourself
getting along famously.
Rich foods, especially pastries, can bring forth an array of facial
eruptions that is positively maddening to the poor victim. Ice cream
soda, too, deranges the stomach and creates all sorts of disagreeable
disturbances. Hot bread and rolls, indulged in to an appalling extent
in southern households, can do more real damage to a good, fair skin
than all the winds and wintry blasts that ever shook chimneys or swept
friskily around corners and alleyways.
Overeating not only brings indigestion and creepy dreams, but
invariably makes the complexion coarse, high-colored and overruddy.
That does not mean that one should nibble at things and not demolish a
"good square meal." Eating should be understood--rules laid down and
religiously carried out.
Usually hygienic dishes and health foods comprise a complete list of
one's special horrors. Most girls who have tried them say so. But just
the same, there are dozens--yes, hundreds--of nutritious viands that
are decidedly more palatable and appetizing than the sweets and
indigestible doughy nothings that not only make of you a physical wreck
but set you to wishing most heartily that the man who invented mirrors
had died of the measles in his early infancy.
Rice is a good old stand-by as a builder-up of a run-down constitution.
But you don't like it? Well, then, stew it with chicken sometime and
you will soon discover what great possibilities are in this despised
grain. Oatmeal, as it is usually cooked, is a thing of horror, to be
shunned and avoided and run away from. But oatmeal left to slowly
simmer for a full hour, and served half liquid, fluffed over with a bit
of powdered sugar and covered with rich cream, is fit for a queen--most
especially if the royal lady is ambitious for a fair visage with sweet,
soft skin and cheeks just touched with the crimson of health.
A thick porterhouse steak, broiled quickly and well seasoned with salt,
pepper and butter, or rare little chops of lamb, are always excellent
tonics, as well as complexion tinters.
Very often a lack of beauty is nothing more than a lack of proper
nourishment. The best cure in the world for a haggard, wan, white face
is a proper understanding of good foods. Sometimes a tonic of iron is
needed to brace the wearied physical state. Cod liver oil, which is so
very disagreeable to most people, is the sure cure for the girl whose
extreme slenderness causes her to lie awake nights to fret and worry.
But when the oil is prepared with malt it is even better, and also less
trying to swallow. A combination of malt and hypo-phosphates is
excellent too, and will bring back the fire of energy to the eye, and
the roses to the cheeks. A dessertspoonful taken before meals will
stimulate and strengthen, and get the tired body into a better state to
resist the wear and tear of ill health or overwork.
One beautiful woman of my acquaintance declares that the secret of her
radiant looks is simply lettuce and olive oil. She eats lettuce summer
and winter, and this queer complexion cure has certainly worked like a
charm in her case. She buys the crisp young head lettuce, being careful
to use only the inner leaves. Over this she pours two tablespoonfuls of
the best olive oil and the very slightest dash of vinegar. Salt and the
least wee bit of sugar finish the salad. The good qualities of lettuce
are usually destroyed by rich, mustardy dressings, that breed acute
dyspepsia and desperate despair over good looks. But olive oil and
lettuce is as good a combination for rugged health and a fair face as
one can find in a year's search from Cape Horn to the Yukon. Others
besides the lovely lady of whom I speak have found it so. The secret,
though, is, I fancy, in the olive oil, which is an excellent aperient.
A complexion-destroying habit is that of eating late lunches just
before going to bed. An apple or an orange is a benefit--as is also
plenty of cold, distilled water--but when it comes to gnawing chicken
bones, devouring big slabs of rich cake or finishing up a dish of
leftover salad, then is the time that kind relatives or guardians
should step in, say a word and take a hand. The girl should be saved
from herself at almost any expense.
Fruit is a panacea for many complexion ills. What a pity, then, that
blind womankind persists in dabbing things on her nose instead of
putting healthful, purifying beauty food into her stomach.
There is no reason in the world why fruit should be considered a
luxury. It should be used as a staple article of diet. Surely that must
have been the original intention. But alas, how many housewives will
pay forty cents for a can of lobster that will upset stomachs, frazzle
pleasant tempers, cause all sorts of complexion horrors and bring a
perfect comet trail of nightmares and dyspepsia! And these same women
will wrap themselves in a sanctimonious mantle of economy when the
woman next door pays the same sum for a dozen great juicy oranges.
Grapes and apples are among the most nutritious fruits, and there is
nothing in the world so good for a skin of oily surface or yellow hue
as a grape diet. Besides, grapes are extremely appetizing, are very
easily digested and are sure to agree with even the most delicate
stomach. Ripe peaches have nearly all the merits of the grape, and, if
in proper condition, are also quite unlikely to bring about indigestion
or stomach disorders.
There has never yet been concocted a better spring tonic than
strawberries. The reason why they are particularly excellent to enrich
and purify the blood is because they contain a larger percentage of
iron than any other fruit. It is a shame ever to embarrass and
humiliate the luscious things by imprisoning them in the indigestible
layers of a shortcake. A fluff of pure powdered sugar and a dash of
whipped cream and you have a toothsome dish fit for the most finicky
god that ever graced Olympia's pleasant realms.
The woman who has a dingy, muddy skin must pin her faith to oranges,
lemons and limes. These are simply unrivaled as complexion clearers.
The juice of the grape fruit is fine, too. Fruits of this class
stimulate and make active the digestive organs, which, as you probably
know, are the main seat of nearly all complexion ills. A breakfast of
oranges and strawberries will do more toward making you a pretty,
wholesome, healthy woman than almost anything else.
To be perfectly wholesome, fruit with firm flesh, like plums or apples
or cherries, must be thoroughly masticated. The skin of raw fruit
should under no circumstances be eaten. It is covered invariably with
multitudes of minute germs which always swarm upon the surface of the
fruit and multiply rapidly under favorable conditions of warmth. Before
eating grapes or cherries all dust and impurities must be removed by
careful washing in several waters.
But to sum up the entire question of diet, eat what you know will agree
with you, and choose the blood-making, nourishing foods. Let fruit and
vegetables predominate in your meals, but do not avoid meats entirely.
Cake is not harmful unless very rich, but greasy pastries--like pies
and tarts and things of that sort--are simply utterly, hopelessly
impossible! Fats make the skin oily and coarse, pastries produce
pimples and blackheads faster than you can doctor them away, and too
much sweets will have about the same effect. Instead of buying candies,
save your money and acquire a fine complexion along with a bank
account. It will pay in the end.