CHAPTER V.
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.