The complete servant / Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

by servant Samuel Adams; Sarah Adams

323. SPANISH LADIES’ ROUGE.

Take good new scarlet wool cuttings, and spirit of wine, or lemon-juice, boil them in a well-glazed earthen pot, well stopped, till the liquid has charged itself with all the colour of the scarlet, strain the dye through a cloth, and all the colour therefrom; boil it afterwards in a little arabic water, till the colour becomes very deep. The proportion of materials is, to half a pound of scarlet cuttings, a quarter of a pint of spirit of wine, and a sufficient quantity of water to assist the soaking. Then, in the colour extracted, put a piece of gum arabic, of the size of a filbert: next steep some cotton in the colour, and wet some sheets of paper with the dye, which repeat several times, as often as they are dry, and you will find them sufficiently charged with rouge for use.

324. SPANISH VERMILION FOR THE TOILETTE.

Pour into the alkaline liquor which holds in solution the colouring part of bastard saffron, such a quantity of lemon juice as may be necessary to saturate the whole alkaline salts. At the time of the precipitation, the latter appears under the form of a fecula full of threads, which soon falls to the bottom of the vessel. Mix this part with white talc, reduced to fine powder, and moistened with a little lemon-juice and water. Then form the whole into a paste, and having put it in small pots, expose it to dry. This colour is reserved for the use of the toilette; but it has not the durability of that prepared from cochineal.

325. ECONOMICAL ROUGE.

Fine carmine, properly pulverized and prepared for the purpose, is the best that can be employed with safety and effect: it gives the most natural tone to the complexion, and imparts a brilliancy to the eyes, without detracting from the softness of the skin. To use it economically, take some of the finest pomatum, without scent, in which there is a proportion of white wax, about the size of a pea, just flatten it upon a piece of white paper, then take on a pointed penknife, carmine equal to a pin’s head, mix it gently with the pomatum, with your finger, and when you have produced the desired tint, rub it in a little compressed cotton, pass it over the cheeks till colour is clearly diffused, void of grease. Ladies will find, upon trial, that this economical rouge will neither injure the health nor the skin; and it imitates perfectly the natural colour of the complexion.

326. Another.

Take of French chalk, powdered, 4 oz.
oil of almonds, 2 drachms,
carmine, 1 do.

327. TURKISH BLOOM.

Infuse an ounce and a half of gum benzoin, 2 ounces of red saunders, in powder, and 2 drachms of dragon’s blood, in 12 ounces of rectified spirit of wine, and 4 ounces of river or rain water. When the ingredients have been mixed, stop the bottle close, and shake frequently during seven days; then filter through blotting paper.