WHITE PAINTS.
White paints are extracted from minerals, more or less pernicious, but always corrosive. They affect the eyes, which swell and inflame, and are rendered painful and watery. They change the texture of the skin, on which they produce pimples, and cause rheums; attack the teeth, make them ache, destroy the enamel, and loosen them.
TO MAKE TALC WHITE.
Take a piece of the talc white, known by the name of Briançon chalk; choose it of a pearl grey colour, and rasp it gently with a piece of dog’s skin; after this, sift it through a sieve of very fine silk, and put this powder into a pint of good distilled vinegar, in which leave it for a fortnight, taking care to shake the bottle or pot several times each day, except the last, on which it must not be disturbed; pour off the vinegar, so as to leave the chalk behind in the bottle, into which pour very clean water that has been filtered; throw the whole into a clean pan, and stir the water well with a wooden spatula; let the powder settle again to the bottom; pour the water gently off, and wash the powder six or seven times, taking care always to make use of filtered water. When the powder is as soft and as white as you would wish, dry it in a place where it is not exposed to the dust; sift it through a silken sieve, which will make it still finer. It may be either left in powder, or wetted and formed into cakes, like those sold by the perfumers. One pint of vinegar is sufficient to dissolve a pound of talc.
This white may be used in the same manner as carmine, dipping your finger, or a piece of paper, or what is preferable to either, a hare’s foot, prepared for the purpose in ointment, and putting upon it about a grain of this white, which will not be removed, even by perspiration. If the ointment with which it is applied is properly made, this white does no injury to the face. The same ingredients may be used for making rouge.
COSMETIC JUICE.
Make a hole in a lemon, fill it up with sugar candy, and close it nicely with gold leaf, applied over the rind that was cut out; then roast the lemon in hot ashes. When desirous of using the juice, squeeze out a little through the hole already made, and wash the face with a napkin wetted therewith. This juice is said to cleanse the skin, and brighten the complexion marvellously.
BALSAM FOR CHAPPED LIPS.
Take two tea-spoonsful of clarified honey,
and a few drops of lavender-water, or any other
agreeable perfume.
Mix, and anoint the parts frequently. If the hands are affected, anoint them all over on going to bed, wearing your gloves all night, and wash with tepid milk and water in the morning. A night or two will effect a cure.