Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes and Processes

by Unknown

Since the employment of poor soaps works so injuriously upon the skin, many persons never, or rarely ever, use soap, but wash the face in water alone, or with a little almond bran added. Their skins cannot bear the regular application of poor soap. This, however, applies only to poor, free-alkali containing soaps. Any skin can bear without injury any amount of a good toilet soap, free from uncombined alkali and other impurities. The habit of washing the face with water only, without the use of soap, must be regarded as one altogether bad, since the deposits on the skin, mostly dust-particles and dead epithelial cells, mingling with the oily or greasy matter exuded from the fat glands of the skin—excellent nutrient media for colonies of bacteria—cannot be got rid of by water alone. Rubbing only forces the mass into the openings in the skin (the sweat glands, fat glands, etc.), and stops them up. In this way are produced the so-called “black heads” and other spots and blotches on the skin usually referred to by the uneducated, or partially educated, as “parasites.” The complexion is in this manner injured quite as much by the failure to use good soap as by the use of a poor or bad article.

All of the skin troubles referred to may be totally avoided by the daily use of a neutral, alkali-free soap, and the complexion thus kept fresh and pure. Completely neutral soaps, however, are more difficult to manufacture—requiring more skill and care than those in which no attention is paid to excess of alkali—and consequently cost more than the general public are accustomed, or, in fact, care to pay for soaps. While this is true, one must not judge the quality of a soap by the price demanded for it. Some of the manufacturers of miserable soaps charge the public some of the most outrageous prices. Neither can a soap be judged by its odor or its style of package and putting on the market.

To give a soap an agreeable odor the manufacturers add to it, just when it commences to cool off, an etheric oil (such as attar of rose, oil of violets, bergamot oil, etc.), or some balsamic material (such as tincture of benzoin, for instance). It should be known, however, that while grateful to the olfactory nerves, these substances do not add one particle to the value of the soap, either as a detergent or as a preserver of the skin or complexion.

Especially harmful to the skin are soaps containing foreign substances, such, for instance, as the starches, gelatin, clay, chalk, gums, or rosins, potato flour, etc., which are generally added to increase the weight of soap. Such soaps are designated, very significantly, “filled soaps,” and, as a class, are to be avoided, if for no other reason, on account of their lack of true soap content. The use of these fillers should be regarded as a criminal falsification under the laws regarding articles of domestic use, since they are sold at a relatively high price, yet contain foreign matter, harmful to health. {652}

Recipes For Cold-stirred Toilet Soaps.

		Parts by weight
I.—	Cocoanut oil	30
	Castor oil	3
	Caustic soda lye (38° Bé)	17 1/2

Pink Soap.—

		Parts by weight
II.—	Pink No. 114	10
	Lemon oil	60
	Cedar-wood oil	60
	Citronella oil	50
	Wintergreen oil	15

Pale-Yellow Soap.—

		Parts by weight
III.—	Orange No. 410	10
	Citronella oil	60
	Sassafras oil	60
	Lavender oil	45
	Wintergreen oil	15
	Aniseed oil	25