The Toilet.
Milk of Almonds is used to bathe the face, and is made thus: Bruise some sweet almonds in a mortar, and add water by slow degrees, in the proportion of a pint to twenty or thirty almonds; put to this a piece of sugar, to prevent the separation of the oil from the water, rubbing assiduously. Pass the whole through a flannel, and perfume it with orange-flower water.
Tooth Powder.—Mix together equal parts of powdered chalk and charcoal, and add a small quantity of Castile soap. These produce a powder which will keep the teeth beautifully white.
A Cooling Wash for the Hands and Face.—A correspondent writes: "The following has been used in my family some years: An equal quantity of ammonia and soap liniment, one teaspoonful in the water."
Warts.—These are got rid of in various ways. Some tie a thread round their base; but a better plan is to have a piece of thick paper, with a hole cut in it, the size of the wart; this is put over the wart, and then every morning a drop or two of the strongest acetic acid should be dropped through the hole upon the wart. If this do not succeed, dropping oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) in the same way will answer.
How to make Transparent Soap.—Equal parts of tallow soap, made perfectly dry, and spirits of wine, are to be put into a copper still, which is plunged into a water-bath, and furnished with its capital and refrigeratory. The heat applied to effect the solution should be as slight as possible, to avoid evaporating too much of the alcohol. The solution being effected, it must be suffered to settle; and, after a few hours repose, the clear supernatant liquid is drawn off into tin frames of the form desired for the cakes of soap. These bars do not acquire their proper degree of transparency till after a few weeks' exposure to dry air. The soap is colored with strong alcoholic solution of ochre for the rose tint, and turmeric for the deep yellow.
To make Court-plaster.—Stretch tightly some thin black or flesh-colored silk in a wooden frame, securing it with packthread or small tacks. Then go all over it with a soft bristle brush, dipped in dissolved isinglass or strong gum-arabic water. Give it two or three coats, letting it dry between each. Then go several times over it with white of egg.
To clean Foul Sponge.—When very foul, wash them in dilute tartaric acid, rinsing them afterwards in water: it will make them very soft and white. Be careful to dilute the acid well.
To keep Silk.—Silk articles should not be kept folded in white paper, as the chloride of lime used in bleaching the paper will probably impair the color of the silk. Brown or blue paper is better—the yellowish smooth India paper is best of all. Silk intended for a dress should not be kept in the house long before it is made up, as lying in the folds will have a tendency to impair its durability by causing it to cut or split, particularly if the silk has been thickened by gum. We knew an instance of a very elegant and costly thread-lace veil being found on its arrival from France cut into squares (and therefore destroyed) by being folded over a pasteboard card. A white satin dress should be pinned up in blue paper, with coarse brown paper outside, sewed together at the edges.