The Ugly-Girl Papers/Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI.

• Récamier's Training.
• Diana of Poitiers, Bath.
• High Beauty of Maturity.
• The Worth of Beauty.
• George Eliot on Complexions.
• Dr. Cazenave.
• Barley Paste for the Face.
• Prescriptions of the Roman Ladies.
• To Remove Pimples.
• Cascarilla Wash.
• Varnish for Wrinkles.
• Acetic Acid for Comedones.
• To Remove Mask.
• Lady Mary Montagu.
• Habit of Italian Ladies.
• Wash of Vitriol.

The motto that used to haunt our souls over copy-books, "No excellence without great labor," is as true about personal improvement as any thing else. Few celebrated beauties have gained their fame without use of those arts which must be the earliest of all, since we have no record of their first teaching—the arts of the toilette. Madame Récamier, who exercised more power by her beauty than any woman of modern times, was bred by a most careful mother, versed in all the mysteries of training. Her exceeding delicacy of complexion arose from the protection she gave it, never going out except in her carriage, and scarcely knowing what it was to set foot to the ground. Margaret of Anjou and Mary Stuart, in earlier times, were wise as serpents in the magic of the toilet, disdaining neither May dew nor less simple lotions for cheeks whereon the eye of the world was to dwell. Diana of Poitiers bequeathed a legacy of value to her sex in commending the use of the rain-water bath, which preserved her own beauty till, at the age of sixty-five, no one could be insensible to her. Ninon de l'Enclos left the same testimony. It is intolerable that women have not the ambition to preserve their health and charms to the latest date, and give up their cases so shamefully An intelligent maturity chisels and refines the face to a high and feeling beauty; that is to the attractions of youth what the aristocratic head of Booth would be beside a pink-and-white lady-killer of society. This serene and finished expression should find physical favor to accompany it. Nor is this to be gained, as many say, by leading a passive, emotionless life. People of vivid feeling are the youngest. Their quick alterations of mood make the face clean cut, yet do not settle it in uniform furrows. Both grief and joy, yearning passion and utter renunciation, are needed to sculpture finely the statues for remembrance. No one professing the loftiest aims, who understands human nature, can despise the care of personal beauty when, combined with moral worth, its influence is so irresistible. Look at the portraits of those renowned as moral and intellectual heroes; it will be found their greatness was rarely associated with physical repulsiveness, and though their faces in the conflicts of life grew seamed and worn, yet in youth they must have been more than ordinarily remarked for beauty of a high order — Columbus and Galileo and Whitefield will do for examples. And if the reader go through the range of feminine celebrities, from the poets to missionary biographies, "with portrait of the original," not one face in ten will dispute what I have said.

Least of all let any woman heed smiling scorn of her weakness in taking pains to secure a good complexion — the real clearness and color, if she eschew the coarse pretense of powder and paint. George Eliot, with her masculine sense, bears witness to the irresistible tendency to associate a pure soul with a lucent complexion. No woman can be disagreeable if she have this saving claim; and there will be no apology for adding a few estimable recipes for the purpose from the collection of a foreign physician, Dr. Cazenave. He recommends the following as a composition for the face:

Three ounces of ground barley, one ounce of honey, and the white of one egg, mixed to a paste, and spread thickly on the cheeks, nose, and forehead, before going to bed. This must remain all night, protecting the face by a soft handkerchief, or bits of lawn laid over the parts on which the paste is applied. Wash it off with warm water, wetting the surface with a sponge, and letting it soften while dressing the hair or finishing one's bath. Repeat nightly till the skin grows perfectly fine and soft, which should be in three weeks, after which it will be enough to use it once a week. Always wash the face with warm water and mild soap, rubbing on a little cold cream when exposing one's self to the weather. This paste was used by the Romans. With this, care must be taken to bathe daily in warm water, using soap freely, toning the system with a cold plunge afterward, if one can bear it.

For pimples use this recipe: thirty-six grains of bicarbonate of soda, one drachm of glycerine, one ounce of spermaceti ointment. Rub on the face; let it remain for a quarter of an hour, and wipe off all but a slight film with a soft cloth.

The best wash for the complexion given is cascarilla powder, two grains; muriate of ammonia, two grains; emulsion of almonds, eight ounces: apply with fine linen. The frightful discoloration known as mask is removed by a wash made from thirty grains of the chlorate of potash in eight ounces of rose-water. Wrinkles are less apparent under a kind of varnish containing thirty-six grains of turpentine in three drachms of alcohol, allowed to dry on the face. The black worms called comedones call forth the simple specific of thirty-six grains of subcarbonate of soda in eight ounces of distilled water, perfumed with six drachms of essence of roses. But I prefer the advice of a clever home physician, who lately told me that he removed comedones from the faces of girls who applied to him for the purpose by touching the head of each with a fine hair-pencil dipped in acetic acid—a nice operation, as the acid must only touch the black spot, or it will eat the skin. Remembering that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu quoted the habit of Italian ladies to renew and refine their complexions by a wash of vitriol, I begged to know how such a heroic application could safely be made. The answer was that muriatic acid, sixty per cent. strong, diluted in twelve parts of water, might be used as a wash, and gradually eat away the coarse outer envelope of the skin, if any one had fortitude to bear a slow cautery like this. Lady Mary records that she had to shut herself up most of a week, and her face meantime was blistered shockingly; but afterward the Italian ladies assured her that her complexion was vastly improved. On the whole, the typhoid fever is preferable as an agent for clearing the complexion, being perhaps less dangerous and more effective.