The Ugly-Girl Papers/Chapter 7

CHAPTER VII.

• Shining Pallor.
• Lustrous Faces.
• Golden Freckles.
• Tiger-Lily Spots.
• Sun Photographs.
• Nitre Removes Freckles.
• Old English Prescription.
• For Yachting.
• Almond-Oil.
• Buttermilk as a Cosmetic.
• Rosemary and Glycerine.
• Lotion for Prickly Heat.
• For Musquitoes.
• Protecting Hair from Sea Air.
• Fashionable Gray Hair.
• Dark Eyes and Silver Hair.
• To Restore Dark Hair.
• Bandoline.
• Cold Cream.
• Almond Pomade.
• For Skin Diseases.
• Sulphurous Acid.

The summer heats, which make nature lovely, are the bane of our fair-skinned Northern girls. Southern frames receive the glowing warmth, and grow paler and paler, because — giving a matter-of-fact explanation of a beautiful appearance — the surface of the skin is cooled by the perspiration, and the blood retreats to the central veins. The "shining pallor" which poets love on the faces of their favorite creations is the sign and effect of concentrated passion of any kind in a quick, electric nature. I disbelieved in the expression a long time, classing it with the "marble flush" and such freaks of nature in novels; but the peculiar look has come under my eye more than once. It is a very striking one, as if the light came from within—a lustrous, elevated expression, too ethereal and of the spirit to be merely high-bred. It is one of the refinements Nature gives to her ideal pieces of humanity, and nothing coarse lurks in the creation of the one who presents it. The Southern pallor is quite different-a dead but clear olive, very admirable when the skin is fine. Northern paleness is relieved rather than disfigured by a few golden freckles. They are more piquant than otherwise; and girls with the pure complexion which attends auburn, blonde, and brown hair ought to consider them as caprices of nature to blend the hues of bright, warm hair and snowy skin. When as large, and almost as dark as the patches on the tiger-lily, every one will find them something to get rid of with dispatch. Freckles indicate an excess of iron in the blood, the sun acting on the particles in the skin as it does on indelible ink, bringing out the color. A very simple way of removing them is said to be as follows:

Take finely powdered nitre (saltpetre), and apply it to the freckles by the finger moistened with water and dipped in the powder. When perfectly done and judiciously repeated, it will remove them effectually without trouble.

An old English prescription for the skin is to take half a pint of blue skim-milk, slice into it as much cucumber as it will cover, and let it stand an hour; then bathe the face and hands, washing them off with fair water when the cucumber extract is dry. The latter is said to stimulate the growth of hair where it is lacking, if well and frequently rubbed in. It would be worth while to apply it to high foreheads and bald crowns.

Rough skins, from exposure to the wind in riding, rowing, or yachting, trouble many ladies, who will be glad to know that an application of cold crean or glycerine at night, washed off with fine carbolic soap in the morning, will render them presentable at the breakfast-table, without looking like women who follow the hounds, blowzy and burned. The simplest way to obviate the bad effects of too free sun and wind, which are apt on occasion to revenge themselves for the neglect too often shown them by the fair sex, is to rub the face, throat, and arms well with cold cream or pure almond-oil before going out. With this precaution one may come home from a berry-party or a sail without a trace of that gingerbread effect too apt to follow those pleasures. Cold cream made from almond-oil, with no lard or tallow about it, will answer every end proposed by the use of buttermilk, a favorite country prescription, but one which young ladies can hardly prefer as a cosmetic on account of its odor.

A delicate and effective preparation for rough skins, eruptive diseases, cuts, or ulcers is found in a mixture of one ounce of glycerine, half an ounce of rosemary-water, and twenty drops of carbolic acid. In those dreaded irritations of the skin occurring in summer, such as hives or prickly heat, this wash gives soothing relief. The carbolic acid neutralizes the poison of the blood, purifies and disinfects the eruption, and heals it rapidly. A solution of this acid, say fifty drops to an ounce of the glycerine, applied at night, forms a protection from musquitoes. Though many people consider the remedy equal to the disease, constant use very soon reconciles one to the creosotic odor of the carbolic acid, especially if the pure crystallized form is used, which is far less overpowering in its fragrance than the common sort. Those who dislike it too much to use it at night, will find the sting of the bites almost miraculously cured and the blotches removed by touching them with the mixture in the morning. This is penned with grateful recollection of its efficiency after the bites of Jersey musquitoes a few nights ago. Babies and children should be touched with it in re duced form, to relieve the pain they feel from insect bites, but do not know how to express except by worrying. Two or three drops of attar of roses in the preparation disguises the smell so as to render it tolerable to human beings, though not so to musquitoes.

Ladies who find that sea air turns their hair gray, or who are fearful of such a result, should keep it carefully oiled with some vegetable oil; not glycerine, as that combines with water too readily to protect the locks. The recipe for cold cream made with more of the almond-oil, so as to form a salve, is not a bad sea-dressing for the hair, and the spermaceti and wax render it less greasy than ordinary preparations. Animal pomades grow rancid, and make the head most unpleasant to touch and smell.

Many preparations are given to restore the color to dark hair when it is lost through ill health or over-study. The fashionables today, with true taste, admire gray hair when in profusion, and deem it distinguished when accompanied by dark eyes, to which the contrast adds a piercing lustre. But those who consider themselves defrauded of their natural tints may use this recipe: Tincture of acetate of iron, one ounce; water, one pint; glycerine, half an ounce; sulphuret of potassium, five grains. Mix well, and let the bottle remain uncovered to pass out the foul smell arising from the potassium. Afterward add a few drops of ambergris or attar of roses. Rub a little of this daily into the hair, which it will restore to its original color, and benefit the health of the scalp.

Ladies are annoyed by the tendency of their hair to come out of crimp or curl while boating or horseback-riding. The only help is to apply the following bandoline before putting the hair in papers or irons: A quarter of an ounce of gum-tragacanth, one pint of rose-water, five drops of glycerine; mix and let stand overnight. If the tragacanth is not dissolved, let it be half a day longer; if too thick, add more rose-water, and let it be for some hours. When it is a smooth solution, nearly as thin as glycerine, it is fit to use. This is excellent for making the hair curl. Moisten a lock of hair with it, not too wet, and brush round a warm curling-iron, or put up in papillotes. If the curl come out harsh and stiff, brush it round a cold iron or curling-stick with a very little of the cosmetic for keeping stray hair in place, or cold cream. To the recipe given in the last chapter another is added, of perhaps finer proportions: Oil of sweet almonds, five parts; spermaceti, three parts; white wax, half a part; attar of roses, three to five drops. Melt together in a shallow dish, over hot water, strain through a piece of muslin when melted, and as it begins to cool beat it with a silver spoon till quite cold and of a snowy whiteness. It is well to rub it smooth on a slab of marble or porcelain before putting in glass boxes to keep. For the hair use seven parts of almond-oil to the other proportions named. The secret of making fine cold cream lies in stirring and beating it well all the time it is cooling.

Those who have the misfortune to contract cutaneous disorders arising from exposure to the contact of the low and degraded — and charitable persons sometimes run narrow risks of this kind — or from scorbutic affections or the fumes of certain medicines, each and any of which are liable to produce rougliness and inflammation of the skin, will be glad of a speedy and certain cure for their affliction. It is a wash of sulphurous acid (not sulphuric), diluted in the proportion of three parts of soft water to one of the acid, and used three or four times a day till relieved. I knew a young lady whose fine complexion was ruined by the fumes of medicine she administered to her grandmother, whom she tended with religious care; and, thinking there may be others in like case, hasten to give this prescription. Sub rosa — all parasites on furniture, human beings, or pets are quickly destroyed by this application.