The Arts of Beauty/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
Though it is true that a beautiful mind is the first thing requisite for a beautiful face, yet how much more charming will the whole become through the aid of a fine complexion? It is not easy to overrate the importance of complexion. The features of a Juno with a dull skin would never fascinate. The forehead, the nose, the lips, may all be faultless in size and shape; but still, they can hardly look beautiful without the aid of a bright complexion. Even the finest eyes lose more than half their power, if they are surrounded by an inexpressive complexion. It is in the coloring or complexion that the artist shows his great skill in giving expression to the face. Overlooking entirely the matter of vanity, it is a woman's duty to use all the means in her power to beautify and preserve her complexion. It is fitting that the "index of the soul" should be kept as clean and bright and beautiful as possible.
All that I have said in chapters IV. and V., apply also to the subject of the present chapter. A stomach frequently crowded with greasy food, or with artificial stimulants of any kind, will in a short time spoil the brightest complexion. All excesses tend to do the same thing. Frequent ablution with pure cold water, followed by gentle and very frequent rubbing with a dry napkin, is one of the best cosmetics ever employed.
It is amusing to reflect upon the tricks which vain beauties will resort to in order to obtain this paramount aid to female charms. Nor is it any wonder that woman should exhaust all her resources in this pursuit, for her face is such a public thing, that there is no hiding the least deformity in it. She can, to some extent, hide an ugly neck, or shoulder, or hand, or foot—but there is no hiding-place for an ugly face.
I knew many fashionable ladies in Paris who used to bind their faces, every night on going to bed, with thin slices of raw beef, which is said to keep the skin from wrinkles, while it gives a youthful freshness and brilliancy to the complexion. I have no doubt of its efficacy. The celebrated Madam Vestris used to sleep every night with her face plastered up with a kind of paste to ward off the threatening wrinkles, and keep her charming complexion from fading. I will give the recipe for making the Vestris' Paste for the benefit of any of my readers whose looking-glass warns them that the dimness and wrinkles of age are extinguishing the roses of youth:
The whites of four eggs boiled in rose-water, half an ounce of alum, half an ounce of oil of sweet almonds; beat the whole together till it assumes the consistence of a paste.
The above, spread upon a silk or muslin mask, and worn at night, will not only keep back the wrinkles and preserve the complexion fair, but it is a great remedy where the skin becomes too loosely attached to the muscles, as it gives firmness to the parts. When I was last in Paris (1857) I was shown a recent invention of ready-made masks for the face, composed of fine thick white silk, lined, or plastered, with some kind of fard, or paste, which is designed to beautify and preserve the complexion. I do not know the component parts of this preparation; but I doubt if it is any better than the recipe which was given to me by Madam Vestris, and which I have given above. This trick is so entirely French that there is little danger of its getting into general practice in this country. In Bohemia I have seen the ladies flock to arsenic springs and drink the waters, which gave their skins a transparent whiteness; but there is a terrible penalty attached to this folly; for when once they habituate themselves to the practice, they are obliged to keep it up the rest of their days, or death would speedily follow. The beauties of the court of George I. were in the habit of taking minute doses of quicksilver to obtain a white and fair complexion; and I have read in Pepys's Diary of some ridiculous scenes which occurred at dancing parties from this practice. Young girls of the present day sometimes eat such things as chalk, slate, and tea-grounds to give themselves a white complexion. I have no doubt that this is a good way to get a pale complexion; for it destroys the health, and surely drives out of the face the natural roses of beauty, and, instead of a bright complexion, produces a wan and sickly one. Every young girl ought early to be impressed that whatever destroys health spoils her beauty.
The most remarkable wash for the face which I have ever known, and which is said to have been known to the beauties of the court of Charles II., is made of a simple tincture of benzoin precipitated by water. All you have to do in preparing it is to take a small piece of the gum benzoin and boil it in spirits of wine till it becomes a rich tincture. Fifteen drops of this, poured into a glass of water, will produce a mixture which will look like milk, and emits a most agreeable perfume.
This delightful wash seems to have the effect of calling the purple stream of the blood to the external fibres of the face, and gives the cheeks a beautiful rosy color. If left on the face to dry, it will render the skin clear and brilliant. It is also an excellent remedy for spots, freckles, pimples, and eruptions, if they have not been of long standing.