A Feminine Guise
A recreation of 18th century beauty recipies.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Recipe #194: Red Lip Salve
Monday, April 16, 2012
Recipe 146: A Cosmetic Juice
This is another recipe calling for washing the skin in lemon, although in this preparation the lemon is to be roasted.
For this recipe it calls for sugar candy to be inserted into a whole lemon, I prepared in advice a simple sugar and water candy.
It advises to cut a hole in the lemon and once the sugar candy is added to close up the hole with gold leaf. For my experiment I chose tinfoil instead of gold leaf. Since the reason for adding the gold is to close the hole to prevent juices running out and not to interact with main ingredients at all I opted for the cheaper solution.
The lemon is then to be covered in hot ashes and roasted. I built a small fire and burned it down to ash
then inserted the lemon while the ash was still very warm.
The recipe does not specify roasting time so I left the lemon in the ashes until they were almost fully cooled (about 25 minutes).
After removing the lemon from the ashes it was completely covered in fine dust except for the area where the tin foil was covering the hole. The lemon was then left to cool.
The recipe promotes this application as cleaning and brightening. The fact that it is somewhat liquid would clean the skin (or at least give the appearance of cleaner skin). I saw no brightening effect in my use of it.
Overall this was a mostly unpleasant and useless experience. But if you ever want to try making basically jams inside of a lemon go for it!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Recipe number 154
This recipe presents simply with only 3 ingredients, egg whites, lemon juice, and essential oil of your choice. But the idea of rubbing barely cooked egg on myself then leaving it caused me to be a bit squeamish about it (I’m going to have some major problems when it comes to the veal lotion later on in the book). I was also hesitant because of the description of earlier versions on ‘varnishes for the skin’ the Elizabethan version in particular being regarded as a sticky shiny mask created with a similar egg white concoction.
Anyway pressing on I prepped the first two ingredients and mixed them in the pan. The recipe calls for an earthenware pan which I don’t have nor plan to invest in so I substituted a non stick modern pan, please excuse the inaccuracy. At first look the mixture had gained a scum on top even before heating.
Cooking the mix was to be done over a slow heat while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until it reached a soft butter consistency. This took only about 10 minutes; the first picture was snapped at about 4 minutes in.
Achieving the full thicken consistency was harder, after about 6 minutes in the liquid had turned into what looked and acted like a failed Italian meringue or seven minute icing, lightly fluffy with some small lumps.
After taking off the heat the mixture firmed slightly and thickly coated the spoon.
Once absorbed the varnish felt almost exactly like modern silicone based makeup primers or BB creams.
The recipe claims it whitens and smoothes the skin I would have to say the smoothing part is quite true. The whiteness however is only changed very slightly and it has a slightly chalky pale cast but you can only tell on areas that crease near the wrist. Even on someone of a lighter complexion the effect is not strong. Hypothetically lemon could lighten skin slightly but the sensitization caused might put someone at a greater risk of sun tanning or burning, the lemon though would help reduce the effects of oxidation of the skin after washing so the skin might appear ‘clearer’ and ‘brighter’ like some modern vitamin C serum applications. I think the egg (also used as a common modern face mask ingredient) definitely helps to create a smooth surface and slightly dry out the skin.
Overall this recipe turned out quite well, the fact that this turned out to be almost an eighteenth century equivalent of a makeup primer is interesting.
P.s. The varnish lasted for 2 days unrefrigerated without spoiling or growing mold, really it just started to smell like yogurt.
P.p.s. I found a very similar modern interpretation of this recipe in a book called ‘Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies’ it claims it brightens the skin.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Recipe number 1- An Aromatic Bath
Starting at the beginning, not because I intend to continue in order, but simply because it is quite an easy and flexible recipe.
It calls for a long list of aromatic herbs and advises to combine to your individual tastes. Here are all the recommended herbal additions:
Laurel, Thyme, Rosemary, Wild Thyme, Sweet Marjoram, Bastard Marjoram, Lavender, Southwood, Wormwood, Sage, Pennyroyal, Sweet Basil, Balm, Wild Mint, Hyssop, Clove-July-flowers, Anise, Fennel.
The bold ones are the ones I included. My reasoning for my picks of herbs is that I had all of these things already.
After boiling these ingredients together the liquid is to be strained off and ‘some’ brandy added. Upon doing this a green tinted (presumably getting a lot of it’s tint from the rosemary which produces lots of green coloring when boiled separately) quite lovely smelling liquid was produced. The brandy although added once the heat was removed didn’t smell very much through the scent of the herbs.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Project Outline
Over the next year (or more) I will be recreating the
recipes and remedies listed in the eighteenth century book ‘The Toilet of
Flora’. Excluding those of course that are toxic, painfully expensive, or illegal
nowadays.
Each recipe will be listed then recreated, often in much
smaller quantities than in the original recipe (6 quarts of brandy is called
for in some of them :O), then tested on myself or other willing participants.
Please stay tuned for my first experiments!