My Secrets of Beauty

CHAPTER I. The Care of the Complexion

THE CARE OF THE COMPLEXION

For every woman--or, for that matter, every man--who wants to have and retain a good complexion, the one thorough toilet of the day should be made in the evening. This done, the other toilets throughout the day may be brief and more or less perfunctory.

The real housecleaning, particularly of the face and neck, should take place at night. The reason for this is apparent. The skin has been in contact with the dust and smoke and countless other soiling agents out of doors. At night, immured in the bedroom and swathed in bed clothes, there is slight chance of vagrant dust settling on the skin.

Another reason is that if the day’s grime is allowed to remain upon the face or neck, it becomes imbedded in the pores, and a part of it, at least, is taken into the circulation, and thus carried through the body.

Wash the face most thoroughly at night. First, with a coat of cold cream which may be wiped away after leaving it on for a few minutes. Second, with tepid water and a mild soap. If you use a face cloth, let it be of soft silk or muslin or cheesecloth, but personally I prefer just the palms of the hands.

Do not rub the face hard. A hard rubbing loosens the skin, causes the muscles to sag and makes wrinkles form.

Last of all, give the face its cold cream bath. This is indispensable to the person who would have a good complexion. A skin food such as lanolin may be used instead of cold cream for the face bath if preferred. A cold cream that is excellent for softening and cleansing the skin is made as follows:

Cocoa butter, 32 grams; spermaceti, 32 grams; oil of sweet almonds, 160 grams; white wax, 16 grams.

A more elaborate and expensive cream that is also a helpful skin food is compounded as follows:

Lanolin, 2½ ounces; spermaceti, ¼ ounce; oil of sweet almonds, 2 ounces; fresh mutton tallow, 2½ ounces, cocoanut oil, 2 ounces; tincture of benzoin, ½ dram; Portugal extract, 2 ounces; oil of neroli, 10 drops.

Almond milk is an old-fashioned favorite still in use in some of the best formulae for complexion emollients and bleaches. A good astringent cream that both bleaches and softens the skin is this:

Almond milk from 50 crushed almonds; rosewater, 1 pint.

If the mixture is not smooth, it should be strained through a cheesecloth or soft silk before using. In this form it is softening and whitening. With the addition of ½ ounce of alum it is strongly astringent besides.

With the cold cream or the skin food massage away the wrinkles made by a hard day. With rotary motion, massage away from the corners of the eyes to the hair line. In the same way, with the tips of the fingers, iron out the lines which concentration has written between the eyebrows. With the tips of the middle fingers, massage the lines upward from the corners of the lips to the nostrils, and try to eradicate the ugly little lines in front of the ears by rubbing gently upward.

The care of the complexion in Winter differs considerably from that in Summer. For example, to counteract the coarsening, drying effect of the Winter winds, I use more than the Summer quantity of cold cream. Winter, too, is a greater promoter of wrinkles than Summer, because it dries the skin, and the wrinkled skin is always a dry skin. The following formula will be found a valuable aid when the skin shows a tendency to dryness:

Oil of sweet almonds, 60 grams; cocoa butter, 12 grams; white wax, 6 grams; spermaceti, 12 grams.

For a few complexions cocoa butter is an irritant. For these I would recommend this cream as more soothing:

Oil of sweet almonds, 100 grams; white wax, 20 grams; spermaceti, 100 grams; rosewater, 10 grams.

Whatever cream is used it should be well rubbed into the skin, after which what remains--all that the pores will not take up--should be wiped off with a soft cloth. The skin that is much exposed to the cold air should be especially well fed.

In Winter, more than Summer, the face marred by unsightly red blotches shows its unlovely bent. First, I should try for this internal remedies of a cooling, laxative nature. Sour or buttermilk drunk in large quantities, say six glasses a day, is much used at present to that end. It has the effect of cooling the blood and is milder than many such agents.

Another help in clearing a mottled skin is the complexion mask. There are many mask pastes of various sorts which are admirable for this purpose. From them I select this one as the most worthy and effective of all:

Liquid honey, 1 ounce; barley meal, 2 ounces; white of one egg.

After thoroughly cleansing the skin at night, first with cold cream, then with warm water and a mild soap, apply the paste, spreading it smoothly and evenly with the fingers upon the cheeks, nose and forehead. In the morning add ten drops of tincture of benzoin to a quart of warm water and with this remove whatever paste remains on the skin.

It is easy to do the complexion irreparable injury in Summer. One too long fishing jaunt, one automobile dash with the skin ill protected against the burning sun; a too long dawdling on the toasting sands, and the evil is done. The once beautiful complexion has become a memory. In its place is only a dry, withered remnant of what was once a fresh, soft, rose-like skin.

How to prevent such a tragedy to beauty--for no woman was ever beautiful without a good complexion, and no woman with a good complexion can be less than attractive--I shall try to tell you. First and last and always, vigilance.

First prepare your skin for an outing. It is best never to use hot water on the skin. But if you insist upon that pernicious habit, at least do not use it shortly before going out, for the hot water renders the skin acutely sensitive to any new influence. The wind cuts more deeply into it. The sun’s rays burn farther. They reach the danger line to which I have referred, and that really exists.

To prepare the skin for its battle with the elements of a long Summer day, the face should be cleansed with tepid water and almond meal instead of soap. The action of the almond meal upon the face is soothing and cooling. Before going out into the heat dust the face lightly with rice powder, which will adhere better if a very light coat of cold cream has first been administered.

This famous old English cream is one of the best for the purpose:

Cocoa butter, 2 ounces; lanolin, 2 ounces; glycerine, 2 ounces; rosewater, 3 ounces; elderflower water, 1½ ounces.

If sweet cream is available, bathe the face freely with it. If this doesn’t quickly allay the burning, try this cucumber cream:

Almond oil, 1 ounce; olive oil, 1 ounce; white wax, 1 ounce; spermaceti, 1 ounce; essence of cucumber, 2 ounces.

If, as may happen in a country resort, this excellent milk of cucumbers cannot be procured, follow the face bath of sweet cream with one composed of:

Slices of one cucumber; sweet milk, 1 pint.

If the case is not hopeless but obstinate, this “honey balm” should relieve the brown hue of tan that follows a deep but not irremediable skin burning:

Orange flower water, 3 ounces; strained honey, 1 ounce; cold cream, 2 ounces; white almonds (pounded to paste), 1½ ounces.

If the hands have suffered equally with the face this lotion is effectual in reducing the unlovely redness:

Lemon juice, 1 ounce; strained honey, 1 ounce; cologne, 1 ounce.

Should the unusual exposure result in freckles the application with a small sponge or bit of cotton, of either of these I recommend:

Powdered borax, ½ dram; sugar, ½ dram; lemon juice, 1 ounce.

Another application that may be used is made of:

Muriate of ammonia, ⅜ dram; lavender water, 1 dram; distilled water, 4 ounces.

If the case is less severe, I recommend for freckles this:

Peroxide of hydrogen, 1 ounce; ammonia, 10 drops.

These may all be more deftly applied with a camel’s-hair brush than in any other way.

Strawberry water, which was the bath of some of the court beauties of an extravagant age, may be used in season by American beauties for the freshening of the facial skin discolored by tan or withered by too great exposure or by lack of care after that exposure to sun or wind. It is made thus:

Crushed strawberries, 2 pounds; alcohol (95 per cent.), 1 pint.

Before retiring it is well to give the face three baths, first with pure cold cream to remove the coarser dust; second, with tepid, if possible, distilled water--if not, water softened with borax or benzoin--and, last, a light coat of cold cream.

Continue reading My Secrets of Beauty free in the Wunder reader →