Poudre d'Amour - Flesh coloured face powder from the 17th century

French noblewoman, possibly Louise de Kérouaille
by follower of Pierre Mignard, ca 1690

I have read several times that in the 17^th century not only white makeup was used in the face, but also flesh-coloured and I have always wondered what was in it. So imagine my delight when I found a recipe on Poudre d'Amour from the reign of Louis XIV.

The recipe

Scrape 6 juicy raw carrots and 1/2 a pink beet root, squeeze the juice out through a muslin bag and put it aside. Take 3 ounces of finely powdered cornstarch, mix it with the carrot and beet juice, expose it to the sun and stir occasionally until fluid evaporates, leaving the tinted starch dry. Sift through a piece of silk gauze and add:

Powdered Venetian talc-300 grains
Powdered lycopodium-300 grains
Powdered bergamot-45 grains
Powdered bismuth-7 grains.
Sift grain and keep in a sandalwood box

Breaking down the recipe
Carrot & Beet root Root vegetables that are bright orange and red.

Cornstarch- see Starch in the ingredients list at the top of the page

Venetian talc- see Talc in the ingredients list at the top of the page

Lycopodium powder The spores from club moss plants. It is very flammable and is today mainly used in explosives. It has several other uses, though, like stabilizing ice cream, finger print powder or lubricating dust on latex gloves. In Sweden it has historically been used on baby bottoms instead of talcum powder.

Bergamot A citrus fruit that is shaped as an orange, but yellow. Bergamot essence is used in the perfume industry and to give flavor to foodstuff. Powdered bergamot probably means the powdered peel, which is used in aromatherapy today.

Bismuth- See Bismuth the ingredients list at the top of the page

My thoughts
This face powder seems quite doable; almost all the ingredients are easily obtainable. The exception is Lycopodium powder which even if I can get my hands on it (questionable) is also quite expensive, apart from being flammable. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable putting that on my face. . I can imagine that it has a purpose in getting the right colour as it seems to have a pale yellow tint, but I think I might mix ochre pigment with corn starch to approximately the right colour and use that as substitute. I do wonder about the final colour of the powder. The carrot and beetroot must tint the starch a very vivid colour- orange-pink? But the Talcand Lycopodium powder  must temper that. The powdered Bergamot and Bismuth too and the latter must give the powder a bit of a shine. I highly doubt that the end result will look natural, though.

A must try, don’t you think?

Making real pearl powder

Seed pearls

Last year I started to make real pearl powder, but at the time I lived at our summerhouse for several weeks as the plumbing was renovated in our apartment, so I made it and then forgot about it. So, finally, here is the result.

I used real pearls, but the small and irregular kind that is called seed pearls. As that was the kind of pearls that apothecary's kept in the 18th century for medical purposes, it seems exceedingly likely that they were used to make pearl powder as well. Nowadays you find seed pearls in hobby stores and I bought the smallest amount possible for my experiment. I put them in a small bottle and poured enough vinegar on top of them to cover them. Here I made a mistake and took apple cider vinegar instead. Though I poured it away and took real vinegar, a slight discolouration remained.

Almost at once flakes of nacre could be seen floating around in the vinegar and the pearls noticeably shrunk over the next couple of days and the holes in them were enlarged and more and more nacre could be seen in the vinegar. Then it stopped, or so I thought. I poured in some more vinegar and nothing seemed to happen for a day or two and then I noticed that the pearls were floating in the vinegar! Upon examination I realised that the pearls were completely hollowed out and only a thin layer of nacre remained! When I pressed down on one it felt like it does when you press down on a boiled pea and I ended up with peal mush on my finger. So I poured everything in a mortle and mushed them all throughoutly, put it all in a bowl and let the vinegar evaporate.

As you can see it behaved quite funnily, climbing up on the walls on the bowl. Good thing, actually, because the discolouration emigrated to the top. Though it looked solid, the pearl powder was really very brittle, so I just broke off the discoloured parts. The surface was a bit shiny in a satiny way, but inside the peal powder was just white. This suprised me a bit as I had expected it to be pearlescent. After reducing it to a powder it became a somewhat satiny white, but I found that when I pressed down on it, pearlescent glints could be seen. It was very subtle and I couldn't manage to capture that on a photo.

At this point I had been able to obtain readymade pearl powder and upon testing I found that the one I had made was virtually impossible to tell apart from the one I had bought. A bit of a relief, actually, because the home made pearl powder is so full of vinegar that I would never put it on my face. I'm really pleased that it turned out to be possibly to make pearl powder yourself, but I won't be doing it again. The bought pearl powder is so close and much better to use (no vinegar) that I will stick to that.

Here you can see how alike the both pearl powders are. I mixed powder with an equal part of water and it turned into a semi-opaque whiteness. You can see the pearlescent glints at all. Alongside is Bismuth and it is very easy to see why the literature says that even if this was called pearl powder as well, it has a completely different look. It is much more shiny, but a lot less white. Almost impossible to see is a version of Nun's cream that I made with real pearl powder. The ratio here is one part powder to two parts pomade and it doesn't show up much at all. It is more visible in reality than on the photo, but it only whitens the skin slightly, though it evens out the skin very well. I think it is quite light-reflecting, even if the nacre isn't visible, it is still there.

The amount of whiteness a pigment leave on the skin is partly due to the pigment, but also on how much you use. Even after brushing my test areas with a powder brush, the pearl powder stayed on quite well, though it is not very opaque. In the future I need to test all my white pigments to see how they compare to each other, but here and now I can just say that I find it interesting that pearl powder, which was the most exclusive white pigment you could buy, doesn't leave a very opaque whiteness.

I still need to mix up pearl powder with liquid and try, but last week I had the opportunity to try the Nun's cream when I made up my friend Anna as part on the entertainment at a big party my 18th century society held. I was allowed to put my stuff on a bona fide 18th century vanity table, which was quite exiting! The Nun's cream did brighten Anna's complexion and she looked slightly paler, but she didn't look overly made up with white makeup. Her rouge is the Economical rouge with Carmine as pigment and the lip paint is pigmented with Alkanet.

I also made Lithia's hair. As it is dyed a bright red, it turns pink when it is powdered with white hair powder. She is also using the Spanish white I made. Her skin is very white naturally, so the makeup just leaves her skin glowing.

I did a try on a Rococo hairdo, which I was semi-pleased with . The front is just brushed back and put up in a top-knot- preferably there would have been curls and a bit more going around here. The back was inspired by a bust of Madame Pompadour and made up in three braids that was pinned to the top knot and the ends curled. Of course I should have made sure that more pictures were taken, but I was too busy having fun.

An economical rouge

The recipe

Fine Carmine, pulverized and prepared for for this purpose [rouge], is without doubt the best of all Paints, and which the Ladies ought to adopt. In order to use it in an agreeable and frugal manner, procure some fine pomatum, without scent, made with the fat of pork and white wax; take about the bigness of a pea of this pomatum, and lay it upon a piece of white paper; then with the end of a tooth-pick add to it about the bigness of a pin's head of Carmine— mix it gently with your finger, and when you have produced the tone you wish, rub in it a little compressed cotton, and pass it on the face, till the Paint is quite spread and it no longer feels greasy.

Ladies have nothing to fear from this economical Rouge—it neither injures the health or skin, and imitates perfectly the natural colour. (Constant de Massoul, Treatise on the Art of Painting and the Composition of Colours, p 198, 1797)

Portrait of a Young Girl by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun, 1775

Breaking down the recipe

Pomatum A cream made of water, fat and very often beeswax. There are several recipes around from the 18^th century. Cold cream of today is quite similar, so if you don’t want to make your own pomade you could substitute with that.

Carmine A bright red pigment derived from cochineal scale. Common as food colourant and in makeup today. Can also be called Crimson Lake, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470 and E120

My thoughts

This is a very easy recipe- if you have pomatum in the house, that is. I have, but I don’t have any Carmine. I do, however, have cochineal scale, so I plan to try to make Carmine on my own. Then I’ll have to try this recipe!

Hannah Glasse on pearls

You may have noticed that I have mentioned Hanna Glasse and her book The Art of Cooking. It was first published in 1747 and became hugely popular with several re-prints. What is interesting for this blog is that she didn’t just talk about food, but also included several cosmetic ones. What is even more interesting is that she was a middle class woman who wrote a practical book- a book much more likely to be read by a cook than a lady. So in all probability her recipes were for the kind of cosmetics that could be used even for women who didn’t belong to the upper crust of society.

"Die Magd in der Küche" by Justus Juncker, 1767

Mrs. Glasse mentions pearl powder three times in her book, two that are decidedly cosmetic and one that seems a bit more ambiguous, namely with the tantalizing name of Sugar of Pearl:

To make sugar of pearl.

TAKE damask rose water half a pint, one pound of fine sugar, half an ounce of prepared pearl beat to powder, eight leaves of beaten gold; boil them together according to art;  add the pearl and gold leaves when just done, then cast them on a marble,

If you boil water and sugar you get candy, so I wonder if this isn’t some kind of rose-scented hard candy, but why then add pearl and gold? Perhaps is meant to be crushed again and used to decorate desserts. The other two recipes are quite straightforward and also quite simple.

Nun's Cream.

ONE ounce of pearl-powder, twenty drops of oil of Rhodium, and two ounces of fine pomatum; mix all well together.

  

I suspect that this name had more naughty overtones than what we modern people might think- a nun could be used to describe a prostitute. The result ought o be a cream with a pearlescent sheen to it, perhaps not so dissimilar to the Spanish white I tried to make earlier, The Oil of Rhodium (Rosewood oil) is probably just there for scent, but the pearl powder may not be real pearls. As I mentioned in my post on pearls , real pearl powder was a very expensive cosmetics and the cheaper alternative of Bismuth could use the same name. And as Mrs. Glasse was an ordinary woman, it is very likely that she meant Bismuth. The last recipe suggests that was well;

Hannah Glasse

Pearl-Water.

MIX pearl-powder with honey and lavender-water ; and then the pearl-powder will never be discoloured.

I don’t know if real pearls can turn suggest, but I do know that Bismuth can, if exposed to sulphur. Am I too far-fetched if I think that the last recipe can be a way to hopefully prevent that?

I do need to try out the Nun’s Cream though! I love old recipes when they actually mention the proportions of the ingredients!

Pictures sources:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://neilcooksgrigson.blogspot.se/

Playing the Cosmetic-detective

Part of the fun in reading old recipes is that you get to play detective. When I researched yesterday’s post on pearls I found a recipe in Corson’s History of makeup that apart from pearls also contained pale coral and a mysterious substance called tin-ice. The author of the recipe was Nicholas Lémery, Louis XIV’s apothecary, so I was evidently reading a translation. Corson’s or someone else? After some rather extraordinary Google-luck I found out that Recueil de curiositez rares et nouvelles dans les plus admirables effets de la nature from 1681* was translated into English in 1685. And that the translation is online too; Modern Curiosities of Art and Nature. I don’t dare transcribe the French original as my French is very rusty, but you will find it on page 54, called Tres excellent blanc d'Espagne. In the English translation it is called;

A most Excellent Spanish White
Take the Seeds of Oriental Pearl, white or pale Coral, of each two ounces, beat them apart, then put them into a Matras and add as much Aq. Fort. As you shall think fit, Juice of Citron I better: then you must have another Matras, wherein you must put Tin-Ice 8 ounces; having first beaten it well, and pour therein the said water, till all be dissolv’d: then mingle the Pearl and Coral together, and that which you have dissolv’d to the Tin-Ice, pour upon the said Pearl and Coral, to cause them to precipitate, and then before you mingle them, you must add twice every day Fountain-water, till you perceive no taste of the Aqua fortis and then you shall use it with Peach-flowers, distilling each apart; take a little quantity of each and so compound them.



A rather complicated recipe- I think it means that you dissolve the pearl and coral together and then mix it with the equally dissolved tin-ice. After that you add water until the acid is weak enough for use and when you want to use it you mix it again with peach flower water. I may be wrong, though. So, what is tin-ice then? My first thought was that it might be white pigment made of tin. Tin-white do crop up occasionally, but then I asked my friends on FB what they thought. There were several excellent notions, but Madame Berg resourcefully found out that tin-glass is another name for bismuth in the 18th century.

‎"Bismuth, Tin-glass, is a Mettallick Matter, White, Smooth, Sulphureous like to Tin, but hard, sharp, brittle, disposed into Facets or shining Scales, as Pieces of Glass, whence its Name." /Glossographia Anglicana nova; or, A dictionary interpreting such hard words of whatever language, as are at present used in the English tongue: with their etymologies, definitions, etc, 1707

If you consider that Spanish white nearly always means bismuth, then it isn’t too hard a leap to conclude that tin-ice is a version of tin-glass, i.e. bismuth. What do you think of this conclusion? I have only had the Net for research here, so I’m well aware that there may be other source that can put a better light on the subject.


*Google books say the author is Antoine d’Emery, but everywhere else it seems to be Nicholas Lémery’s book.

French Rouge,—Five Shillings per Pot.

So far all rouge recipes I have found have been either a liquid or a salve, but as the picture below of Madame Pompadour suggest, there was rouge in powder from as well. And in a book with a rather wonderful title, The art of cookery made plain and easy: which far exceeds any thing of the kind yet published, to which are added, one hundred and fifty new and useful receipts, and also fifty receipts for different articles of perfumery, with a copious index, by Hannah Glasse, published in 1784, I found one.

The recipe
TAKE some carmine, and mix it with hair-powder to make it as pale as you please, according to your fancy, (The art of cookery made plain and easy, p. 401)

Breaking down the recipe
Carmine Bright red pigment derived from the cochineal (an insect) scale. Used today to pigment makeup and food.

Hair powder Starch, which in the 18th century were scented and had added white pigment.

My thoughts
Very straightforward recipe and very do-able. I guess that it would work with just plain starch, but as I have made a batch of hair powder I can use that. I need to find some carmine first, though. The result must be pink, which I like as the rouges I have made so far all have been red.


Marquise de Pompadour at the Toilet-Table by François Boucher,1758

Making a curious Varnish for the Face

I will begin with saying that this was the most surprising of all the recipes I have tried so far as it didn’t behave at all as I thought.

The updated recipe
Brandy (cheapest brand possible) 44ml
Sandarac 2 gram
Benzoin resin 1 gram

This is something of a famous first. No need to substitute any of the ingredients and the original recipe has measurements for everything. So it was very simple to just pare it down to a suitable test sample. I grounded the resins before pouring it into the brandy. I used a small jar with a lid. After that I just shook it every time I passed it until a week had passed.

Both Sandarac and Benzoin are soluble in alcohol, but though I can’t find any information on how strong the alcohol should be for the Sandarac, Benzoin is generally recommended to be dissolved in 80% alcohol, dissolving even easier if you warm it a little. Brandy is about 40% and this recipe says nothing about warming the solution either. The Swedish pharmacopeia of 1775 recommends 50% alcohol in a ratio to 6 parts alcohol to 1 part Benzoin. Let it stand for three days and strain though a paper. (Source) A recipe with both stronger and more alcohol than the recipe I used.

Benzoin resin

Source: therapyangels.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Another rouge for the face

The recipe
Take Brazil Wood Shavings, and Roch Alum, beat them together into a coarse powder, and boil in a sufficient quantity of Red Wine, till two thirds of the Liquor are consumed. When this decoction is cold, rub a little on the cheeks with a bit of cotton. (The Toilet of Flora, p. 193)

Breaking down the recipe
Brazilwood Warm red pigment coming from wood of Caesalpina brasiliensis. Safe, but the tree is considered an endangered species. Substitute with Red sandalwood.

Alum There are several kinds, but here it is most certainly Potassium alum in crystal form. It has been, and is still, used in cosmetics as it works as an astringent, a preservative and is antibacterial. In crystal form it can be used on shaving cuts or as a natural deodorant. It has also been used as a skin whitener. As a powder it can be used in cooking and found at the spice section in food stores.

Red wine Alcoholic beverage made from black grapes. Most of the red pigment are plant pigments.

My thoughts
The nice thing with this recipe is that there is no need to substitute any of the ingredients because they are not harmful. The bad thing is that Brazilwood is an endangered species and though you can still obtain it today, it's likely it will soon be banned. I bought a small quantity years ago before I knew that and I wouldn't buy it today, but as I have it, I will make this recipe with it.

A bit annoying is that this is a lovely example of the lack of measurements. However, there is another recipe where you take equal parts of Brazilwood and Alum, so I will do so here. How much of it in ratio to the red wine, well... I will start with small amounts and work my way up, if need be. I am very curious on what red shade it will turn into. Red wine is blue-toned, but Brazilwood leans toward yellow. My assumption is that the blue and red will neutralise each other and give a more neutral red colour.

Source: b-womeninamericanhistory18.blogspot.se via Elisa on Pinterest

Oil of Pearls

The Recipe
Put upon a Plate any Quantity you please of Pearls, and pour over them some good distill’d Vinegar. When the Pearls are dissolved, add a small Quantity of Gum Arabic. Keep the solution for Use Wash your face before you bathe it with this Solution, which will soon dry of itself. This is one of the best Secrets that have been invented for rendering the face both white and fair. (Abdeker: or, the art of preserving beauty, p. 76)

Making an Excellent Cosmetic for the Face

Before I start to tell you about my latest experiment I would like to take a moment and say that I hope you enjoy this little blog. I have had a lot of fun these last few months trying out recipes and there are so many that I want to try out! But time and budget has their say, so I will have to continue to hasten slowly. With that said I can add that I will probably branch out a little and venture into the 17th century as well. I have a big interest in that century and I feel that it's sorely underexposed. And, I have found a 17th century recipe for rouge that uses the shell of boiled crayfish as red pigment. How can I resist that.

What is your opinion, dear readers? What would you like to read about? Would you find it interesting if I wrote more about makeup history in general, not just the 18th century? What about hairstyles?Anything else? I would love to hear your what you think! Here i take the opportunity to tell you that if you are interested in the late Victorian and Edwardian, then I can point you in he direction of The Gibson Girls Guide to Glamor for beauty recipes of that era.

I have another thing to ask you as well. If you find my blog worth reading, could you please consider mentioning it on your blogs/Facebook/or similar? Partly, of course, because I love to find new readers (who doesn't?) but also because this blog is very much a learning experience for me. there is a lot of things I don't know or like to hear others opinions on. And the more I learn, the better this blog will be.

Making an excellent Cosmetic for the Face

The updated recipe
Rice powder 23 gram
Titanium dioxide 6 gram
Dolomite 6 gram
Tincture of Frankincense made out of 2 gram resin
Gum Mastic 2 gram
Gum Arabicum 2 gram
Rose water 50 ml

Making another kind of red lip salve

In yesterday's post I talked about a recipe for lip salve that used Alkanet root as pigment. Here is the result;

Updated recipe
Almond oil, 22 ml
Coconut butter, 6 gram
Bees wax, 2 gram
Alkanet root (in powder), 3 ml
Rosewood oil, 3 drops Note: A bit late it has come to my attention that Brazilian Rosewood is an endangered species, so my recommendation is to leave the salve unscented or add a few drops of another scented oil.

Another red lip salve

The recipe
Take three ounces of Oil of Almonds, three quarters of an ounce of Spermaceti, and a quarter of an ounce of Virgin's Wax; melt them together over a slow fire, mixing them a little of the powder of Alkanet Root. Keep stirring till cold, and then add a few drops of Oil of Rhodium. (The Toilet of Flora, p. 159)

Breaking down the recipe
Oil of Almonds i. e. almond oil. A common oil in cosmetic for thousands of years. safe and keeps well.

Spermaceti Fat from Sperm whales that has been used as an stabiliser in cosmetics since the 18th century. Impossible to find, except perhaps in Japan, which I think is the only country that still hunts Sperm whales. Substitute with Saturated fatty acids (like coconut butter), Jojoba butter, Emulsifying wax or Cetyl alcohol.

Virgin's Wax Bees wax

Alkanet Root Cold, or blue-toned red pigment coming from a plant, Dyer's bugloss Considered safe and is used today as colourants both in makeup and food.

Oil of Rhodium Has nothing to do with the chemical element. Rhodium oil is also known as Rosewood and comes from the Brazilian Rosewood. Used in perfumes but is also healing and antiseptic. It also have a slightly deodorising effect. Considered safe. Note: A bit late it has come to my attention that Brazilian Rosewood is an endangered species, so my recommendation is to leave the salve unscented or add a few drops of another scented oil.


My thoughts
After making the lip salve with Iron oxide I would like to make one with a more cold red colour, as that suits me better. This recipe is wonderfully simple and I have everything at home except, of course, the Spermaceti. In the past I have tried to substitute it in pomade with Jojoba oil, which worked but made the pomade rather too runny. This time I plan to use Coconut butter as that is easy to pick up in the food store.

I'm going to an 18th century event next Saturday and I would like to have finished the lip salve then as well as another recipe for white face paint. So stay tuned...

Source: posters.co.uk via Elisa on Pinterest

A curious Varnish for the Face

The recipe
263. A curious Varnish for the Face.

Fill into a bottle three quarters of a pint of good Brandy, infusing in it an ounce of Gum Sandarac, and half an ounce of Gum Benjamin. Frequently shake the bottle till the Gums are wholly dissolved, and then let it stand to settle.

Apply this varnish after having washed the face clean, and it will give the skin the best lustre imaginable. (The Toilet of Flora, p. 213)

Breaking down the recipe

Brandy Spirit from distilled wine. As safe as any alcohol you can drink.

Gum Sandarac Resin from the tree Tetraclinis articulata. Used as varnish and incense. Safe.

Gum Benjamin or more commonly, Benzoin resin. Despite the gum, which indicates that it is soluble in water, it isn’t. Used as incense and as a fixative in perfumes. Vanilla-like scent. Safe.


My thoughts
This is a varnish, indeed, and ought to leave the face in the desirable shiny state. Presumably for people who didn’t want to use white face paint, but wanted the shininess. I’m curious about it and if I can find Gum Sandarac I will test it.

Source: 18thcenturyblog.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Making Spanish white face paint

This weekend I tried out the recipe for white face paint that I discussed here.

Updated recipe
Oil of Ben: 15 ml
Bees wax: 4 gram
Titanium dioxide with mica: 1, 1 ml

Everything melted together very quickly, but the amount of white pigment was far too little. The skin got a slightly pearlescent sheen to it, but it didn’t whiten the skin. Either the bismuth of the original recipe is more concentrated pigment, or I converted the amount wrongly. I added twice the amount of pigment and then got a shiny white substance.

An excellent Cosmetic for the Face

Another recipe for a white face-paint.

The recipe

6. An excellent Cosmetic for the Face.

Take a pound of levigated Hartshorn, two pounds of Rice Powder, half a pound of Ceruse, Powder of dried Bones, Frankincense, Gum Mastic, and Gum Arabic, of each two ounces. Dissolve the whole in a sufficient quantity of Rose-water, and wash the face with this fluid. (The Toilet of Flora, p. 5 or Abdeker, or the Art of Preserving Beauty)

Source: google.com via Elisa on Pinterest

Breaking down the recipe

Making a red lip salve

Today I tried my hand in "An excellent Lip-salve", a recipe that I discussed here. After reading up I decided to use olive oil instead of rose oil, as that is often use as base oil for just rose oil. I also made a much smaller batch, I didn't want to screw up big.

Updated recipe
Myrrh, 4 g
Honey, 15 ml
Bees wax, 8 g
Olive oil, 22 ml
Iron oxide, 4 g
Rosewood oil, 3 drops Note: A bit late it has come to my attention that Brazilian Rosewood is an endangered species, so my recommendation is to leave the salve unscented or add a few drops of another scented oil.
Edible gold powder, 2 ml (optional and used for half the batch)

I started out mixing everything apart from the pigment, Rosewood oil and the gold powder. It smelled quite nicely of honey and resin.



Mixing it together on low heat in soon became a cohesive mass that first was quite runny and then got thicker and thicker.

Spanish white

The Recipe
Spanish White
Take four Ounces of the Oil of Ben, an ounce of Virgin Wax, and two drams and a half of Magistery of Bismuth. The Oil of Ben is preferable to the Oil of sweet Almonds, and also that of the four Cold Seeds, because it does not over-heat so much as those Oils, and keeps a long time before it changes.

The Magistery of Bismuth is to be preferr'd to that of Tin or Lead, because it is a great deal whiter. This Cosmetic is commonly called Spanish White. If it be dissolv'd in Flower-de-Luce Water, it will whiten the face.(Abdeker; or the Art of Preserving Beauty, p. 63)

One of the fun things with going through these old recipes and trying to find out what it is that actually goes in them, is that I learn a lot. Many things aren't as odd as they seem when you get down to it and most of them are actually used today, both for health and in cosmetics. In fact, apart from some harmful pigments, the overwhelming majority of the ingredients do more good than harm. I'm also getting a sense that the various white and red pigments differ more than I thought. I started out, when I first started to become interested in the subject, with the belief that white pigment meant lead and that you applied it by rubbing your face with pomade and then rub the pigment in. That is evidently not the case and I love that! So let's break down the ingredients in this recipe.

Ingredients
Oil of Ben or Ben oil comes from the pressed seeds from a tree, the Moringa oliefera. Has been used as a perfume oil for thousands of years as it easily takes up scent and because it keep very well, as the recipes above notes. Safe.

Virgin Wax Bees wax

Bismuth Pearlecent white pigment. I have always blithely assumed that bismuth and lead white are the same. However, this recipe makes a distinct difference between them and reading up I find that it is a metal on it's own, though in the 18th century it was often confused with lead and tin. It is not at all as poisonous as lead, for example Bismuth subsalicylate is used even today in some medications and Bismuth oxychloride is used in cosmetics, especially mineral makeup. Though it is considered safe, many people have allergic reactions to Bismuth in makeup (I for one) and I wouldn't use it. Titanium oxide can be purchased mixed with mica for a pearlecent effect and that is what I would substitute it with. Magistery in the recipe means that the pigment is in a fine powder.

Flower-de-Luce Water This one is a bit tricky. It seems to point at the flower Iris, but that flower is poisonous and irritates the skin. But, the Yellow Iris, or Yellow Flag, is often confused with Sweet Flag or Calamus. sweet flag has been used in perfume and food and applied on skin it works as an astringent and antiseptic. It is also used in several other beauty recipes from the 18th century. It seems quite likely that Flower-de-Luce Water is really made of Sweet Flag, not Iris. It should be possible to find essence of Sweet flag, but you can also find the dried root and make your own.

My thoughts
This recipe seems doable and, even with bismuth, quite harmless. I'd substitute it with Titanium oxide though, even so. I'm going to investigate the possibility of making Flower-de-Luce Water, otherwise I think I can fall back on Rose Water as it was used a lot in the 18th century. It must become a quite fat makeup and I wonder how much it smeared. Being made with oil and wax I doubt that it could really be dissolved in water, however it was scented. I really need to try this recipe out and see how it behaves in reality!

Source: allposters.com via Elisa on Pinterest

An excellent Lip-Salve

159. An excellent Lip-Salve

Take an ounce of Myrrh, as much Litharge in fine powder, four ounces of Honey, two ounces of Bees-wax, and six ounces of Oil of Roses; mix them over slow fire. Those who are inclined may add a few drops of Oil of Rhodium, and some Leaf Gold (The Toilet of Flora, page 135)

An admirably clear recipe, with exact measurements for most of the ingredients. Let's take a closer look on those:

Myrrh A resin that have been in use since ancient times as perfume and incense but also for its medical proprieties. It is antiseptic and has a long standing tradition in various mouth remedies, like sores and cleaning teeth and gums. Melts tolerable well into vegetable oils. Is considered safe, but shouldn't be used the first 5 months of a pregnancy.

Litharge Lead pigment, in this case red. Poisonous.

Honey Apart from it's sweet favour, honey also have healing properties and works both as an antiseptic and as antibacterial. It also softens skin and can be used in salves and creams. Safe, but small children should not eat it.

Bees-wax A natural wax produced by honey bees. Melts well into oils and is often used as base for creams. It isn't absorbed by the skin, but doesn't clog the pores and softens and protects. Safe.

Oil of Roses ie Rose oil. An essential oil extracted from rose peals. It is very labour intensive and the oil is therefore very expensive. Used in perfumes and other cosmetics and is considered safe.

Oil of Rhodium Has nothing to do with the chemical element. Rhodium oil is also known as Rosewood and comes from the Brazilian Rosewood. Used in perfumes but is also healing and antiseptic. It also have a slightly deodorising effect. Considered safe. Note: A bit late it has come to my attention that Brazilian Rosewood is an endangered species, so my recommendation is to leave the salve unscented or add a few drops of another scented oil.

Leaf Gold Gold leafs are extremely thin sheets of gold that is used for gilding. Though an metal, gold is used in alternative medicine and is considered anti-inflammatory. Edible gold leaf can be found in well-sorted food stores

All the ingredients, if we disregard the Litharge, is quite safe to use and almost all have properties that makes them very suited for a lip salve. It doesn't seem to be very hard to make. The Litharge have to be substituted, of course and I plan to use Iron oxide instead. All the other ingredients are perfectly possible to attain, but I'm going to substitute the rose oil too. It's use in this recipe seems to be to provide oil and scent, and disregarding the scent, well, I think I could use and unscented oil instead. With the myrrh and the Rhodium oil I think that it will smell quite nicely anyway. I haven't decided on what kind of oil yet, but I have used almond and jojoba oil before and I think both would work well. As for gold leaf I happen to have edible gold dust in my cupboard already, so why not try it? I have all the ingredients I need except myrrh, but I know where to get it- hopefully I will have time to go there this week.


Lady Altamont by George Romeny, 1788, Tate Colletion