Historical Beauty Tips

Elizabethan Sunscreen (1589)

Katie Cannon — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:52:06 +0000

If the Face be smeared with the white of an Egg, It will not be Sun-burnt. With us, women that have to do in the Sun, to defend their Faces from the heat of it, that they may not be black, they defend it with the white of an Egg beaten with a little Starch, and mingled; and when the Voyage is done, they wash off this covering with Barley-water.”

This recipe is interesting, because while you can occasionally find concoctions on how to heal sunburns, this is a rare preventative measure. While there is nothing harmful in it, I doubt it would work; you are much better-off using modern sunscreens. Remember, no matter how dark your skin is, the sun’s UV rays will still do damage.

Source: John Porta, Natural Magick: Of Beautifying Women, 1589, in Latin; English translation 1658.

To make washing balls (1615)

Katie Cannon — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:17:00 +0000

To make very good washing balls take storax of both kinds, benjamin, calamus aromaticus, labdanum of each a like; and bray them to powder with cloves and orris; then beat them all with a sufficient quantity of soap till it be stiff, then with your hand you shall work it like paste, and make round balls thereof.”

Soap formed into scented balls was a popular commodity of the 17th century, and into the 18th and 19th. (And, who has not encountered scented soap today?) This recipe features all vegetable matter: storax and benjamin (aka benzoin gum) and labdanum are resins, calamus and orris are roots, and cloves are flower buds that you probably have in your spice cupboard already. If you are making this at home, use whatever scented ingredients you like, and it helps to grate the soap beforehand.

Source: Gervase Markham, The English Housewife, 1615

Musk and civet perfumes. (1829)

Katie Cannon — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:22:39 +0000

Take 2 penny-weights of pure musk, 12 grains of civet, and 1 penny-weight of the residuum of spirit of ambergris. Make this into a paste, with 2 ounces of spirit of musk, made by infusion. Powder it with loaf sugar, and mix in 16 pounds of fine hair powder.”

These three scents– musk, civet, and ambergris– were extremely popular in 17th, 18th, and 19th century perfume recipes. They are all animal-based and very strong; consider the proportion of scent to powder in the recipe above. They are almost impossible to obtain naturally now; musk and civet cannot be taken humanely from the animal, and ambergris is rare and expensive. They have all been replaced by synthetics in most cases… and, to the civet cat and musk deer, this is all for the better.

Source: Mackenzie’s Five Thousand Receipts, 1829