Important: Safety Warning
This page directs the use of hazardous substances — such as benzine, gasoline, lye, or strong acids — for household tasks. These materials are highly flammable, corrosive, or poisonous, and the practices described have caused fires, burns, and poisonings.
In addition, this page contains cosmetic recipes using substances now known to be poisonous, such as lead, mercury, or arsenic compounds, which cause cumulative and serious harm when absorbed through the skin or eyes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
The Arts Of The Toilet
FOR THE HAIR
Wash in cold sage-tea. CAMPHOR-put in drawers or trunks will keep away mice.
THE NECK
Too tight collars and neckerchiefs are apt to produce permanent swelling of the throat.
COCOA BUTTER
Apply, at night, to face and hands, and wash off in the morning. This is excellent for the skin, and keeps it soft and clear.
TO CLEAN LIGHT KIDS
Put the glove on the hand, and rub thoroughly with white corn-meal, using a piece of cotton flannel.
TO KEEP PEARLS BRILLIANT (Common dry magnesia instead)
Keep in common, dry magnesia, instead of the cotton wool used in jewel cases, and they will never lose their brilliancy.
TONIC FOR THE HAIR
Ounce best castor-oil, two ounces each of French brandy and bay rum; scent with rosemary and rose-geranium.
TO CURE CHILBLAINS
Soak feet for fifteen minutes in warm water, put on a pair of rubbers, without stockings, and go to bed.
CEMENT FOR JET
Use shellac to join, and then smoke the joints to make them black. MOTHER'S MARKS should never be interfered with, except by the advice of…
TO RESTORE COLOR TO KID SHOES
Mix a small quantity of good polish blacking with the white of an egg.
HAIR OIL
Two tea-spoons each of castor oil, ammonia and glycerine; add alcohol enough to cut the oil, and put in a four-ounce bottle half full of…
BLACK HEADS
To remove "black heads" in the face, place over the black spot the hollow end of a watch-key, and press firmly. This forces the foreign…
TO KEEP OFF MOSQUITOES
Rub exposed parts with kerosene. The odor is not noticed after a few minutes, and children especially are much relieved by its use.
THE BREATH
Nothing makes one so disagreeable to others as a bad breath. It is caused by bad teeth, diseased, stomach, or disease of the nostrils…
THE SKIN AND COMPLEXION
Washing in cool, but not excessively cold, water, and general cleanliness, keeps the skin healthy and the complexion clear.
IVORY BLACKING FOR SHOES
Four ounces ivory-black, three ounces coarsest sugar, one table-spoon sweet-oil, one pint small beer; mix well together.
CASTOR-OIL FOR SHOES
Take a tea-spoon of it and rub in thoroughly by a fire. Do this when the shoes are new, and several times afterwards, and they will last…
FOR CHAPPED HANDS, FACE AND LIPS
Ten drops carbolic acid in one ounce glycerine; apply freely at night. Pure mutton tallow is also excellent.
COLOGNE WATER
One quart alcohol, three drachms oil lavender, one drachm oil rosemary, three drachms oil bergamot, three drachms essence lemon, three…
CORPULENCY
An excess of fat is a disease. To reduce the excess, eat little or no butter, fat meat, gravies, sugar, vegetables, or other articles…
DANDRUFF IN THE HAIR
There is no simpler nor better remedy for this vexatious appearance (caused by a dryness of the skin) than a wash of camphor and borax-an…
TO CLEAN JEWELRY
Any gold jewelry that an immersion in water will not injure, can be beautifully cleaned by shaking it well in a bottle nearly full of warm…
WARTS
Wash with water saturated with common washing soda, and let dry without wiping; repeat frequently until they disappear. Or pass a pin…
TO REMOVE SUNBURN
Scrape a cake of brown Windsor soap to a powder, add one ounce each of eau de Cologne and lemon-juice; mix well and form into cakes. This…
COLD CREAM FOR CHAPPED LIPS
One-half ounce spermaceti, twenty grains white wax, two ounces pure oil of sweet almonds, one ounce pure glycerine, six drops oil of rose…
BAD BREATH
Bad breath, from catarrh, foul stomach, or bad teeth, may be temporarily relieved by diluting a little bromo chloralum with eight or ten…
FLESH WORMS
Black specks on the nose disfigure the face. Remove by washing thoroughly in tepid water, rubbing with a towel, and applying with a soft…
BAY RUM
Ten cents worth of magnesia, two quarts each of soft water and alcohol, one ounce oil of bay. Dissolve magnesia in rain-water, then add…
FOOD
A good complexion never goes with a bad diet. Strong coffee, hot bread and butter, heated grease, highly spiced soups, meats or game, hot…
THE HANDS
The use of gloves, especially kids, help to preserve the softness of the hands. Cleanliness and sprinkling with orris-root counteracts…
THE NOSE
Excessive wiping, snuffing, and blowing, especially in children, deforms the nose, and should be practiced only when necessary for…
TEETH (Cracking nuts biting thread)
Cracking nuts, biting thread, eating hot food, especially bread and pastry raised with soda, very cold drinks, alternate contact with cold…
COLLARS THAT DO NOT FIT
Few gentlemen have philosophy enough to endure an ill-fitting collar with patience, but not many understand why they do not fit. The fact…
CUTTING TEETH
The time the first teeth make their appearance varies, but the following dates approximate the time: Central incisors from five to eight…
THE EYES
Damp, foggy weather, the reflection of the bright sunshine, intense cold, dusty wind, reading on cars in motion, reading by gas or…
DRESS
The first object of dress is protection of the body, second to enhance and bring out its beauty. Dress which does not enhance the beauty of…
TEETH (Many while attentive to their)
Many, while attentive to their teeth, do more injury than good by two much officiousness, daily applying some dentifrice, or tooth-powder…
THE HAIR
Professor Erasmus Wilson, of London, who is authority on the subject, condemns the washing of hair; but advises that it should be kept…
FOR COMPLEXION
Blanch one-fourth pound best Jordan almonds, slip off the skin, mash in a mortar, and rub together with best white soap, for fifteen…
Queen Bess Complexion Wash
Put in a vial one drachm of benzoin gum in powder, one drachm nutmeg-oil, six drops of orange-blossom tea, or apple-blossoms put in half…
PERFUMERY
The following recipes are of choice perfumes, and are made by compounding the articles in each recipe, and then adding as much distilled…
Essence Bouquet
Four ounces extract musk, two of extract tube rose, one drachm otto rose virgin, one and one-fourth drachm otto bergamot, onehalf drachm…
Patchouly
Two drachms each otto patchouly and styrax, eight ounces each extract musk and orris, four of vanilla, and forty minims each santal flor…
Wood Violet
Twelve ounces extract orris, two of tube rose, one of jasmine, four of musk, two drachms otto of bergamot, one of English lavender, ten…
Tube Rose
Twenty-four ounces extract tube rose, four of musk, one of jasmine, one drachm otto rose virgin, two of benzoic acid, and ten minims of…
Rondeletia
One ounce otto English lavender, two each of musk and vanilla, four of orris, half ounce each otto cloves and bergamot, two drachms otto…
New-Mown Hay
Twenty-five ounces extract tonka, six of musk, eight of orris, one of vanilla, one drachm each extract styrax, bergamot and santal flor…