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.
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.
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The Toilet and Bath: Soap
Honey Soap. This is common yellow soap of good quality, to which has been added a certain proportion of pure strained honey and other ingredients. Shave and melt in a double boiler 2 pounds of yellow soap. Add 4 ounces of palm oil, 4 ounces of honey, and 1 ounce of oil of cinnamon or other perfume according to taste. Boil for 10 minutes. While cooling stir vigorously with an egg beater to thoroughly emulsify the ingredients. Cool. Ready for use as soon as hardened.
Windsor Soap. - This is a trade term which denotes merely a pure white soap, the base of which is 10 parts of any pure animal fat, as rectified suet or lard, and about 1 part of olive oil or bleached palm oil, to which are added any perfume, as the essential oil of bergamot.
Almond Soap.-Almond oil may be saponified with caustic soda by a process similar to that of making other hard soaps. About 11 pounds of caustic soda will be required to saponify 7 pounds of almond oil.
Mix the soda, lye, and almond oil gradually, boiling hot. Boil and stir until saponification is complete, adding more oil or lye as may be necessary. Or melt fine, pure, hard white soap, and add the essence of bitter almonds in the proportion of 1₈ per cent by weight.
Borax Soap.-Dissolve 3 ounces of borax in 2 quarts of boiling water.