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Toilet Preparations: Bases

Bases. The standard bases for solid and semifluid preparations, as pastes, creams, and emulsions, are white wax, spermaceti, suet, lard, yolk or white of egg, and various soaps.

This Animal fats, as lards, suet, and the like, must be specially refined and prepared for toilet purposes. may be done at home by melting and simmering the fat slowly with gentle heat, and straining it through linen one or more times. On the farm these animal fats are easily obtained and consequently inexpensive, but unless alcohol or other preservatives are mixed with them they tend to become rancid. Hence small quantities at a time should be prepared, and care should be taken not to employ such preparations when they become in the least degree sour. The same caution applies to compounds containing the white or yolk of eggs and honey.

White wax, spermaceti, castile and other soaps as bases are free from these objections, and recipes containing them are to be preferred when such ingredients can conveniently be obtained. In compounding recipes having these solid unguents as bases they are first melted slowly with gentle heat, and while in a melted condition the other ingredients added. They may also be "cut" or dissolved in alcohol and spirits. are Liquid Bases. - Certain toilet preparations, as emulsions, lotions, washes, and the like, omit the above solids or employ them only in small quantities, and in their place use certain oils and other liquids as bases. The principal liquid bases are almond oil, olive oil, glycerin, honey, and the like. These have a double value: they tend to soothe and also to feed the skin. They are, therefore, among the most deservedly popular of all ingredients.

Other Bases.-Gum arabic, quince seed, and white paste are also employed as bases when a certain degree of adhesiveness is desired, as in the preparation of bandoline and pomades for the hair and beard.

The quince seeds are prepared by simmering them gently in rose water until they form a stiff jell. This must then be strained through a fine sieve to remove the hulls. Gum arabic may be dissolved in warm water.

Bases of Powders. - Wheat starch is the standard base for homemade toilet powders, but other materials often employed are fuller's earth, French chalk, and pearl white. Almond meal, like almond oil, has the double property of serving as a base and also as a remedial agent.