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Toilet Preparations: French

TOILET POWDERS The bases of most toilet powders are compounds of magnesia, including talc or talcum-which chemically is magnesium silicate, and which is mined in large quantities in various parts of the world - and French chalk, which is not chalk but ground soapstone; fuller's earth, a greenish clay found in many parts of England and on the continent of Europe; and starch, especially rice and wheat starch, which is sometimes adulterated with cornstarch, potato starch, etc. These preparations usually contain pulverized perfumed woods, as orris root, sandalwood, and other perfumes. In addition, it is quite customary to use in face powder metallic bismuth, preparations of mercury, and other mineral drugs-all of which are distinctly harmful, and the use of which is therefore never advisable. No recipes of this sort are included in the present volume.

The following are standard preparations which contain no injurious ingredients:

For plain face powder without perfume, pure white starch can hardly be improved upon. Or mix together equal quantities of rice flour, fuller's earth, and white starch, and perfume with any essential oil-rose, violet, or any other preferred.

Or, for violet powder, mix 3 ounces of white starch with 1 ounce of powdered orris root, rub up together in water, and perfume with the essential oils of lemon, bergamot, and cloves, using about double the amount of lemon as of the two others.

Or, for a rose face powder, mix 8 TOILET PREPARATIONS ounces of pulverized rose leaves with 4 ounces of pulverized sandalwood, and add 1 dram of the attar of roses.

Or to 31 pounds of powdered rose or white starch, add 1 dram of rose pink and 1 dram each of rose oil and santal oil.

ROUGE Rouge Paste and Powder. - The base of rouge for the lips and cheeks is usually French chalk, almond oil, or other animal fat, or oil, or one of the gums, as gum tragacanth, colored with cochineal, carmine, vermilion, alkanet, or other red coloring matter, and perfumed to taste. To this may be added a mild astringent, as alum, acetic acid, and the like.

For carmine rouge, raise to a boil in an aluminum or copper vessel 1 quart of distilled water, to which add 1 ounce of the best pulverized cochineal. After 5 or 6 minutes stir in carefully 30 grains of powdered Roman alum. Continue boiling 3 to 5 minutes and set aside to cool. When lukewarm, but before the mixture settles, pour off the clear liquor from the sediment through a piece of white silk or chiffon into a glass fruit jar..

Let stand 3 or 4 days and again pour off through white silk into another vessel. Allow the resulting liquor to settle; pour off the clear liquor from the top, and dry the sediment carefully in a cool, shady place. The result is a very finely divided powder, making a rouge of the best quality.