These beauty tips come from a 17th Century book of magic.
With advice on everything from removing pimples to making fake tan, what
follows are some of the more intriguing suggestions, demonstrating that women
in 17th Century London were just as preoccupied with grey hairs and wrinkles as
their modern-day counterparts.
How to correct the ill sent of the Arm-pits. The stink of
the Arm-holes makes some women very hateful, especially those that are fat and
fleshy. Use liquid Allome with Myrrh to anoynt the Arm-pits, or strew the place
with dry Leaves of Myrtles in powder. The Roots of Artichokes smeared on doth
not only cure the ill sent of the Arm-pits but of the whole body.
It is the singular care of Women to adorn their Hair, and
next their Faces, for Women hold the Hair to be the greatest Ornament of
the Body, that if it be taken away, all the Beauty is gone, and they think it
the more beautiful the more yellow, shining, and radiant it is.
To make Hair yellow, put Barley-Straw into an earthen pot
with a great mouth, Feny-Graec [fenugreek] and wild Cummin. Mingle between them
Quick-lime and Tobacco made into a Powder, then put them upon the Straw. Put
one under the other [making layers as it were] until the whole Vessel be full.
Pour on cold water and let them stand a whole day. Then open a hole at the
bottom and let it run forth. With Sope use it for your Hair.
The most famous way to make the Hair yellow is to draw Oyle
from Honey by the Art of Distillation. First there will come forth a clear
Water, then a Saffron-colour, then a Gold-colour. Use this to anoint the Hair
with a Spunge, but let it not touch the Skin, for it will dye it Saffron-colour
and it is not easily washed off. This tincture will last many days and it will
dye Gray-Hairs which few others will.
How Gray Hairs are dyed Black: Anonynt your Hair in the Sun
with Leeches that have lain to corrupt in the blackest Wine for sixty days. For
long black Hair, take a green Lizard, and cutting off the Head and Tail, boyl
it in common Oyle and anoint your Head with it.
Curl'd Hair seems to be no small Grace and Ornament to the
Head, and women do all they can to curl the Hair. If you will know how, boyl
Maidenhair with Smallage-seed in Wine, adding a good quantity of Oyle, this
will make the Hair curl'd and thick. Moreover if you put the Roots of Daffidils
into Wine and pour this often on the Head, it will make the Hair curl more.
To dye the Eye-brows. Bitume or Sea-Cole being burnt it is a
very fine black, or else the Marrow of an Ox-bone taken out of the Right-Leg
and beaten with Soot
Before any thing be used to make the Face beautiful, it must
be made very clean and fit to receive it, for oft-times women have excellent
Waters and Remedies. This is the best: Bind Barley-meal-Bran in a Linen cloth
and let it down into a Pot full of water, and let it boyl till a third part be
remaining, and press out the juice. With this decoction wash your face and let
it dry. Then bruise Myrhh and mingle it with the white of an Egg, and burn it
on hot Fire-sticks or red hot Tiles, and receive the fume by a tunnel. Cover
the head with a Napkin, that the smoke flie not away, and when you have
received sufficient smoke, rub your Face with a Linen cloth.
To make the Face very soft boyl two Calfs Feet in water, put
in Rice one pound, and boyl it well. Let crumbs of Bread steep in Asses or
Goats Milk with ten whites of Eggs bruised with their Shells. Distill all at a
gentle fire, add to the water with a little Camphire and Borax. Put into a
vessel two yong naked Pigeons, with their guts taken forth, and put in as much
Milk as will cover them. Add one ounce of Borax, Turpentine three ounces,
Camphire one ounce, five whites of Eggs. Put on the cover and distill them.
To colour the body, boyl Nettles in water and wash your Body
with it. If you distill Straw-berries and wash your self with the water you
shall make your Face red as a Rose.
How to make a Sun-burnt Face white. When women travel in the
open Air, and take journeys in Summer, the Sun in one day will burn them black.
To remove this, beat about ten whites of Eggs, put them in a glazed Vessel
adding once ounce of Sugar-Candy, and when you go to bed anoynt your Face, and
in the morning wash it off with Fountain water. If the Face be smeered with the
white of an Egg, it will not be sun-burn. Women that have to do in the Sun
defend their Faces from the heat of 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. Some rub their foul Skin with Melon-Rindes, and so
they easily rub off Sun-burnings and all other sports on the skin.
For a wrinkled face. When Eggs are boiled hard in water, cut
them in the middle. Fill the holes where the yokes were with Powder of Myrrh,
then over one with the other binder them with a thread. Then take a glazed
vessel and lay sticks across it that the Eggs may lie upon them hanging neere
the bottom. Put the vessel into a Well and let it hang one foot from the water.
By the moysture thereof the Myrrh will dissolve into Oyle of water. Anonynt
your face with it. The juice of the green Cones of the Pine tree, being applied
to the Face with a Linnen-cloth wet therein will take away all wrinkles from
the Face excellently well.
