Our Behaviour/Toilette Recipes

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PREPARE the skin by spreading over it at night a paste composed of one ounce of bitter almonds, ditto of barley-flour, and a sufficient quantity of honey to give the paste consistency. Wash off in the morning, and during the day apply with a camel's-hair brush a lotion compounded thus: One drachm of muriatic acid, half a pint of rain-water and a teaspoonful of lavender-water, mixed.

At night wash the skin with elder-flower water, and apply an ointment made by simmering gently one ounce of Venice soap, quarter of an ounce of deliquated oil of tartar, and ditto of oil of bitter almonds. When it acquires consistency, three drops of oil of rhodium may be added. Wash the ointment off in the morning with rose-water.

One ounce of alum, ditto of lemon-juice, in a pint of rose-water.

Scrape horseradish into a cup of cold sour milk; let it stand twelve hours; strain, and apply two or three times a day.

​Mix lemon-juice one ounce, powdered borax quarter of a drachm, sugar half a drachm; keep for a few days in a glass bottle and apply occasionally.

Muriate of ammonia half a drachm, lavender-water two drachms, distilled water half a pint; apply two or three times a day.

Into half a pint of milk squeeze the juice of a lemon, with a spoonful of brandy, and boil, skimming well. Add a drachm of rock alum.

Elder-flower ointment one ounce, sulphate of zinc twenty grains; mix well, and rub into the affected skin at night. In the morning wash it off with plenty of soap, and when the grease is completely removed apply the following lotion: Infusion of rose-petals half a pint, citric acid thirty grains. All local discolorations will disappear under this treatment; and if freckles do not entirely yield, they will in most instances be greatly ameliorated. Should any unpleasant irritation or roughness of the skin follow the application, a lotion composed of half a pint of almond mixture and half a drachm of Goulard's extract will afford immediate relief.

Melt white wax one ounce to gentle heat, and add juice of lily bulbs two ounces and honey two ounces, ​rose-water two drachms and attar of roses a drop or two. Use twice a day.

Use tepid water instead of cold in ablutions.

Put some powder of best myrrh upon an iron plate sufficiently heated to melt the gum gently, and when it liquefies cover your head with a napkin and hold your face over the myrrh at a proper distance to receive the fumes without inconvenience. Do not use it if it causes headache.

Put into a jar one pint of sweet-oil, half an ounce of spermaceti and two ounces of white wax. Melt in a jar by the fire. Add scent.

Melt together a pint of oil of sweet almonds, one ounce of white wax, half an ounce of spermaceti and half a pint of rose-water. Beat to a paste.

Milk of almonds, obtained at the druggist's, is as good a remedy as any to use.

When indications of chilblains first present themselves, take vinegar three ounces, camphorated spirits of wine one ounce; mix and rub.

Rub with alum and water.

Put the hands and feet two or three times a week ​into warm water in which two or three handfuls of common salt have been dissolved.

Rub with a raw onion dipped in salt.

Vinegar of cantharides half an ounce, eau-de-cologne one ounce, rose-water one ounce. The scalp should be brushed briskly until it becomes red, and the lotion should then be applied to the roots of the hair twice a day.

A quarter of a pint of cod-liver oil, two drachms of origanum, fifteen drops of ambergris, the same of musk.

Boxwood shavings six ounces, proof spirits twelve ounces, spirits of rosemary two ounces, spirits of nutmeg one-half an ounce. Steep the boxwood shavings in the spirits for fourteen days at a temperature of 60°; strain, and add the rest.

The various fluids advertised and recommended for the purpose of giving straight hair a tendency to curl are all impositions. The only curling-fluid of any service is a very weak solution of isinglass, which will hold the curl in the position in which it is placed if care is taken that it follows the direction in which the hair naturally falls.

One of the fluids in use is made by dissolving a small portion of beeswax in an ounce of olive oil and adding scent according to fancy.

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This essential for the toilette is prepared in several ways.

Simmer an ounce of quince seed in a quart of water for forty minutes; strain, cool, add a few drops of scent, and bottle, corking tightly.

Take of gum tragacanth one and a half drachms, water half a pint, rectified spirits mixed with an equal quantity of water three ounces, and a little scent. Let the mixture stand for a day or two, then strain.

It may be made of Iceland moss, a quarter of an ounce boiled in a quart of water, and a little rectified spirit added, so that it may keep.

This indispensable adjunct to the toilette may be made by melting in a jar placed in a basin of boiling water a quarter of an ounce each of white wax and spermaceti, flour of benzoin fifteen grains, and half an ounce of oil of almonds. Stir till the mixture is cool. Color red with a little alkanet root.

Rose-water may be made by taking half an ounce of powdered white sugar and two drachms of magnesia; with these mix twelve drops of attar of roses. Add a quart of water and two ounces of alcohol, mixed in a gradual manner, and filter through blotting-paper.

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An application of cold, wet common whitening, placed on immediately, is recommended as an invaluable remedy.

Stretch a piece of black silk on a wooden frame, and apply dissolved isinglass to one side of it with a brush. Let it dry, repeat the process, and then cover with a strong tincture of balsam of Peru.

Tepid bath and harsh towel. Air and exercise. Tepid water and bran. Infuse wheat-bran, well sifted, for four hours in white wine vinegar; add to it five yolks of eggs and two grains of ambergris, and distill the whole. It should be carefully corked for twelve or fifteen days. Constant application.

Distill two handfuls of jessamine flowers in a quart of rose-water and a quart of orange-water. Strain through porous paper, and add a scruple of musk and a scruple of ambergris .

The whites of four eggs boiled in rose-water, half an ounce of alum, half an ounce of oil of sweet almonds; beat the whole together until it assumes the consistency of paste. Spread upon a silk or muslin mask, to be worn at night.

​Take a small piece of the gum benzoin and boil it in spirits of wine till it becomes a rich tincture. Fifteen drops poured into a glass of water; wash and leave to dry.

Mix two parts of white brandy with one part of rose-water, and wash the face night and morning.

Take equal parts of the seed of the melon, pumpkin, gourd and cucumber, pounded until they are reduced to powder; add to it sufficient fresh cream to dilute the flour, and then add milk enough to reduce the whole to a thin paste. Add a grain of musk and a few drops of the oil of lemon. Anoint the face with this; leave it on twenty or thirty minutes, or over-night if convenient, and wash off with warm water. It gives a remarkable purity and brightness to the complexion.

Steep the pimpernel plant in pure rain-water, and bathe the face with the decoction.

Take half a pound of soft soap, a gill of salad oil, an ounce of mutton tallow, and boil them till they are thoroughly mixed. After the boiling has ceased, but before the mixture is cold, add one gill of spirits of wine and a grain of musk. Anoint the hands, draw on gloves, and let them remain till morning.

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Lemon-juice three ounces, white wine vinegar three ounces, and white brandy one-half a pint.

Oxide of bismuth four drachms, spermaceti four drachms, pure hog's lard four ounces. Melt the two last and add the first.

Beat up the whites of four eggs into a froth, and rub thoroughly in close to the roots of the hair. Leave it to dry on. Then wash the head and hair clean with a mixture of equal parts of rum and rose-water.

Sulphur-water one ounce, acetated liquor of ammonia one-quarter of an ounce, liquor of potassa one grain, white wine vinegar two ounces, distilled water two ounces. Bathe the face.

Pimples are sometimes removed by frequent washings in warm water and prolonged friction with a coarse towel.

New milk half a pint, lemon-juice one-fourth of an ounce, white brandy half an ounce. Boil the whole, and skim clear from scum. Use night and morning.

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Oil of roses four ounces, white wax one ounce, spermaceti one-half an ounce. Melt in a glass vessel and stir with a wooden spoon. Pour into a glass or china cup.

Take nightshade berries, boil them in hog's lard, and anoint the corn with the salve.

One teaspoonful of tar, one teaspoonful of coarse brown sugar and one teaspoonful of saltpetre, the whole to be warmed together. Spread it on kip leather the size of the corns, and in two days they will be drawn out.

Take equal parts of cream of tartar and salt; pulverize it and mix it well. Then wash your teeth in the morning, and rub them with the powder.

Take one ounce of myrrh in fine powder, two tablespoonfuls of honey, and a little green sage in very fine powder. Mix them well together, and wet the teeth and gums with a little every night and morning.

Take of extract of yellow Peruvian bark fifteen ​grains, extract of rhatany-root eight grains, extract of burdock-root and oil of nutmegs (fixed) of each two drachms, camphor (dissolved with spirits of wine) fifteen grains, beef-marrow two ounces, best olive oil one ounce, citron-juice one-half a drachm, aromatic essential oil as much as sufficient to render it fragrant. Mix and make into an ointment.

Take one gallon of spirits of wine, and add of the oil of lemon, orange and bergamot each a spoonful, also add extract of vanilla forty drops. Shake until the oils are cut, then add a pint and a half of soft water.

Take two drachms each of oil of lemon, oil of rosemary and oil of bergamot, one drachm of oil of lavender, ten drops each of oil of cinnamon and oil of cloves, two drops of oil of rose, eight drops of tincture of musk, and one quart of alcohol or spirits of wine. Mix all together, when it will be ready for use. The older it gets, the better.

Take one gallon of ninety per cent. alcohol, and add to it one ounce each of oil of bergamot and oil of orange, two drachms of oil of cedrat, one drachm each of oil of neroli and oil of rosemary. Mix well, and it is fit for use.

Take two ounces of yellow wax and twelve ounces of beef-marrow. Melt all together, and when suffi​ciently cool perfume it with the essential oil of almonds.

Take neats' foot oil and dissolve in it caoutchouc (India-rubber), a sufficient quantity to form a kind of varnish; rub this on your boots or shoes. The oil must be placed where it is warm, and the caoutchouc put into it in parings. It will take several days to dissolve.

Put the gloves on your hands and wash them, as if you were washing your hands, in some spirits of turpentine, until quite clean; then hang them up in a warm place or where there is a current of air, and all smell of the turpentine will be removed.

Wash them with soap and water, then stretch them on wooden hands or pull them into shape without wringing them; next rub them with pipe-clay or yellow ochre, or a mixture of the two, in any required shade, made into a paste with beer; let them dry gradually, and when about half dry rub them well, so as to smooth them and put them into shape; then dry them, brush out the superfluous color, cover them with paper and smooth them with a warm iron. Other colors may be employed to mix the pipe-clay besides yellow ochre.

By rubbing gloves with a clean cloth dipped in ​milk and then rubbed on brown Windsor soap you may restore them to a very fair state of cleanliness.

When a ring happens to get tightly fixed on the finger, as it will sometimes do, a piece of common twine should be well soaped, and then wound round the finger as tightly as possible or as can be borne. The twine should commence at the point of the finger and be continued till the ring is reached; the end of the twine must then be forced through the ring with the head of a needle, or anything else that may be at hand. If the string is then unwound, the ring is almost sure to come off the finger with it.

Let a drop of pure oil flow round the stopper, and stand the bottle a foot or two from the fire. After a time tap the stopper smartly, but not too hard, with the handle of a hair-brush; if this is not effectual, use a fresh drop of oil and repeat the process. It is pretty sure to succeed.

Gold ornaments are best kept bright and clean with soap and warm water, with which they should be scrubbed, a soft nail-brush being used for the purpose. They may be dried in box sawdust, in a bed of which it is desirable to let them lie before the ​fire for a time. Imitation jewelry may be treated in the same way.

For cleaning silver, either articles of personal wear or those pertaining to the toilette-table or dressing-case, there is nothing better than a spoonful of common whitening, carefully pounded so as to be without lumps, reduced to a paste with gin.

French chalk is useful for removing grease-spots from clothing. Spots on silk will sometimes yield if a piece of blotting-paper is placed over them and the blade of a knife is heated (not too much) and passed over the paper.

Mix a little white of egg and ink in a bottle, so that the composition may be well shaken up when required for use. Apply to the kid with a piece of sponge and rub dry. The best thing to rub with is the palm of the hand. When the kid shows symptoms of cracking, rub in a few drops of sweet oil. The soles and heels should be polished with common blacking.

In cleaning patent-leather boots, first remove all the dirt upon them with a sponge or flannel; then ​the boot should be rubbed lightly over with a paste consisting of two spoonfuls of cream and one of linseed-oil, both of which require to be warmed before being mixed. Polish with a soft cloth.

Boil five ounces of soft water and six ounces of powdered alum for a short time, and pour it into a vessel to cool. Warm it for use, and wash the stained part with it and leave to dry.

Washed the soiled part with ether, and the grease will disappear.

We often find that lemon-juice, vinegar, oil of vitriol and other sharp corrosives stain dyed garments. Sometimes, by adding a little pearlash to a soap-lather and passing the silks through these, the faded color will be restored. Pearlash and warm water will sometimes do alone, but it is the most efficacious to use the soap-lather and pearlash together.

Use flowers of sulphur as a tooth-powder every night, rubbing the teeth and gums with a rather hard toothbrush. If done after dinner too, all the better. It preserves the teeth and does not communicate any smell whatever to the mouth.

Wet the linen which contains the mildew with soft water, rub it well with white soap, then scrape some ​fine chalk to powder and rub it well into the linen; lay it out on the grass in the sunshine, watching to keep it damp with soft water. Repeat the process the next day, and in a few hours the mildew will entirely disappear.

Take a little tallow and put it into a spoon, and heat it over a lamp until it becomes very hot; then pour it on the sore or granulation. The effect will be almost magical. The pain and tenderness will at once be relieved. The operation causes very little pain if the tallow is perfectly heated. Perhaps a repetition may be necessary in some cases.

Take a pint of common soft soap and stir in it air-slaked lime till it is of the consistency of glazier's putty. Make a leather thimble, fill it with this composition and insert the finger therein, and change the composition once in twenty minutes, and a cure is certain.

A piece of fresh lard as large as a butternut, rubbed up with sugar in the same way that butter and sugar are prepared for the dressing of puddings, divided into three parts and given at intervals of twenty minutes, will relieve any case of croup which has not already progressed to the fatal point.

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Take one pound of white wax and four pounds of lard or mutton suet; melt them with a gentle heat, and stir well until cool. Yellow wax will answer the same purpose.

Three eggs and four lemons. Slice the lemons and crush the eggs. Add one-half a pound of rock candy and two ounces of olive-oil. A teaspoonful three or four times a day.

Take one quart of spirits of wine or alcohol, twelve drops of wintergreen, one gill of beef-gall and six cents' worth of lavender. A little alkanet to color if you wish. Mix.

Take equal parts of spirits of hartshorn and ether. Ox-gall mixed with it makes it better.

Take a piece of mould candle of the finest kind, melt it, and dip the spotted part of the linen in the melted tallow. Then throw the linen into the wash.

Moisten the parts stained with cold water; then ​hold it over the smoke of burning brimstone, and the stain will disappear.

This recipe will serve for iron mould also.

A small piece of paper or linen moistened with turpentine and put into the wardrobe or drawers for a single day two or three times a year is a sufficient preservative against moths.

Stains occasioned by fruit, iron rust and other similar causes may be removed by applying to the parts injured a weak solution of the chloride of lime, the cloth having been previously well washed. The parts subjected to this operation should be subsequently well rinsed in soft, clear, warm water, without soap, and be immediately dried in the sun.

Oxalic acid diluted by water will accomplish the same end.

Mix together in a vial two ounces of essence of lemon and one ounce of oil of turpentine. Grease and other spots in silk must be rubbed gently with a linen rag dipped in the above composition.

Apply, with a soft rag, spirits of hartshorn.

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For mildew, rub in salt and some buttermilk, and expose it to the influence of a hot sun. Chalk and soap or lemon-juice and salt are also good. As fast as the spots become dry more should be rubbed on, and the garment should be kept in the sun until the spots disappear. Some one of the preceding things will extract most kinds of stains, but a hot sun is necessary to render any one of them effectual.

Scalding water will remove fruit-stains. So also will hartshorn diluted with warm water, but it will be necessary to apply it several times. Common salt rubbed on fruit-stains before they become dry will extract them.

Colored cotton goods that have ink spilled on them should be soaked in lukewarm sour milk.

Scrape off all the pitch or tar you can, then saturate the spots with sweet-oil or lard; rub it in well, and let it remain in a warm place for an hour.

Saturate the spot with spirits of turpentine, let it remain a number of hours, then rub it between the hands; it will crumble away without injury either to the texture or color of any kind of woolen, cotton or silk goods.

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Take equal quantities of soft lye-soap, alcohol or gin, and molasses. Lay the silk on a clean table without creasing; rub on the mixture with a flannel cloth. Rinse the silk well in cold clear water, and hang it up to dry without wringing. Iron it, before it gets dry, on the wrong side. Silks and ribbons treated in this way will look very nice.

Camphene will extract grease and clean ribbons without changing the color of most things. They should be dried in the open air and ironed when pretty dry.

The water in which pared potatoes have been boiled is very good to wash black silks in; it stiffens and makes them glossy and black.

Soap-suds answer very well. They should be washed in two suds and not rinsed in clean water.

If a lady has had the misfortune to put her shoes or slippers too near the stove, and thus got them burned, she can make them nearly as good as ever by spreading soft-soap upon them while they are still hot, and then, when they are cold, washing it off. It softens the leather and prevents it drawing up.

Pull out a thread of the filling and see if it is strong. If it stands the test, then rub one corner of ​the silk in the hands as though washing it. After this operation, if it be good silk, it will, upon being brushed out, look as smooth as ever. If, on holding it up to the light and looking through it, you see no traces of the rubbing, be sure the silk is good. The warp and filling should not differ much in size, or it will not wear well. If you choose a figured silk, let the figure be small and well woven in, else it will soon present a frayed appearance, and you will have to pick off the little tags of silk that will dot the breadths.

These pretty fleecy things are often ruined in the first washing. Yet it is possible to wash them and have them look almost as well as ever. First braid the tassels, then make a hot suds with fine castile soap, and instead of rubbing or wringing it with the hands, run it through the wringing-machine. Then open the nubia as widely as possible and spread it on some clean place to dry. A bed is a good place for this. After it is thoroughly dry take the braid out of the tassels, and the pretty little waves will be in them just as before washing. It is the rubbing and twisting of a nubia, or any knit article, which damages it, and makes it look old and worn instead of light and airy and fleecy, as it does at first. If any article of this kind is torn, it should be mended carefully with crewel or fine silk of a corresponding color. Then dampen the place repaired, lay a paper over it, and press the spot with a warm iron.

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Take an old wine-bottle and cover it with the cut-off leg of a soft, firm stocking, sewing it tightly above and below. Then wind the soiled collar or lace smoothly around the covered bottle; take a fine needle and thread and sew very carefully around the outer edge of the collar, catching every loop fast to the stocking. Then shake the bottle up and down in a pailful of warm soap-suds, occasionally rubbing the soiled places with a soft sponge. It can be rinsed after the same manner. It must be rinsed well. When the lace is clean, then apply a very weak solution of gum arabic and stand the bottle in the sunshine to dry. Rip off the lace very carefully when perfectly dry. Instead of ironing, lay it between the white leaves of a heavy book; or, if you are in a hurry, iron on flannel between a few thicknesses of fine muslin. Done up in this way, lace collars will wear longer, stay clean longer, and have a rich, new, lacy look that they will not have otherwise.

The switches, curls and frizzes which fashion demands should be worn will fade in course of time; and though they matched the natural hair perfectly at first, they will finally present a lighter tint. If the hair is brown this can be remedied. Obtain a yard of dark-brown calico. Boil it until the color has ​well come out into the water. Then into this water dip the hair, and take it out and dry it. Repeat the operation until it shall be of the required depth of shade.

When you are ready to put away furs and woolens, and want to guard against the depredations of moths, pack them securely in paper flour-sacks and tie them up well. This is better than camphor or tobacco or snuff scattered among them in chest and drawers. Before putting your muffs away for the summer twirl them by the cords at the ends, so that every hair will straighten. Put them in their boxes and paste a strip of paper where the lid fits on.

To keep hair in curl, take a few quince-seed, boil them in water, and add perfumery if you like; wet the hair with this, and it will keep in curl longer than from the use of any other preparation. It is also good to keep the hair in place on the forehead on going out in the wind.