Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/621

 595 and white wax over a slow fire ; or, better still, in a jar which stands within a pan of hot water. Add the alkanet root, and stir till the whole is rose-tinted, and perfume with a few drops of essence of almonds. Strain. Another simple lip salve is composed of two ounces of fine honey, one ounce of white wax, and half an ounce of myrrh. Melt by gentle heat, and mix. Crimson Lips There is a fashion of painting the lips in a vivid hue that outrivals Nature. Exag- geration invariably kills beauty, and the perfection of art in painting a face or a picture is still to conceal art. For it is quite permissible, should the lips be pale, to use the expedient carmine ; that is to say, if the cause of the pale lips, which is a low state of health, is being treated by diet and medicine. If cosmetics are objected to, avoid biting the lips to bring up the colour, and try the simple little plan of sucking a cayenne lozenge for a few moments. A home-made lip salve is, however, harmless — a thing not true of many of those sold under fancy titles, and which contain the poisonous red lead. Try the following : Pure white wax .. .. i| ounces Spermaceti 2 Almond-oil ^ pint Melt in the jar immersed in hot water, and add carmine to colour. For vermilion tint, use alkanet instead of carmine. Tie the chippings in muslin, and soak in the almond- oil for a few days before making the salve up. Control of the Mouth For a simple lip salve intended just to preserve delicate lips and protect them out of doors, take two ounces of almond-oil, and mix it with an ounce of white wax. This is BEAUTY of course, white. . It may be scented with a few drops of oil of rose. But all this care will be of no avail unless the owner can control her mouth whilst she is speaking. To realise fully what this means, contrast a snapshot of some celebrity with face in repose with a snapshot of that same individual whilst speaking. Many faces fail to pass the test, which can be made upon oneself by standing before a mirror and speaking in a natural way. Perhaps the lips are too firmly set, or they fall apart at pauses. Is the line of irritability marked from the comer of the mouth down- ward ? A common habit is to elevate one comer of the mouth unduly, so that few people nearing the rubicon have mouths set perfectly straight in their faces. Firm Lips— Firm Character If this ugliness is already a thing accom- plished, take care to consult a good dentist when getting new teeth. The right sort of man allows for the distortion, whilst an inartistic mechanic will give you a faultless row of teeth which shall make the mouth look worse than before. Next to the hands, which are difficult to make up in order to disguise age, comes the mouth. Close attention to detail whilst massaging, and a determination not to form ugly lines, can do much ; but the keen observer notes mouth and hands when trying to detect flaws in a make-up. It will be well to close this article with an observa- tion from Lavater, which will serve as a guide to the culture of beauty of mouth and lips " Firm lips, firm character. Well-defined, large and proportionate lips, the middle line of which is equally serpentine on both sides, and easy to be drawn, though they may denote an inclination to pleasure, are never seen in a bad, mean, common countenance." I I Continued from page 478, Part 4 No. 5. DYES (continued)— DISBASBS OF THE SCALP AND HAIR A BLACK hair dye is best applied in two solutions, A well-known French form quoted in the " Chemist and Druggist " is as follows : No. I Fluid. Acid pyrogal, ^ dr. Sodii sulphit., lo gr. Spt. rectificat., i- oz. Aq. ad., 2 oz. No. 2 Fluid. Argent, nit., i scruple. Liq. ammon. fort., q.s. Aq. ad., 2 oz. Dissolve the nitrate in half an ounce of water, add ammonia until the precipitate is re-dissolved and make up to two ounces with water. To use this dye, cleanse the hair from all grease by washing it with hot water in which a little soda has been dissolved, and drv with a towel. Next, pour a little of the fluid No. I into a saucer and apply with a white-haired, short-handled toothbrush. Immediately afterwards use No. 2 in the same way, with a black-haired brush, avoid- ing as much as possible touching the skin. Wipe the parts round the hair receiving the dye with a damp sponge, and do not wash or grease the hair for several hours after its application. The dye is best applied at night. Hair restorers are slightly different from stains. They are really slow-acting dyes, and do not, of course, restore the natural colour to the hair. A well-known formula is as follows : Acetate of lead, ij dr. Milk of sulphur, 3 dr. Glycerine, i dr. Heliotrope perfume, 2 dr. Rose water, 10 oz. Mix the powders intimately and rub up