Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/201

 *pounded in the domestic laboratory, and specify when they are applicable.

Thus, a person who has this shiny, polished complexion, owes it to an unusual secretion of fatty matter by the skin. Soap fails to remove it, and it is altogether better for her to use, instead, a saturated solution of borax. Let her wet her face with this, morning and evening, allow it to remain on for several minutes, then wash in rain or filtered water. The philosophy of this is that borax, a mild alkali, unites with the minute globules of fat to form a soap, and thus the face is both cleansed and freed from its greasy appearance.

Such a solution has another delightful result. It prevents the tendency to redness which appears obstinately and annoyingly on the cheeks, nose, and knuckles of some persons. For such ordinary purposes the following recipe is a model one:—

Take— Powdered borax     one half ounce; Pure glycerine     one ounce; Camphor water      one quart.

Mix, and use twice a day as directed above. If the camphor water is home-made, filtered rain water must be used. This lotion is better than any sold in the shops for a regular, daily, cosmetic wash. It prevents chapped skin, removes sunburn, keeps the pores in fine condition, and is cheap. What more is wanted? We