Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/204

 If it can make the fair sex simulate a little more closely to divinities, we shall not think the phrase amiss. An ounce of the fresh root, steeped in a pint of cold buttermilk for four hours, yields a wash which is highly prized in parts of England for removing sunburn, and whitening the skin. The juice pressed out and mixed with twice the quantity of vinegar, has also been recommended for the same purpose, and for removing freckles.

Turning to the apothecary's shelves once more, we take down his jar of benzoin. This is a fragrant resin which comes to us from the sunny meadows of Sumatra, and is redolent with odors of the Spice Islands, and the mysterious virtues of tropical balms. Its qualities are strange. Mix a little of it with fat, and the latter will not become rancid. Some of the tincture, combined with glycerine, is simply the best application in the world for chapped hands, and for those sore and cracked nipples which afflict some women so severely during nursing. But this apart. We speak of it now as a cosmetic. Two ounces of it to a pint of pure alcohol (free from acrid fusel oils and the like) make as fine an application as those can ask who wish a white, spotless tint, and fragrant aroma. Some of it may be used once or twice a day in the manner already mentioned.

About a tablespoonful should be poured into a small tumbler of water. It changes the water to a whitish