Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/97

 *fully disposed and slightly darkened, if need be, they lend a brightness and beauty altogether unexpected to the plainest eyes. An excellent and harmless preparation to shade them a glossy dark, yet not an unnatural hue, is what is called "frankincense black." It is made thus:—

Take— Frankincense, resin, pitch, of each     half an ounce; Gum mastic                              quarter of an ounce.

Mix, and drop on red hot charcoals. Receive the fumes in a large funnel, and a black powder will adhere to its sides. Mix this with the fresh juice of elder berries (or cologne water will do), and apply with a fine camel-hair brush.

All these operations on the eyelids and eyelashes should be performed by a second person, lest the eye should be inadvertently injured.

THE EYE.

The beauty of the eye itself depends on its color, its brightness, and its expression. All of these are more or less under our control.

The white of the eye should be pure and pearly. It is apt to become yellow in diseases connected with the digestive organs or the liver, a bluish white in scrofulous and consumptive constitutions, and streaked with minute red veins in those who are given to excess in food or drink, or to violent fits of passion. The popular