Perfumes and their preparation : $b Containing complete directions for making handkerchief perfumes, smelling-salts, sachets, fumigating pastils; preparations for the care of the skin, the mouth, the hair; cosmetics, hair dyes, and other toilet articlesAskinson, George William
Science
Perfumes and their preparation : $b Containing complete directions for making handkerchief perfumes, smelling-salts, sachets, fumigating pastils; preparations for the care of the skin, the mouth, the hair; cosmetics, hair dyes, and other toilet articles
Askinson, George William
Cosmetics; Perfumes
To repeat, hygienic perfumery has to deal with such substances as have
really a favorable effect on health. No one will deny that soap takes
the first place among them. Soap promotes cleanliness, and cleanliness
in itself is essential to health. But it would exceed the scope of this
work were we to treat in detail of the manufacture of soap and its
employment in the toilet; we must confine ourselves to some specialties
exclusively made by perfumers and into the composition of which soap
enters. We do so the more readily since perfumers are but rarely in
a position to make soap, and in most cases find it more advantageous
to buy the raw material, that is, ordinary good soap, from the
manufacturer and to perfume it.
Next to soap in hygienic perfumery stand the so-called emulsions and
creams (crêmes) which are excellent preparations for the skin and
pertain to the domain of the perfumer.
The human skin consists of three distinct parts: the deepest layer, the
subcutaneous cellular tissue which gradually changes into true skin;
the corium or true skin (the thickest layer); and the superficial scarf
skin or epidermis which is very thin and consists largely of dead and
dying cells; these are continually shed and steadily reproduced from
the corium.
The skin contains various depressions, namely, the sudoriparous glands
which excrete sweat; the sebaceous glands which serve the purpose
of covering the skin with fat and thereby keep it soft, glossy, and
supple; and lastly the hair follicles which contain the hairs, an
appendage to the skin.
The main object of hygienic perfumery with reference to the skin is to
keep these glandular organs in health and activity; it effects this by
various remedies which, besides promoting the general health, improve
the appearance of the skin.
As a special group of preparations is intended exclusively for the
care of the skin, so another class is devoted to the preservation of
the hair, and still another to the care of the mouth and its greatest
ornament, the teeth. Accordingly the preparations belonging under this
head will be divided into three groups—those for the skin, the hair,
and the mouth.
CHAPTER XX.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE CARE OF THE SKIN.
GLYCERIN.
Pure glycerin is a substance that has a powerful beautifying effect on
the skin, by rendering it white, supple, soft, and glossy; no other
remedy will clear a sun-burnt skin in so short a time as glycerin.
An excellent wash may be made by the perfumer by mixing equal parts
of thick, colorless glycerin and orange-flower water (or some other
aromatic water with fine odor), possibly giving it a rose color by the
addition of a very small amount of fuchsine. Concentrated glycerin must
not be used as a wash, because it abstracts water from the skin and
thereby produces a sensation of heat or burning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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