Avon Katalog

There are many disorders of the skin which are induced by culpable ignorance, which owe their origin entirely to circumstances connected with fashion or habit. The frequent and sudden changes in this country from heat to cold, by abruptly exciting or repressing the secretions of the skin, roughen its texture, injure its hue, and often deform it with unseemly eruptions.

And many of the fashions of dressing the head are still more inimical to the complexion, than the climate. The habit the ladies have of going into the open air without a bonnet, and often without a veil, is a ruinous one for the skin. Indeed, the fashion of the ladies bonnets, which only cover a few inches of the back of the head, is a great tax upon the beauty of the complexion. In this climate, especially, the head and face need protection from the atmosphere.

Not only the woman’s beauty, but her health requires that she should never step into the open air, particularly in autumnal evenings, without a sufficient covering to her head. And, if she regards the beauty of her complexion, she must never go out into the hot sun without her veil.

The custom, common among ladies, of drying the perspiration from their faces by powdering, or of cooling them when they are hot, from exposure to the sun or dancing, by washing with cold water, is most destructive to the complexion, and not infrequently spreads a humor over the faces which renders its hideous forever.

A little common sense ought to teach a woman that, when she is overheated, she ought to allow herself to cool gradually; and, by all means, to avoid going into the air, or allowing a draught through to an open door, or window, to blow upon her while she is thus heated. If she will not attend to these rules, she will be unfortunate, saying nothing about her beauty, if her life does not pay the penalty of her thoughtlessness.

Ladies ought also to know that excessive heat is as bad as excessive cold for the complexion, and often causes distempers of the skin, which are difficult of cure. Look at the rough and dingy face of the desert-wondering gipsy, and you behold the effects of exposure to alternate heats and colds.

To remedy the rigidity of the muscles of the face, and to cure any roughness which may be induced by daily exposure, the following wash may be applied with almost certain relief;

Mix two parts of white brandy with one part of rose water, and wash the face with it night and morning.

The brandy keeps up a gentle action of the skin, which is so essential to its healthy appearance, also thoroughly cleanses the surface, while the rose-water counteracts the drying nature of the brandy, and leaves the skin in a natural, soft, and flexible state,

At a trifling expense, a lady may provide herself with a delightful wash for the face, which is a thousand times better than the expensive lotions which she purchases at the apothecaries. Besides, she has the advantage of knowing what she is using, which is far from being the case where she buys the prepared patent lotions. These preparations are generally put up by ignorant quacks and pretenders; and I have known the most loathsome, beauty-destroying, indolent ulcers to be produced by the use of them.

The following is a recipe for making another wash for the face, which is a favourite with the ladies of France.

Take equal parts of seeds of the melon pumpkin, gourd and cucumber, pounded till they are reduced to powder; add to it sufficient fresh cream to dilate the flour, and then add milk enough to reduce the whole to a  thin paste. Add a grain of musk, and a few drops of oil of lemon. Anoint the face with this, leave it on for twenty ot thirty minutes, or overnight if convenient, and wash off with warm water. It gives a remarkable purity and brightness to the complexion.

A fashionable beauty at St. Petersburgh gave me a following recipe for a wash, which imparts a remarkable lustre to the face, and is the greatest favourite of a Russian lady’s bathroom.

Infuse a handful of well sifted wheat bran for four hours in a white wine vinegar; add to it five yolks of eggs and two grains of musk, and distill the whole. Bottle it; keep it carefully corked, fifteen days, when it will be fit for use. Apply it overnight, and wash in the morning with tepid water.

Pimpernal Water is a sovereign wash with the ladies all over the continent of Europe, for whitening the complexion. All they do to prepare it is simply to steep that wholesome plant in pure rain water. It is such a favourite that it is regarded as almost indispensable to a lady’s toilet, who is particularly attentive the brightness of her complexion.

Warning – do not attempt to use any of the recipes given here. Consult a healthcare professional. avon katalog1.com or it’s owners or associates cannot be held responsible for any negative effects. This article is given for entertainment purposes only.

Though it is true that a beautiful mind is the first thing requisite for a beautiful face, yet how much more charming will the whole become through the aid of a fine complexion?

It is not easy to overrate the importance of complexion. The features of a Juno with a dull skin would never fascinate. The forehead, the nose, the lips, may all be faultless in size and shape; but still, they can hardly look beautiful without the aid of a bright complexion.

Even the finest eyes lose more than half their power, if they are surrounded by an inexpressive complexion. It is in coloring or complexion that the artist shows his great skill in giving expression to the face.

Overlooking entirely the matter of vanity, it is the woman’s duty to use all the means in her power to beautify and preserve her complexion. It is fitting that the “index of the soul” should be kept clean and bright and beautiful as possible.

All that I have said in chapters in the previous articles will apply also to the subject of this one. A stomach frequently crowed with greasy food, or with artificial stilulants of any kind, will in a short time spoil the brightest complexion. All excesses tend to do the same thing. Frequent ablution with pure water, followed by gentle and frequent rubbing with a dry napkin, is one of the best cosmetics ever employed.

It is amusing to reflect upon the tricks which vain beauties will resort to in order to obtain this paramount aid to female charms. Nor is it any wonder that woman should exhaust all her resources in this pursuit, for her face is such a public thing, that there is no hiding the least deformity in it. She can, to some extent, hide an ugly neck, or shoulder, or hand, or foot-but there is no hiding-place for an ugly face.

I knew many fashionable ladies in Paris who used to bind their faces, every night on going to bed, with thin slices of raw beef, which said to keep the skin from wrinkles, while it gives a youthful freshness and brilliancy to the complexion. I have no doubt of its efficacy. The celebrated Madam Vestris used to sleep every night with her face plastered up with a kind of paste to ward off the threatening wrinkles, and keep her charming complexion from fading. I will give the recipe for making the Vestris’ paste for the benefit of any of my readers whose looking-glass warns them the dimness and wrinkles of age are extinguishing the roses of youth:

The whites of four eggs boiled in rose-water, half an oz of alum, half an oz of oil of sweet almonds; beat the whole together till it assumes the consistence of a paste.

The above, spread upon a silk or muslin mask, and worn at night, will not only keep back the wrinkles and preserve the complexion fair, but it is a great remedy where the skin becomes too loosely attached to the muscles, as it gives firmness to the parts. When I was last in Paris (1857) I was shown a recent invention of ready made masks for the face, composed of fine thick white silk, lined, or plastered, with some kind of fard, or paste, which is designed to beautify and preserve the complexion. I do not know the component parts of this preparation; but I doubt if it is any better that the recipe which was given to me by Madam Vestris, and which I have given above. This trick is entirely French that there is little danger of its getting into general practice in this country. In Bohemis I have seen the ladies flock to arsenic springs and drink the waters, which gave their skins a transparent whiteness; but there is a terrible penalty attached to this folly; for when once they habituate themselves to the practice, they are obliged to keep it up the rest of their days, or death would speedily follow. The beauties of the court of George I. were in the habit of taking minute doses of quicksilver to obtain a white and fair complexion; and I have read in Pepys’s Diary of some ridiculous scenes which occurred at dancing parties from this practice. Some young girls of the present day sometimes eat such things as chalk, slate, and tea grounds to give themselves a white complexion. I have no doubt that this is a good way to get a pale complexion; for it destroys the health, and surely drives out of the natural roses of beauty, and instead of a bright complexion produces a wan and sickly one. Every young girl ought early to be impressed that whatever destroys health spoils her beauty.
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The most remarkable wash for the face which I have ever known, which is said to have known to the beauties of the court of Charles II, Is made of a simple tincture of benzoin precipitated by water. All you have to do in preparing it is to take a small piece of gum benzoin and boil it in spirits of wine till it becomes a rich tincture. Fifteen drops of this, poured into a glass of water, will produce a mixture which will look like milk, and emits a most agreeable perfume.

This delightful wash seems to have the effect of calling the purple streams of the blood to the external fibres of the face and gives the cheeks a beautiful rosy color. If left on the face to dry, it will render the skin clear and brilliant. It is also an excellent remedy for spots, freckles, pimples, and eruptions, if they have not been of long standing.

Warning – do not attempt to use any of the recipes given here. Consult a healthcare professional. avon katalog1.com or it’s owners or associates cannot be held responsible for any negative effects. This article is given for entertainment purposes only.

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Besides the rational and natural means of developing and preserving the beauty of the skin, there are many artificial devices by which a lady may keep up and show off her attractions to great advantage, and for a long period.

As long ago as 1809, an odd half- crazy old duke in London, used to take a sweat in a hot-milk bath, which was found to impact a remarkable whiteness and smoothness to his skin, and the ladies very naturally caught the idea of using the milk-bath as a means of beautifying their complexion. In another place I have mentioned some ludicrous scenes which followed the habit of milk-bathing in Paris.

But a far more rational, less expensive, and more scientific bath for cleaning and beautifying the skin is that of tepid water and bran, which is really a remarkable fine softener and purifier of the surface of the body.

The ladies of the ancient Greece and Rome, who were said to be remarkable for the brightness and transparency of their skins, used to rub themselves with a sponge, dampened with cold water, and follow this process by rubbing hard with a dry napkin. Rightly managed, the human skin is susceptible of a high polish. Friction is never to be neglected by those who would shine in the courts of beauty.
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The following wash was in great use among the beauties of the Spanish Court, and gives a polished whiteness to the neck and arms.

Infuse wheat-bran, well sifted, for four hours in white wine vinegar, add to it five yolks of eggs and two grains of ambergris, and distill the whole. It should be carefully corked for twelve to fifteen days, when it will be fit for use.

A lady may apply it when she makes a toilet, and it will be sure to add a fine polish and lustre to her skin.

The following wash is a great favourite with the ladies on the continent of Europe, and cannot be used without the happiest effects, while it is a refreshing perfume:

Distil two handfuls of jessamine flowers in a quart of rose-water and a quart of orange water. Strain through porous paper, and add a scruple of musk and a scruple of ambergris.

There cannot be a more agreeable wash for the skin.

Warning – do not try out these procedures without seeking the advice of a health care professional. Avon Katalog1.com is not responsible for any ill effects. This article is for entertainment purposes only.

The most perfect form will avail a woman little, unless it possess also that brightness which is the finishing touch and final polish of a beautiful lady.

Grey dull skin spoils even the most perfectly shaped body.

I have to tell you, ladies-and the same must be said to the gentlemen, too-that the great secrets acquiring a bright and beautiful skin lies in three simple things, as I have said in my lecture on Beautiful Women-temperance, exercise and cleanliness.

A young lady, were she as fair as Hebe, as charming as Venus herself, would soon destroy it all by too high living and late hours.

Take the ordinary fare of a fashionable woman, and you have a style of living which is sufficient to destroy the greatest beauty. It is not the quality so much as the quality of the dishes that produces the mischief.

Take, for instance, only strong coffee and hot bread and butter, and you have a diet which is most destructive to beauty. The heated grease, long indulged in, is sure to derange the stomach, and, by creating bilious disorders, gradually overspreads the fair skin with a wan or yellow hue.

After this meal comes the long fast from nine in the morning till five or six in the afternoon, when dinner is served, and the half-famished beauty sits down to sate a keen appetite with peppered soups, fish, roast, boiled, broiled, and fried meat; game, tarts, sweet-meats ,ices, fruits, etc; etc; etc.

How must the constitution suffer in trying to digest this melange! How does the heated complexion bear witness to the combustion within!

Let the fashionable lady keep up this habit, and add the other one of late hours, and her own looking- glass will tell her that “we all do fade as the leaf.”

The firm texture of the rounded form gives way to a flabby softness, or yields to a scraggy leanness, or shapeless fate. The once fair skin assumes a pallid rigidity or bloated redness, which the deluded victim would regard as the roses of health and beauty. And when she at last becomes aware of her condition, to repair the ravages she flies to puddings, to give shape where there is none; to corsets, to compress into form the swelling chaos of flesh; and to paints, to rectify the dingy complexion. But vain are all these attempts.

No; if dissipation, late hours, and immoderation have once wrecked the fair vessel of female charms, it is not in the power of Esculapius himself to right the shattered bark, and make it ride the sea in gallant trim again.”*

CLEANLINESS is the subject of indispensable consideration in the pursuits of a beautiful skin. The frequent use of the tepid bath is the best cosmetic I can recommend to my readers in this connection. By such ablutions, the accidental corporeal, impurities are thrown off, cutaneous obstructions removed; and while the surface of the body is preserved in its original brightness, many threatening disorders are prevented. It is by this means that the women of the East render their skins as soft and fair as those of the tenderest babes.

I wish to impress upon every beautiful woman, and especially upon the one who leads a city life, that she cannot preserve the brightness of her charms without a daily resort to this purifying agent. She should make the bath as indispensable an article in her house as her looking-glass.

This essay from Victorian times shows a true wisdom. The advice given here has been now been scientifically proven to be true but when it was written there was no such science only common sense, intuition and observation. Enjoy !…

The foundation for a beautiful form must be undoubtedly be laid in infancy. That is, nothing should be done at that tender age to obstruct the natural swell and growth of all the parts.

Is quite  as true of the body as of the mind. Common sense teaches us that the young fibres ought to be left, unencumbered by obstacles of art, to shoot harmoniously into the shape that nature intended.

This is a business for mothers to attend to at first but it is important, however, that the girl should understand, as soon as she comes to the years of discretion, or as soon as she is old enough to realize the importance of beauty to a woman, that she has, to a certain extent, the management of her own form within her power.

The first thing to be thought of is health, for there can be no development of beauty in sickly fibres, Plenty of exercise, in the open air, is the great recipe. Exercise, not philosophically and with religious gravity undertaken, but the wild romping activities of a spirited girl who runs up and down as though her veins were full of wine.

How to Become Beautiful

Everything should be done to give joy and vivacity to the spirits at this age, for nothing so much aids in giving vigor and elasticity to the form as these. A crushed, or sad, or moping spirit, allowed at this tender age, when the shape is forming, is a fatal cause of a flabby and moping body. A bent and stooping form is quite sure to come of a bent and stooping spirit. If you would have the shape “sway gracefully on the firmly poised waist”-if you would see the chest rise and swell in noble and healthy expansion, send out the girl to constant and vigorous exercise in the open air.

And, what is good for the girl is good for the woman too. The same attention to the laws of health, and the same pursuit of out-door exercise will help a lady to develop a handsome form until she is twenty or twenty five years old.

“Many a rich lady would give all her fortune to possess the shapely breast and arms of her kitchen girl. Well, she might have had both, by the same exercise and spare living.” And she can do much to acquire them even yet.

There have been many of sedentary men, of shrunk and sickly forms, with deficient muscle and scraggy arms, who by a change of business to a vigorous out-door exercise acquired fine robust forms, with arms as powerful and muscular as Hercules himself. I knew a young lady, who, at twenty-two years of age, in a great degree overcame the deformity of bad arms. In every other respect she was a most bewitching beauty. But her arms were distressingly thin and scraggy; and she determined at whatever pains, to remedy the problem. She began by strict adherence to such strong nutritious diet as was favourable to the creation of muscle. She walked every other day several hours in the open air, and never neglected the constant daily use of the dumb-bells. Thus she kept on, exercising and drilling herself, for two years, when a visible improvement showed itself, in the straightened and expanded chest; and in the fine hard swell of muscle upon the once deformed arms. She had fought, and she had conquered. Her perseverance was abundantly rewarded. Let the Lady, who is ambitious for such charms; be assured that, if she has them not, they can be obtained on no lighter conditions.

Avon Katalog

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Many women who can lay no claims to a beautiful face have captivated the hearts of plenty of men by the beauty of their body. Indeed it may be questioned if a perfect form possesses a power of captivation beyond any charms that the most beautiful face possesses. You will often hear men say of such and such a girl, “to be sure she has not a beautiful face, but then she has an exquisite form,” and this they speak with such peculiar earnestness that it is quite evident they mean what they say.

Those gloomy ascetic beings who deride the human body as only a cumbersome lump of clay, as a piece of corruption, and as the downfall of the soul, insult their maker, by despising the most ingenious and beautiful piece of mechanism of his physical creation. God has displayed so much care and love upon our bodies that He not only created them for usefulness, but he adorned them with loveliness.

If it was not beneath our maker’s glory to frame them in beauty, it certainly cannot be beneath us to respect and preserve the charms which we have received from his loving hands. To deny these gifts is to despise the giver. He that has made the temple of our souls beautiful certainly would not have us neglect the means of preserving that beauty. Every woman owes it not only to herself, but to society, to be as beautiful and charming as she possibly can. The popular belief about the beauty of the mind as something which is inconsistent with, and the opposition to the beauty of the body, is a superstition which cannot be for a moment entertained by any sound and rational mind. To despise the temple is to insult its occupant. The divine intelligence which has planted the roses of beauty in the human cheeks, and lighted its fires in the eyes, has also entrusted us with a mission to multiply and increase these charms, as well as to develop and educate our intellects.

Let every woman feel, then, that so far from doing wrong, she is in the pleasant ways of duty when she is studying how to develop and preserve the natural beauty of her body.

This 19th Century essay on Beauty is as true today as it was then. Without being obsessive about looks, there is certainly no harm in focusing on beauty but a lot of happiness.

Avon Katalog

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It is a most difficult task to fix upon any general and satisfactory standard of female beauty, since forms and qualities the most opposite and contradictory are looked upon by different nations, and by different individuals, as the perfection of beauty.

Some will have it that a beautiful woman must be fair, while others conceive nothing but brunettes to be handsome. A Chinese belle must be fat, have small eyes, short nose, high cheeks, and feet which are not any longer than a man’s finger.

In the Labrador Island no woman is beautiful who has not black teeth and white hair.

In Greenland and some other northern countries, the women paint their faces blue, and some yellow. Some nations squeeze the heads of children between boards to make them square, while others prefer the shape of a sugar-loaf as the highest type of beauty for that important top-piece to the “human form divine.”

So that there is nothing truer than the old proverb, that” there is no accounting tastes.” This difference of opinion with respect to beauty in various countries is, however, principally confined to color and form, and may, undoubtedly, be traced to national habits and customs. Nor is it fair, perhaps, to oppose the tastes of uncivilized people to the opinions of civilized nations. But then it must not be overlooked that the standard of beauty in civilized countries is by no means agreed upon. Neither the buona roba of the Italians, nor the Linda of the Spaniards, nor the embonpoint of the French, can fully reach the mystical standard of beauty to the eye of American taste. And if I were to say that it consists of an indescribable combination of all these, still you would go beyond even that, before you would be content with the definition. Perhaps the best definition of beauty ever given was by a French poet, who called it a certain je ne sais quoi, or I don’t know what!

The following classical synopsis of female beauty, which has been attributed to Felibien, is the best I remember to have seen:

The head should be well rounded and looking rather inclining to small than large. “The forehead white, smooth, and open (not with the hair growing down too deep upon it), neither flat nor prominent, but, like the head, well rounded, and rather small in proportion than large.

“The hair either black, bright brown, or auburn, not thin, but full and waving, and if it falls in moderate curls, the better-the black is particularly useful in setting off the whiteness of the neck and skin.

“The eyes black, chestnut, or blue; clear, bright, and lively, and rather large in proportion than small.

“The eyebrows well divided, full semicircular, and broader in the middle than at the ends, of a neat turn, but nor formal.

“The cheeks should not be wide, should have a degree of plumpness, with the red and white finely blended together, and should look firm and soft.

“The ear should be rather small, well folded, and have an agreeable tinge of red.

“The nose should be placed so to divide the face into equal parts; should be of a moderate size, straight, and well squared, though sometimes a little rising in the middle, which is just perceivable, may give a very graceful look to it.

“The mouth should be small, and the lips not of equal thickness; they should be well turned, small, rather than gross, soft even to the eye, and with a living red in them; a truly pretty mouth is like a rose-bud that is beginning to blow. The teeth should be middle-size, white, well ranged and even.

“The chin of a moderate size, white, soft and agreeably rounded.

“The neck should be white, straight, and of a soft, easy, flexible make; rather long than short, less above, and increasing gently towards the shoulders; the whiteness and delicacy of its skin should be continued, or rather go on improving to the bosom; the skin in general should be white, properly tinged with red, and a look of thriving health in it.

“The shoulders should be white, gently spread, and with a much softer appearance of strength than in those of men.

“The arm should be white, round, firm and soft, and more particularly so from the elbow to the hands.

“The hand should unite insensibly with the arm; it should be long and delicate, and even the joints and the nervous parts of it should be without either any hardness or dryness.

“The fingers should be fine, long, round and soft; small and lessening to the tips, and the nails rather long, round at the ends, and pellucid.

“The bosom should be white and charming, neither too large nor too small; the breasts equal in roundness and firmness, rising gently, and very distinctly separated.

“The sides should be rather long and the hips wider than the shoulders, and go down rounding and lessening gradually to the knees.

“The knees should be even and well rounded.

“The legs straight but varied by proper rounding of the more fleshy parts of them, and finely turned, white, and small at the ankle.” it is very fortunate, however, for the human race that all men do not have exactly a correct taste in the matter of the female beauty, for if they had, a degree of strife would be likely to ensure as to who should possess the few types of perfect beauty. The old man who rejoiced that all did not see alike, as, if they did, all would be after his wife, was not far out of the way.

Of course in the 21st Century this all seems ridiculous to us, doesn’t it? But is this more ridiculous than our body piercings, tatoos, cosmetic surgery and life threatening eating disorders? I Guess the pressure to be beautiful has always driven us to extremes!

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