The Complexion | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 24, 1871

The Complexion.

THE USE OF COSMETICS IN DIFFERENT AGES.

In a late number of a London periodical, entitled Land and Water, there was an article of considerable interest to those who value what is called a “good complexion.” The writer condemns the employment of cosmetics entirely, and asserts that the use of animal grease stops up the pores of the skin, and will, in time, produce blotches. He also says that the constant application of cold cream to the face is injurious, and lays the foundation of skin diseases which scarcely anything can eradicate. Sleeping with slices of uncooked bacon on the cheeks, which seems to be practiced by some persons, is also unwholesome. The best substance to soften the skin, and at the same time preserve it, is, according to this authority, fresh olive oil. If this be rubbed on the face gently every night, the skin will soon become impervious to the action of the weather. The ancient Greeks knew the value of vegetable oil to the skin, and they used it freely, both to preserve beauty and to render the muscles pliable. But there are some persons who have naturally oily skins, and they should avoid ointment of all descriptions.

It may surprise some ladies to be told that exposure to the sun is beneficial to the skin, but such is said to be the case. Most of them object to the tanning it produces, and it was to obviate this that masks were once worn on the street. Some ladies, it is said, carried the mask mania so far as to sleep in them. It is recorded of Marguerite of Navarre, the wife of Henry IV., of France, that she was addicted to this folly. Henry strongly remonstrated with her on the subject, but in vain; she preferred offending her husband to giving up her mask, and it played a not unimportant part in their subsequent divorce. The unhealthfulness of such a practice is evident from the fact of its checking perspiration, and from causing the wearer to respire impure air.

It is said that the use of cosmetics was introduced by the English in the fifteenth century. In that and the succeeding century the women of France were reckoned the most beautiful in the world. The names of Agnes Sorel, Diana of Poitiers, Louise of Savoy, Anne of Brittany, Margaret of Navarre, Mary of Burgundy, the Duchess of Etampes, Madame de Chateaubriand, Mary of Lorraine, Gabrielle d’Estrées (commonly called “La Belle Gabrielle”), and Henriette d’Entraigues, are familiar to all readers of history as those reputed to be the most brilliant and beautiful women of their times. They never used cosmetics of animal grease, though they made beauty their study—a rather idle study, it is true, yet still they pursued it successfully. They employed various oils and essences composed entirely of vegetable ingredients. Henry III., of France, is said to have expressed his detestation of English cosmetics, and to have declared that if “cold cream” shall find its way into his kingdom, he would preach a crusade against it.

The celebrated Diana of Poitiers, whose powers of fascination seem to have been as marvelous as those of Cleopatra, or Mary, Queen of Scots, preserved her beauty until the age of seventy-two. She captivated the hearts of two monarchs, and had complete power over them. The second of them, Henry II., fell in love with her when he was twenty-nine, she being then the widow of the Count de Brézé, and forty-eight

years old, nineteen years his senior. She had been previously admired by his father, Francis I., and was equally admired by his son, Henry III., who, however, was a mere youth and of feeble understanding, while she was an old woman. Strange to say, no historian has ever given the details of those wonderful charms which so captivated Francis and Henry. It is only recorded of her that she was the loveliest woman at a court full of lovely women, and that, too, at an age when most women have found their beauty faded. It was said that she possessed a secret for preserving her good looks from the ravages of time; some, indeed, hinted that she had bought it from the evil one.

There was, however, one person who was her confidant—her perfumer, Oudard. He left on record the means which the peerless beauty used to preserve her complexion, in these words: “I, Oudard, apothecary, surgeon, and perfumer, do here declare on my faith and honor that the only secret possessed by Madame Diana, of Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois, with which to be and remain in perfect health, youth and beauty, to the age of seventy-two, was rain water!; and, in truth, I assert that there is nothing in the world like the same rain water, a constant use of which is imperative to render the skin soft and downy, or to freshen the color, or to cleanse the pores of the skin, or to make beauty last as long as life.” It was the business of Maître Oudard to collect rain water for his illustrious patroness, and to bottle and seal it up to be in readiness for use in case of failure of rain. And it was the constant sending of the mysterious bottles which occasioned so much talk. But it should be added that the beautiful Diana always took an hour’s exercise in the air before the morning dew had left the ground, and perhaps this habit, like other exercise in the open air, had quite as much to do with the preservation of her complexion as the rain water had. Early hours, temperate habits, and close attention to cleanliness, are the best cosmetics after all.—Sel.