Household Hints of Yesteryear
(These are just for fun reading, not to be tried).
How to Be Beautiful

All Around Hints

Bathe night and morning; use warm rain water and a pure soap. Eat in moderation, avoiding all indigestible food, strong tea, coffee, and alcoholic liquors. Get as much out door exercise as possible when weather permits.
 
Keep as cheerful and good tempered as you possibly can. When washing the hands, squeeze a few drops of the juice of a lemon into the water.
 
Warm water with a handful of oatmeal added makes a good face wash. Dry with a soft towel and then dust a little dry oatmeal on the face before it is quite dry.
 
For superfluous hairs on the face, nothing beats powdered pumice stone rubbed briskly on the offending parts. For a red nose, bathe it in warm water two or three times a day.

How to be Charming

Steam the face over hot water of a night; then gently rub the reverse way of any wrinkles with a little cold cream; in the morning, wash off with pure soap. Tint the lips and cheeks with lip salve, toning down with a piece of chamois; dust the face over with a fine powder.
 
Slightly mark the eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil. To give the hair a bright gloss, beat up a new laid egg and use as a wash, thoroughly rinsing off. Fan the hair until dry. File the fingernails to a point.
 
 
Sensible Advice

Temperance in eating and drinking; warm bath once or twice a week; early rising and taking outdoor exercises every day the same time; sponge bath every morning; wearing colors to suit the complexion; and the hair well combed and brushed. No powder, no paint required. A corset, not too tight, boots to fit the feet with ease.
 
 
Exercise and Air

A clear skin is to be desired above all and to have this you must have perfect health. When you rise in the morning, take a little exercise, then a cold sponge bath quickly, with vigorous rubbing. Eat freely of fruit and avoid fatty and greasy foods; be temperate in all things; get plenty of fresh air, keeping your bedroom open night and day.
 
Wear warm, light and well-fitting clothes; avoid tight lacing; wear boots or shoes with square toes and flat heels.
 
For the complexion, rub your face, neck, and hands well with cold cream before retiring. It will have a wonderful effect. Have a warm bath once a week using good soap.

It is Done by Pinching

The following is a good and harmless recipe for beautifying the complexion and face. When retiring for the night, pinch your face with thumb and finger till it si tender. Then sponge with water as hot as the face will allow and gently rub with a soft towel till quite dry. Then rub a little cold cream in briskly. Do this every night for a few weeks and it will not only beautify the complexion, but will give a sweet expression to the face.


A Fair Face

Rub a little milk into the face and then wash in warm water. After that, rub in a little glycerine and rose-water and apply a little powder. This will make the skin beautifully white. A little glycerine applied to the eyelashes will make them grow long.
 
 Rosy Cheeks and Sparkling Eyes

Any lady can improve a pale, sallow complexion by first powdering the face and neck with scented fuller's earth, using a morsel of wadding in preference to a puff. Then let her take an artificial rose or red geranium leaf and lightly rub high on the cheek bones.

Wrinkles

Ovid's recipe for wrinkles was to take equal parts of bean and barley meal and mix with a raw egg. When the mass becomes thoroughly hard and dry, it should be ground to a fine powder and made into an ointment with melted tallow and honey. A thick layer of this applied to the face every night was warranted to smooth out all wrinkles and make the skin as soft as a baby's.
 
Medicine for the Hair

To brush and brush and brush and still to brush is the best medicine for the hair, remembering always that it is the hair and not the scalp which is to receive this treatment. Upon the brush used depends a great deal. In the first place, it must be immaculately clean, and one's brushes should be washed as religiously as is one's face.
 
The comb should be coarse, so that it will disentangle the hair if it is snarled; but if the hair is well brushed the comb really is of very little use. A fine comb is never advised. The brush should have long, soft bristles that go through the hair, taking with them every particle of dust and leaving behind them a glow that is beautiful.