Maia Chance
writes historical mysteries that are rife with absurd predicaments and romantic
adventure. She’s the author of the Fairy Tale Fatal and The Discreet Retrieval
Agency series. Her first mystery, Snow
White Red-Handed, will be released in November. Learn more about Maia and
her books at her website.
The Craftiest
of Them All
“Never wash
your hair with anything you'd hesitate to eat or drink.”—Miss Piggy
I
am so excited to be guest-posting here, and one of the reasons is the craft
element of Lois’s wonderful books and blog.
Ophelia
Flax, the heroine in my first mystery release, Snow White Red-Handed, is a Victorian-era variety actress who knows
her way around a theatrical case. And since the story revolves around the fairy
tale Snow White, beauty is a constant
motif. In researching this book, I got to indulge my fascination with bygone
beauty practices, and I’d like to share some you can make—craftily, if you will—today. (Yes, your kitchen will look
traumatized. But in a FUN way.)
Lips
Most
lip salves from the nineteenth century included spermaceti, which comes from a
sperm whale’s head (yep: Moby Dick lip balm). But I did find one recipe that
you could make at home, if your
Chap-Stick gets lost. This is from Florence Hartley’s 1872 The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette:
“A
dessert spoonful of salad oil in a saucer, hold it over a candle, and drop
melted wax over it till the oil is thinly covered, when they are incorporated,
pour it into boxes.”
Mm-kay.
Seems like it could work. Just remember
to let the flaming wax/oil cool before
anointing yourself.
Pimples
We
STILL haven’t cured the Common Pimple. Sigh.
In
1899’s The Woman Beautiful: A Practical Treatise, Ella Adelia Fletcher
warns that “a too-vivid imagination, the reading of unhealthful books, anything
that encourages unnatural flushing or excitement, —all these things may cause
pimples.”
Just
to clarify, pimples are NOT caused by the mercury, hydrochloric acid, and Borax
that are included in Fletcher’s pimple ointment recipes; pimples are caused by unwholesome books. Guess I’m due for a
breakout.
Lola
Montez, a famous courtesan and actress, wrote The Arts of Beauty in 1858. It’s probably my very favorite
nineteenth century beauty manual. It even has hints for gentlemen, including advising
them to smack their lips while
eating! Montez includes this complexion-wash receipt you can try at home:
“…the
most remarkable wash for the face which I have ever known, and which is said to
have been known to the beauties of the court of Charles II. . . . take a small
piece of the gum benzoin and boil it in spirits of wine till it becomes a rich
tincture. . . . it will render the skin clear and brilliant. It is also an
excellent remedy for spots, freckles, pimples, and eruptions.”
Now,
before you say this can’t be whipped up at home: you CAN buy chunks of gum
benzoin on Etsy! It’s a fragrant resin from trees. Benzoin reportedly makes
your lips nice and rosy, too.
Nails
Mrs. Ellet’s recipe for whitening the nails includes
“diluted sulphuric acid” and “tincture of myrrh”, ingredients that may alarm and/or mystify beauty-seekers nowadays. (The New Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy
by Mrs. E.F. Ellet, 1872.)
But what about that passage in Madame Bovary, in which Emma spends “fourteen francs in one month
on lemons with which to bleach her fingernails”? Do-able, right?
Hair
Not advisable: Mrs. Ellet,
provides this concoction for strengthening and thickening the hair: “Skim the fat
from the top of calves’ feet while boiling; mix with a teaspoon of rum, shake
together. Apply night and morning.”
All
together now: Ewwwwwwww.
Advisable: According to
Victoria Sherrow’s Encyclopedia of Hair:
A Cultural History (2006), it has long been thought that rosemary is
beneficial for the scalp and for hair growth. Here’s what to do:
Bring
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary in 4 cups of water to a boil, reduce heat and simmer
for about 20 minutes. When it’s cool, remove the sprigs and use it as your final
hair rinse.
Easy!
What’s
fascinating is that the creepy chemicals and toxins we complain about in our
beauty potions nowadays are nothing new. The American or European lady on the
mid-to-late nineteenth century had a prettiness arsenal that was just as noxious,
and in the case of mercury, arsenic, and lead, arguably worse. The major
difference was that women mixed up their own
concoctions with ingredients purchased at an apothecary’s shop and borrowed
from the kitchen pantry.
So
much for that tired old cliché about women’s beauty being all about cunning and
deception. It’s craftiness, people.
Snow White
Red-Handed,
a Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery
Miss Ophelia Flax is a Victorian actress who knows all about
making quick changes and even quicker exits. But to solve a fairy-tale crime in
the haunted Black Forest, she’ll need more than a bit of charm…
1867: After being fired from her latest variety hall engagement,
Ophelia acts her way into a lady’s maid position for a crass American
millionaire. But when her new job whisks her off to a foreboding castle
straight out of a Grimm tale, she begins to wonder if her fast-talking ways
might have been too hasty. The vast grounds contain the suspected remains of
Snow White’s cottage, along with a disturbing dwarf skeleton. And when her
millionaire boss turns up dead—poisoned by an apple—the fantastic setting turns
into a once upon a crime scene.
To keep from rising to the top of the suspect list, Ophelia
fights through a bramble of elegant lies, sinister folklore, and priceless
treasure, with only a dashing but mysterious scholar as her ally. And as the
clock ticks towards midnight, she’ll have to break a cunning killer’s spell
before her own time runs out…
Buy
Links
8 comments:
A very interesting and informative article. I enjoyed it very much. good luck with your writings.
What a funny and intriguing post! Thanks for the tips, Maia!
Miss Peggy gives wise advice (smile!).
Loved the post. Some of those I don't think I'll be trying anytime soon. :) Love the book though!
Spent the night without calf's foot fat on my hair. Decided instead to see if just the rum, applied internally, would help. I can only begin to imagine what American bedrooms smelled like with that concoction applied day and night. Is that in the books on birth control as well?
Delightful post! I think I'll stick to Clinique, though.
Thanks for the comments, all! Sheila, you're right, rum applied internally is a CHOICE beauty treatment ;)
Fun post! Can you imagine women doing and using all of those things? LOL The book sounds unique and like something I'll have to try. Some authors have such different ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Post a Comment