A fun little gift book but I got bored reading some of be 'recipes' as it's definitely more historical info than a book you can necessarily learn from.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting going into this book, but I will say it was definitely much more than what I was given.

This book was essentially a book full of beautifying recipes from the 1500s to the early 1900s. The author does make some notes of certain ingredients, but basically, this book is a cut and paste. What I really wanted to get out of this was perhaps some insight as to how these recipes would react together, what the pH levels would be or at least how the ingredients reacted with their skin, and the wonky reasons behind why the people from the past possibly thought some of these worked. As a reader I got so little information. Yes, I know lead face paint is toxic, but what does it do to the skin in particular? Even though I know, I want the author to be able to tell me in detail, otherwise it's just wasted talent.

There were a few pieces of excellent writing, sadly none from the actual author. An example, when talking about curly hair resting on the breasts - "...those whose graceful locks do reach the breasts and make spectators think those ivory globes of Venus are upheld by the friendly aid of their crispy twirls." And this complete absurdity, "Never let the dust lie on the face... it ruins the complexion."

Something that bothers me quite a bit is how most of the writings about how women should present themselves or even look in their natural state is written mostly by men. Sadly, advertisements today haven't strayed too far. "This makeup covers flaws, making you look beautiful!" Sound familiar? Physical "flaws" are very much ok to have, and no one is ugly because of them. But making people think they are ugly? That's what sells these days. One brand that comes straight to my mind is Benefit. They had an image of a woman wearing thick-framed glasses that had the word "yuck" next to it, then below this image was of the same woman not wearing glasses and wearing lipgloss and smiling saying, "wow!" Not having perfect eyesight does NOT make you "yuck." Yet another ad by Benefit shows a woman who looks like she just woke up and it says, "skip class, not concealer." Are you kidding me? What exactly is this saying for the young girls still in school? I've also seen vintage ads like this, most were about being pleasing to look at for the husband, otherwise he'll leave you. People think that ads aren't like that anymore, and maybe not in so many words, but they are showing people that they can be more successful, loved, and fun if they look a certain way. They don't say people will leave you, but they are saying that you'll gain more opportunities, friends, or lovers if you buy their product. Anyway, this was a long tangent - back to the book itself.

The "science" behind many of these recipes are most definitely flawed and honestly have nothing to do with science but superstition. One piece talks about how eating white things like white meats and milk will give you a brighter complexion, later recipes even sometimes go as far as to make sure the milk is specifically from a white cow. There is also one recipe for dry skin that says to never use Oatmeal, but it's been proven that oatmeal does sooth dry patches, so I don't quite know why they didn't use it back then. It makes me wonder if the oatmeal we have today is different than what they had back then though. Ever see that old painting of a watermelon and notice how different it looks compared to the watermelons we grow today? I always wonder how different it really was, the pH levels and taste of it. Maybe oatmeal was super drying because it was completely different than how oatmeal is today. Who really knows?

Some things I could actually see working. One recipe for clearing a tanned complexion says to bathe the face in strawberry juice. Strawberries actually have a lot of Vitamin C in them, which could lighten hyperpigmentation due to sun exposure. However, the fact that maybe sunscreen wasn't invented yet makes me think that using strawberry juice might have made things worse as Vitamin C can also cause photosensitivity. Another thing that might have worked back then that I know you can still buy today is a contraption do shrink a double chin. I don't actually know if this works or not, but if you can still buy one of these today it really makes me wonder, however people are still using baking soda and lemon juice on their faces (please don't ever do this), so maybe the people that buy into these contraptions aren't being that smart about it.

Anyway, I didn't quite learn anything I didn't already know, but I think that was perhaps the author's fault. Doing research is one thing, copying and pasting from previous texts is another. This author copied and pasted and that was the entire book.