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University Daily Kansan Thursday. Feb. 8, 1962
Beauty Recipes Change But Idea Remains Same
It's not so bad, you know. I've always wanted the opportunity to see Rome.
The husband who complains of his wife's going to bed under layers of creams should take note that ladies were admonished during the Roman Empire for the same thing.
A wife's excuse is, of course, that today's cosmetics are designed to keep women not only beautiful but ageless. And no doubt her Roman ancestor used the same explanation in a similar situation.
But ancients also had their unguents and ointments, oils and pomades, pastes and masks and waxes. All were used in the hope of keeping the face young, healthy, soft, supple and crow's feet-and wrinkle-free.
The woman today can smear herself with emollients and emulsions and swish herself in such products as "hormone cream," "vitamin cream," "bee jelly," and "beneficial oceanic substances."
The creams of Egypt as far back as 5000 years were fine enough to be admired by our cosmetic chemists of today. Writings testify to the skill of ancient Arabian cosmeticians by telling us of women who retained their beauty until late in life with fresh young complexions.
But though today's and yesterday's products produced similar results, the ingredients were certainly different. A simple recipe for hand lotion today might be one of glyceryl monostearate, lanolin absorption base, stearic acid, glycerine, sodium lauryl sulfate and water.
In the time of Homer the raw materials for ointments were the marrow of the roebuck and stag, testicles of the bull and crocodile, swan's fat and ewe sheep fat, butter, ants and their eggs, bees smothered in honey, meals of legumes and cereals, eggs and a wide variety of essences.
During the Roman Empire Poppaea's recipe for a beauty mask called for flour, honey, well-ground fresh wet leaves, and donkey's milk.
Night creams of the Renaissance were masks of raw meat, fruit pulp and juices, and macerated animal tissues. And while the world was enjoying a renewed interest in cosmetics during the Renaissance, a beauty pall fell over England.
In 1585 a book appeared in which Mr. Stubbes, the author, berates women for all their various vanities. This included "laying out their hair to the show, which of force must be curled, frisked and crushed, laid out on wreaths and borders from one ear to another . . ."
And again in 1770 a Bill introduced into Parliament stifled the beauty business. This bill provided "that all
women, of whatever rank, profession or degree, whether Virgins, maids or widows, that shall from and after such Act, impose upon seduce and betray into matrimony, any of his Majesty's subjects by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool (a wool impregnated with carmine used to color the skin), iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes, and bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanors, and that the marriage upon conviction shall be null and void."
How the ancients would have sneered at these laws! The Romans admired blonde hair. They were impressed by the blond German and
British slaves brought back by Caesar's legions. So, the Romans decided they would like to be blonds, too. Dyeing was accomplished with such mixtures as plant ashes, oils, nutshells, elderberries and burnt vinegar sediment.
Men should not forget, however, that vanity and garnishee has not always been restricted to the gentler sex. The Babylonian kings sprinkled their beards as well as their black hair with gold particles. And when Nero appeared on the stage to play his lyre or recite his own verses, he had his hair sprinkled with gold dust in the vain hope of resembling Apollo.
In 1828 King George IV spent 500 pounds (about $1400) for perfumes. And spunky little Napoleon used eau de cologne profleone, one quarterly bill indicating that he used an average of 54 bottles a month. Awaiting his death in exile, Napoleon languished over the delayed shipment of some violet-scented gloves.
Elegance is perfect grooming. The effect of even the loveliest clothes and jewels can be destroyed by untidiness.
The major influence in sportswear is the coordinated look.
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Ciardi Speaks Out on Coeds
One must say of today's college girls that they are beautiful, and ignorant, and illusory. And that only as they learn to shape their attention to the long memory we call the humanities, can they be beautiful after the bloom is off, and understandingly compassionate as time furrows them, and real to the lives they labor to make shapely. — John Ciardi
If girls not in college, just out of college, or even several years away
from it do no more than set themselves a twenty-year program of reading meaningfully and carving alive in their minds one passage a day from the English poets, can they fail to see that they will be more valuable to their families as mothers, and more valuable to themselves as widows?—John Ciardi
Can a mind with Mozart in it over be as lost as a mind with nothing in it?—John Ciardi
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