For the Face
You will need:
- Two egg whites
- Dry sack (a type of sherry)
Take the whites of 2 Egges and beate them very well and put to them A Little Sack and put them in A bottle and keep it for your use it will Fetch of Tann and keep the face Smooth.
Elizabeth Jacob, Physicall and chyrurgicall receipts. Cookery and preserves, 1654-c.1685, p41.
To take away Sun-burn.
You will need:
- Lemon juice
- Bay salt
Take the Juice of Lemon, and a little Bay-Salt, and wash your Face or Hands with it, and let them dry of themselves, and wash them again, and you shall find all the Sun-burn gone.
Hannah Woolley, The accomplisht ladys delight in preserving, physick and cookery, 1675, 82.
How to heal cracked lips
You will need:
- Rose oil
- Wax
Make an unguent with rose oil, & a little bit of wax, and use it to anoint yourself: because it will lift off every burn, and heal the sore excellently.
Giovanni Marinello, Gli Ornamenti delle Donne, 1562, 134v.
To make the face fair
You will need:
- Rosemary flowers
- White wine
Take the flowers of Rosemary, and boil them in White wine, then wash your face therewith, and drink of that water, so shall you make your face fair, and your breath sweet.
Alethea Talbot, Natura Exenterata, 1655, p71
To make a very beautiful shine on the face, and make the flesh white
You will need:
- Lemon juice
- Egg white
- Bran
- Sweet water
If you take lemon juice and an egg white, and beat them together very well, and then put them inside a small earthen pot, and put it on a slow fire, stirring with a wooden stick, until it becomes like butter, & then lift it from the fire, and keep it, & when you would like to use it, boil some bran with sweet water, & with this water wash the face, and dry it well. Then anoint your face with the [mixture], which will make your skin shiny, & very white and beautiful: and the countess of Mirandola used this cosmetic, who was 64 years old, and seemed as young as thirty…
Leonardo Fioravanti, Del Compendio de i secreti rationali, 1564, 132v.
For taking away Spots in the face, after the Small-Pox.
You will need:
- Lemon juice
- Bay salt
Mix the juice of lemons with a little bay-salt, and touch the spots therewith oftentimes in a day, for it is excellent good.
Hannah Woolley, The accomplisht ladys delight in preserving, physick and cookery, 1675, 91.