The extensive use of preparations for hiding nature's bloom on the human countenance

Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Cosmetics.

Cosmetics.

The extensive use of preparations for hiding nature's bloom on the human countenance, and presenting to our view a sort of metallic plaster, suggests the inquiry, "how are these pigments made?" Without going into an unnecessary analysis of the "Bloom of Youth," the "Rejuvenator," the "Corpse Decorator," or the other inventions for destroying the skin, with which the druggists' stores abound, we may state again the fact, always unheeded, that all the detestable compounds are injurious. They are nearly all metallic poisons, and, if there be any that are innocent of this charge, they are in every instance harmful to the health. The color and surface of the skin cannot be changed by any application which does not close the pores; the pores, which are so exquisitely fine that there are millions of them to the square inch, and which must be kept open if a healthy and cleanly body is to be preserved. There is more breathing done through the pores of a healthy person than through the lungs; and we need not remind our readers of a ghastly piece of cruelty once enacted in Paris (that of gilding the body of a child, for a triumphal procession, which killed the subject in two hours), to show that the stoppage, in any degree, of the natural functions of so important an organ as the skin, is injurious. The immediate effect of the use of such compounds is to destroy the vitality of the skin, and to render it, in appearance, a piece of shriveled parchment. We must warn our readers that a temporary and meretricious "bloom" can only be attained at the cost of future freshness and lively appearance, so that a year or two of "looking like paint" is followed by a long period of "looking like dilapidation."

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This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXIV., No. 12, March 18, 1871. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19180/pg19180-images.html

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