The beauty of the human
mouth and lips, the delicacy of their formation and tints, their power of
expression, which is only inferior to that of the eyes, and their elevated
position as the media with the palate, tongue, and teeth, by which we
communicate our thoughts to others in an audible form, need scarcely be dilated
on here. The poet tells us that:
"The lips of woman out of roses take
The tints with which they ever stain
themselves
They are the beautiful, lofty shelves
Where rests the sweetness which the young
hours make,
And which the earnest boy, whom we call
Love,
Will often sip in sorrow or in play
Health, when it comes, doth ruddiness
approve,
But his strong foe soon flatters it away!
Disease and health for a warm pair of lips,
Like York and Lancaster, wage active
strife:
One on his banner front the White rose
keeps,
And one the Red; and thus with woman's
life,
Her lips are made a battle-field for those
Who struggle for the color of a rose?"
A beautiful mouth is one
that is moderately small, and has a well-defined and graceful outline; and
beautiful lips are gracefully molded, neither thick nor thin, nor compressed
nor lax, and that are endowed with expression and are tinted with the hues of
health.
The ladies of Eastern
nations commonly heighten the hue and freshness of their lips by means of
cosmetics, a practice which in Western Europe is only adopted on the stage, and
occasionally by courtesans and ladies of the demimonde.
Chapped lips most
frequently occur in persons with pale, bluish, moist lips and a languid circulation,
who are much exposed to the wind or who are continually moving from heated
apartments to the external air.
East and north-east winds
are those that generally produce them. The occasional application of a little
cold cream, lip salve, spermaceti ointment, or any other mild unguent, will
generally prevent them, and remove them when they have already formed. A still
more elegant and effective preventive and remedy is glycerin diluted with about
twice its weight of eau-de-rose, or glycerinated lip salve or balsam.
The moist vesicular
eruption of the lips, referred to above, may also generally be prevented by the
use of glycerine, or any of the preparations just mentioned. After its
accession, the best treatment is to freely dust the affected portion of the
lips with violet powder, finely powdered starch, prepared chalk, or French
chalk or talc reduced to an impalpable powder by scraping or grating it.
Formulas for preserving the beauty of the lips:
The following formulas of
preparations are all valuable for beautifying and preserving the beauty of the
lips:
White Lip Salve-No-1:
Take half a pound
spermaceti ointment, liquify it by the heat of warm water, and stir in one-half
dram neroli or essence de petit-grain. In a few minutes pour off the clear
portion from the dregs (if any) and add twenty drops of oil of rose. Lastly, before
it cools, pour it into jars.
Lip Salve—No-2:
This indispensable
adjunct to the toilet is made by melting in a jar, placed in a basin of boiling
water, a quarter of an ounce each of white wax and spermaceti; flour of
benzoin, fifteen grains; and half an ounce of oil of almonds. Stir till the
mixture is cool. Color red with two-penny worth of alkanet root and Splendid
for keeping the lips healthy and of a beautiful crimson color.
French Lip Salve:
Lard, twenty-six ounces;
white wax, two ounces; nitre and alum in fine powder, of each one-half ounce;
alkanet to color.
German Lip Salve:
Butter of cacao, one-half
ounce; oil of almonds, one-quarter ounce; melt together with a gentle heat, and
add six drops of essence of lemon.
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