Skip to main content

Another Facial Cream.


 

Furthermore.

Take a half pound of Lard from a sow. Clean it, pare it with a knife, and put it into an earthen jar with Rosewater, and mix it well. Change the Rosewater every twelve hours for eight days; then, add well-sifted powdered Sulphur to the mixture and blend it well, with a little Lavender Oil to perfume it, and well-ground White Salt. 

Apply to the heat with some Lavender Oil, and it's done. 


lardo di porca femina - Well rendered and clarified lard was an important medium for oils, and for their extraction. The stress on a sow's lard is probably because the fat from a boar is too gamey. Friends who slaughter their own livestock or hunt are very welcome to share their insight.

I suspect the eight-day process of mixing and standing with rosewater is more about purifying the lard than perfuming it. Eight days is a 'liturgical week' or Octave. 

poi si pigli del solfo - Sulphur has a sinister reputation, but like asafoetida it was valued as a substance to cleanse, purify. Here you might think of it as a preservative and antiseptic. That is me going out along a bit of a limb, though. 

Another line might be that the sulphur and white salt help bond the lard and lavender oil. Which I'll look into. But if you know either way, let us know in the comments!

con un poco d'olio di spico - I believe a variant spelling of spica, Lavender. This would combine well with the lard to lend it a persistent fragrance. 

As always, I will be delighted if someone tries this. I'm particularly keen to see what happens between the sulphur and lavender. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

She called the Devil by the Name of Bunne: The Faversham Witches (1645).

  The Examination, Confession, Trial and Execution of Joan Williford,  Joan Cariden and Jane Holt.  Who were executed  at Faversham in Kent for being Witches, on Monday the 29. of September, 1645. Being a true copy of their evil lives and wicked deeds, taken by the Mayor of Faversham and jurors for the said inquest. With the examination  and confession of Elizabeth Harris, not yet executed. All attested  under the hand of Robert Greenstreet, Mayor of Faversham. London, Printed for J.G. October 2. 1645. The Confession of Joan Williford, Septemb. 24. 1656, made before the Mayor, and other jurates. She confessed that the Devil about seven years ago did appear to her in the shape of a little dog, and bid her to forsake God and lean to him. Who replied, that she was loath to forsake him. She confessed also that she had a desire to be revenged upon Thomas Letherland and Mary Woodrofe,  now his wife. She further said that the Devil promised her that she shoul...

Who dares affirm that our Collegiates are no Astrologers.

  A powder against the biting of mad dogs. Take of the leaves of Vervain, Rue, Sage, Plantain, Polypodium, Common Wormwood, Mint, Mugwort, Bawm, Bettony, St John's Wort, Centaury, of equal parts.  Let all be gathered at what time they are in their greatest strength, which is usually about the Full Moon in June*. Then, let them be dried severally in brown papers in such a place where neither Sun** nor rain comes; and when you have dried them, then keep them for the use above said, but upon this condition, that you renew them every year.  * Who dares affirm that our Collegiates are no Astrologers.  ** Learnedly written.  When you have need to use them, beat an equal weight of them into powder. A drachm of this powder is sufficient to take every morning.  Pleres Arconticon - Nich. Take of Cinnamon, Cloves, Galaga, wood of Aloes, Indian Spikenard, Nutmeg, Ginger, Spodium, Schoenanthus, Cyperus, Roses*, Violets, of each one drachm; Indian Leaf or Mace, Liquoris,...

Give me thy cake! Signs and Wonders from Heaven (1645).

Signs and Wonders from Heaven, with a true relation of a monster born in Ratcliffe Highway at the sign of the Three Arrows, Mistress Bullock the midwife delivering here thereof.  Also,  showing how a cat kittened a monster in Lombard Street in London. Likewise, a new discovery of witches in  Stepney parish, and how twenty witches more were executed in Suffolk this last assize. Also,  how the Devil came to Soffam to a farmer's house in the habit of a gentlewoman on horseback. With divers other strange remarkable passages. Printed at London by I.H. 1645. IT IS a known thing to all Christian people which are capable of understanding how that the sins of the world have in a high degree offended the world's maker, and provoked the Lord to anger, yet has the Devil so blinded the eyes, and hardened the hearts of many men and women, that they cannot or will not see nor take notice of their own iniquities, but rather seem to excuse themselves of those errors which they everyd...