Edwardian Beauty Recipe: Bath Bags II

Oatmeal bags used frequently in the bath are very pleasant; they whiten the skin and give it a velvety softness, besides imparting to it a delicate fragrance. Make the bags of cheese-cloth, about four inches square, and fill them loosely with the following mixture:

OATMEAL BATH-BAGS.

Oatmeal -- 5 pounds
Florentine orris root (powdered) -- 1 pound
Almond meal -- 1 pound
Old Castile soap, scraped to a powder -- 1/2 pound

-- Fletcher

Edwardian Beauty Recipe: Bath Bags

Quireda Bath Bags:

One pound of fine oatmeal.
One-half quart of new clean bran.
Two-fifths pound powdered orris root.
Two-fifths pound almond meal.
One-fourth pound white castile soap, dried and powdered.
One ounce primrose sachet powder.

Dipped in tepid water and used as a sponge these bath bags make a velvety lather that softens and whitens the skin in a way that warms the cockles of one's heart.

--Mme. Qui-Vive

Sea Bathing and Salt Bath Recipe

In the early 20th century, some people preferred "sea bathing" to fresh water bathing. Pye Henry Chavasse went on and on:

"The salt water is far more refreshing and invigorating; the battling with the waves is more exciting; the sea breezes, blowing on the nude body, breathes (for the skin is a breathing apparatus) health and strength into the frame, and comeliness into the face; the sea water and sea breezes are splendid cosmetics..."

Of course, not everyone had the luck to live near a sea to test these supposed virtues. The following "Sea Bath Salt" recipe was used by some in an effort to replicate the good virtues of the ocean:

10 grains potassium iodid

20 grains potassium bromid

1 oz sodium bicarbonate

2 oz magnesium sulfate

16 oz salt

Have all salts in a coarse granular condition and mix.

Bathing Temperature

Washing with cold water was often felt to be healthier than warm, on the notion that warm water would 'bring the blood to the surface' of the skin and cause it to cool excessively upon one's emerging from the tub. It was advised that a person fresh from a warm bath "must not expose himself to draughts, neither ought he to wash himself in cold water, nor should he, immediately after taking one, drink cold water."

However, women were advised against soaking in cold baths, as it would prove too much of a shock to their system. Sea water was an exception to this because it had "other stimulating properties."

"A cold bath has a temperature of from 33 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperate bath from 75 to 85 degrees ; a tepid bath rises to 85 or 92 while a warm one reaches from 92 to 98. At 98 a bath is hot, but it may sometimes be raised as high as 112, under direction."

-- Dr. Mary Taylor Bissel

Edwardian Bath Powder Recipe II

12 oz borax

4 oz sodium bicarbonate

2 oz potassium carbonate

To be perfumed with a mixture of lavender, orange and rosemary oils. Mix a tablespoon into bath water, or a half teaspoon into washbasin water.

Edwardian Bath Powder Recipe

This preparation, documented in the New Standard Formulary (1910), was used to soften the water before bathing and was thought to be "refreshing."

10 oz tartaric acid

12 oz sodium bicarbonate

6 oz rice flour

It was recommended to be perfumed with lavender oil, or a mixture of rose geranium and lavender oils, in the amount of 1 dram per pound of the formula. 2 parts neroli to 1 part rosemary was also suggested for a fragrance blend.

Shower Heads

Several special shower-heads were developed in order to help avoid wetting the head while still having enabling one to shower instead of soak. While washing the hair was a known practice, it was usually performed separately from the bath for the body; getting the head wet was believed to bring on colds and other illnesses, so it was a thing discouraged unless absolutely needed. You will notice in the post about Edwardian shampoo, Qui-Vive recommends massaging the scalp after a hair wash in order to prevent catching cold.

Edwardian Tonic Bath Salt

1 oz iron sulfate

1 oz magnesium sulfate

2 oz sodium sulfate

12 oz salt

Combine all together. Use all salts in a coarse, granular condition.

How To Take a Spongebath

According to Chavasse's Advice to a Wife and Advice to a Mother on the Management of her own Health, a spongebath should be done as follows:

[One needs:]

(1.) A large nursery basin, one that will hold six or eight quarts of water (Wedgwood's make being considered the best); (2.) A piece of coarse flannel, a yard long and half a yard wide; (3.) A large sponge; (4.) A tablet either of the best yellow or of curd soap; (5.) Two towels—one being a diaper, and the other a Turkish rubber. Now, as to the manner of performing ablution. You ought to fill the basin three parts full with rain water; then, having well-soaped and cleansed your hands, re-soap them, dip your head and face into the water, then with the soaped hands well rub and wash your head, face, neck, chest, and armpits; having done which, take the wetted sponge, and go over all the parts previously travelled over by the soaped hands; then fold the flannel as you would a neck-kerchief, and dip it in the water, then throw it, as you would a skipping-rope, over your shoulders and move it a fevr times from right to left and from left to right, and up and down, and then across the back and loins; having done which, dip the sponge in the water, and holding your head over the water, let the water stream from the sponge a time or two over your head, neck, and face. Dip your nead and face in the water, then put your hands and arms (as far as they will go) into the water, holding them there while you can count thirty. Having reduced the quantity of water to a third of a basinful, place the basin on the floor, and sit (while you can count fifty) in the water; then put one foot at a time in the water, and quickly rub, with soaped hands, up and down your leg, over the foot, and pass your thumb between each toe (this latter procedure tends to keep away soft corns); then take the sponge, filled with water, and squeeze it over your leg and foot, from the knee downwards, —then serve your other leg and foot in the same way. By adopting the above plan, the whole of the body will, every morning, be thoroughly washed.

A little warm water might at first, and during the winter time, be added, to take off the chill; but the sooner quite cold water is used the better. The body ought to be quickly dried (taking care to wipe between each toe), first with the diaper, and then with the Turkish rubber. In drying your back and loins, you ought to throw as you would a skippingrope, the Turkish rubber over your shoulders, and move it a few times from side to side, uptil the parts be dry.

Although the above description is necessarily prolix, the washing itself ought to be very expeditiously performed; there should be no dawdling over it, otherwise the body will become chilled, and harm instead of good will be the result. If due dispatch be used, the whole of the body might, according to the above method, be thoroughly washed and dried in the space of ten minutes.

Edwardian Milk Bath

The economical Edwardians didn't subscribe to the Cleopatrine notion of filling a whole bath with milk. The following replacement was suggested.

Combine together in a muslin bag:

1/2 pound marshmallow flowers
1/4 pound hyssop herb
4 pounds bran flour

Bathing in the Edwardian Era

"I tell you, it's easy to clean up here. Hot and cold water on tap, just as much as you like, there is. Woolly towels, there is; and a towel horse so hot, it burns your fingers. Soft brushes to scrub yourself, and a wooden bowl of soap smelling like primroses. Now I know why ladies is so clean. Washing's a treat for them. Wish they saw what it is for the like of me!"

The words of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's famous play Pygmalion show us that cleanliness was not always an easy thing for the belle of a century ago. Spongebaths in shallow tubs were very normal, and even sit-in tubs were often filled manually with pots of water warmed on the stove or fireplace. This was especially common in Europe, where even a fairly well-to-do home might have been built long past and never refitted to include indoor plumbing.

In America, however, the spirit of invention was alive. While rural areas and older developments were still modeled on the well or pump or go-out-to-the-lake method of getting your water, many new homes were being built for the middle and upper classes. They usually included plumbing and bathtubs. And keeping in the spirit of the times, people sought to make bathing easier for the benefit of mankind. The merit of sanitation was just beginning to be understood, and how can man truly experience the benefits of healthy cleanness unless it's easy to perform and maintain? Strange devices evolved for use, such as "bath yokes" -- basically a shower-head in the form of a noose one set around the neck so the water would trickle down, thereby cleaning the body. Guides evolved to ensure people would understand the "correct" way to bathe, for it was still perceived as a medical treatment with the potential for abuse. Dr. Alvin Chase warned, "Many a good man or woman has unwittingly committed suicide with water." One period source assured bathing to be "almost a fine art, and its value is so great as to make that art well worth intelligent study."

Consequently, the remainder of this month will be devoted to such study: the topic of the Edwardian Bath.