Beauty Tricks From the 18th Century

Harmony Hunter: Is there an 18th-century product that you’ve swapped out for a 21st-century one that you prefer better?

Meg Brown: Actually yes! As much as this is going to make you cringe, the hogs’ lard balms are wonderful for the skin. I get very dry skin in the wintertime, and I’ve made several batches for my friends, and they’ve all remarked that they were a little bit nervous about using it at first, but afterwards they wouldn’t use anything else.

On Harmony Hunter’s The Art of Beauty, a new podcast straight out of Colonial Williamsburg, historical interpreter and beauty aficionado Meg Brown describes the mouse-hide eyebrows that ladies in the 1700s used to paste on their foreheads and the white wine mixtures they used to wash their faces with. She also provides a recipe for making that lard balm if you want to get together with some historically minded friends and “wash” your “face” as you go.