The eye appears to be more immediately connected with the soul than any other organ. A woman reflects every emotion, almost every thought from her two wonderful, priceless eyes, and no feature of her face is more a telltale of her nature. “Show me,” says the old Chinese proverb, “a man’s eyes, and I will tell you what he might have been. Show me his mouth, and 1 will tell you what he has been.” The same is true of women. Up to thirty or thirty-five a woman may be actress enough to make her eyes tell one tale, while her life would reveal another; but little by little the true state of a woman’s soul stands forth in the expression, the frankness, the furtiveness, the candor, or the boldness of her eyes. Healthy and well-formed eyes should be neither too widely open, nor too closed. They should be neither close together, nor yet too wide apart; they should neither protrude nor be too deep set. The white of the eye should be of a bluish cast. Notwithstanding a lot of nonsense which has been written about the changing of the color of the eye, no such miracle has ever been accomplished. We must go through our pilgrimage with eyes the color it has pleased Nature to paint them. Protuberant and sunken eyes are not caused always by a fault of conformity, but by too much or too little adipose tissue around them. It is often possible, by eliminating or creating fat, to correct their appearance. Proper diet and massage will accomplish this feat in either case.
Dull eyes may be made lustrous by a proper attention to hygiene. A beautiful eye is clear, full, brilliant, and appropriate in color to the subject’s complexion. Every woman should take the utmost care of her eyes, bathing them several times a day in pure water, and avoiding every operation that will overtask them. The practice of using any of the so-called eye beautifiers cannot be too strongly condemned. Foolish women, who cannot realize the danger they incur, sometimes resort to preparations of belladonna or the vapor of diluted Prussic acid. The immediate result is an unnatural brilliancy of the pupil, but the practice long continued has frequently been known to produce decay and total blindness.
When the eyes are reddened or swollen by excessive weeping, or a long stretch of work, the subject should rest, and apply a soothing lotion.
In cases of granulated eyelids, I have had great success with the following recipe:
Yellow oxide of mercury….1 grain. Rose water ointment….1/2 ounce. Apply to eyelids morning and night.
WASH FOR INFLAMED EYES
Borax….2 grains. Camphor water (not spirits of camphor) 2 ounces.
Drop a little of the solution into the eyes two or three times a day and bathe the lids with the mixture.
AN EYE BRIGHTENER, The juice of a lemon squeezed into a tumbler of water and taken occasionally, the last thing at night or first thing in the morning, has a wonderful effect on the complexion and eyes. It clears the liver and makes the eyes bright and sparkling. After taking the lemon always clean the teeth as the acid quickly promotes decay.
Clipping the eyelashes in youth will sometimes produce a heavier growth, and an occasional application of a lotion made by dissolving ten grains of sulphate of quinine in two ounces of cologne will stimulate the growth. The eyebrow-growth formula, which is given on another page, may also be used with care for the eyelashes, and is usually efficacious.
Crossed eyes and squinting eyes are so easily curable that there is no excuse for girls reaching womanhood so afflicted.
The eyebrow has not failed to secure fame in prose and poetry, and the eyebrow immortalized by Shakespeare’s lover “Sighing like a furnace with a woful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow” was doubtless long, straight, archless, narrow, and delicately penciled, accepted by the Greeks as the perfect feminine eyebrow.
There are various opinions on the subject, and it is conceded that the Greek eyebrow is quite in accord with the conception of mere physical beauty in women. Like the rosebud mouth, it does not indicate the highest order of intelligence, and the arch is expressive always of greater sensibility and greater strength of character.
Scant growth of the eyebrows invariably denotes lack of vitality, and external applications are useless to promote or produce a growth until the general health improves; on the contrary, heavy, thick eyebrows indicate a strong constitution and great physical endurance. They are not beautiful on a woman’s face, however much they may signify either mental or bodily vigor, and when they are not heavy, but droop and meet at the nose, they are disagreeable, and are said to accompany an insincere and prying nature. Fortunately, with a pair of small tweezers these quite superfluous hairs may be removed, and let us hope the traits they are supposed to indicate, disappear with them.
Romantic women usually have a very well-defined arch in the center of the eyebrow, while a sense of humor is indicated in the arch nearer the nose.
Long, drooping eyebrows, lying wide apart, indicate an amiable disposition.
When the eyebrows are lighter in color than the hair, the indications are lack of vitality and great sensitiveness. Faintly-defined eyebrows placed high above the nose are signs of indolence and weakness.
The toilet of the eyebrow is simple. The hair of the eyebrow can be trained to lie close and smooth to the skin, thus resembling the penciled lines we read of so often, by the aid of a tiny little brush manufactured for the purpose, and for sale at all shops dealing in articles for the toilet.
Where the eyebrows are too broad and inclined to be bushy, they should be daily trained by brushing, and will, in a short time, show an immense improvement.
When the hair falls out of the eyebrows, use the following ointment, which has never failed in my experience to arrest the disease and cause a new growth:
Red vaseline….3 ounces. Tincture cantharides….1 ounce. Jamaica rum….1 ounce. Oil rosemary….5 drops.
Mix all thoroughly ; apply twice daily with the eyebrow brush. For continuous use where the eyebrows are healthy, a little glycerine and rose water will give the delicate line emphasis and brilliancy.
Very black eyebrows give the face an intense and searching expression ; when natural they accompany a passionate temperament.
Very light eyebrows rarely are seen on strongly intellectual faces, although the color of the eyebrow is not accepted singly as denoting lack of intelligence; the form gives the key to the faculties and their direction.
Red eyebrows denote great fervor and ambition; brown a medium between the black and the red.
A cosmetic successfully used for darkening the eyebrows is the Fard Indien, either in pencil form, which is the more convenient, or applied with a delicate brush from the porcelain tablet.
Where the eyebrows are very light, almost white, they may be dyed or stained so that the artifice is absolutely impossible to detect, and the improvement will sometime make the difference between a plain and a pretty woman. This operation should not be done by an amateur. Any skillful person accustomed to the management of hair dyes can do it successfully.
Where the eyebrows meet at the nose, they give the face a most sinister and suspicious expression. In such cases the superfluous hairs should be removed by the aid of small tweezers or by electrolysis. If the tweezers be used, the operation must be renewed once in three or four weeks.
A too heavy growth of eyebrows may be treated by electricity. All the superfluous hairs can be removed by this method, which is by far the best.