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Cold cream is an emulsion of water and certain fats, usually including beeswax and various scent agents, designed to smooth skin and remove makeup. The name derives from the cooling feeling that the cream leaves on the skin.
The invention of cold cream is credited to a physician in Second century Greece, Galen:
GALEN, the celebrated physician of Pergamus, in Asia, but who distinguished himself at Athens, Alexandria, and Rome... was the inventor of that particular unguent, a mixture of grease and water, which is now distinguished as cold cream in perfumery, and as Ceratum Galeni in pharmacy.[1]
In France, this substance is still known as cérat de Galien ('Galen's Wax'). An 1814 poem credited to "Dr. Russell" gives the following account of the benefits attributed to cold cream in that day:
WHEN a pot of cold cream to Eliza you send,
You with words to this purpose your present commend;
Whoe'er with this cream shall her countenance smear,
All redness and roughness will strait disappear,
And the skin to a wonder be charmingly clear;
If pimples arise, this will take them away;
If the small-pox should mark you, those marks will decay;
If wrinkled through age, or dawbing the face is,
'Twill be smooth in a trice, as the best Venice glass is;
All this and much more, could I spare time to write it,
Or my pen go as fast, as your lips would endite it)
You affirm of your cream: and I would not abuse it,
But pray tell me one thing--Do you yourself use it?
Galen's cold cream was based on beeswax and water, also containing olive oil and rose petals for softness and scent, respectively. Modern cold cream has significant differences in formula, which were established centuries ago:
The modern formula for cold cream is, however, quite a different thing to that given in the works of Galen, in point of odour and quality, although substantially the same--grease and water. In perfumery there are several kinds of cold cream, distinguished by their odour, such as that of camphor, almond, violet, roses, &c.[1]
Cold cream now replaces the olive oil with mineral oil or other oils, which is slower to spoil. Another common ingredient in modern cold cream is borax, which is also responsible for the whiteness of cold cream. The most widely sold brand of cold cream in the United States is Pond's.
Over the centuries, new uses have been found for the product: "As a toilet requisite cold cream is used for softening and cooling the skin after sunburn, as a cleansing cream, to relieve harshness of the skin, etc".[2]
References
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- This page was last modified on 22 June 2008, at 16:00.
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