“To heal lips that are chapped with the wind or cold. New wax, mastic, and frankincense, with oil of roses, all this made in an ointment, and therewith anoint the chappes, and they will heal presently.” –John Partridge, The Widowes treasure…, 1588.
INTRODUCTION: A fairly simple remedy for a simple, common condition, this lip balm is something Lady Kateryn would have made (or had one of her servants make) for use in her household. A nearly identical recipe for chapped lips and hands appeared in several earlier partial editions of the “secrets” of Master Alexis of Piedmont (1563, 1580). None of the recipes contain more explicit instructions.
The inclusion of mastic and frankincense, imported items long written about in medical and herbal literature and with well known humeral qualities, would make this particular recipe more appealing to someone with a humanist education such as Kateryn. Most of the other recipes for healing chapped hands and lips that I found are based on animal fats, which I wanted to avoid using. I also wanted to avoid those recipes containing turpentine, which I would not want to put on my own lips. I checked both period and modern descriptions of mastic and frankincense to make sure they were fine for use, and used only food grade ingredients.
| Ingredient | Period understanding of ingredient | |||
| Beeswax | Not discussed in the sources I consulted. | |||
Frankincense (olibanum): Gum resin widely used in incense for thousands of years and as medicinal ingredient. Produced by the Boswellia genus of trees found in Arabia and Africa . I purchased this frankincense from the bulk herb section at Whole Foods. |
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“It is able to warm and is an astringent to clean away things which darken the pupils, fill up the hollowness of ulcers and draw them to a scar, and to glue together bloody wounds…It cures ulcerous burns from fire and chilblains rubbed on with fat from a pig or goose.” [Discorides, 86] | Tudor herbals report it as being ‘hot and dry,' with the ‘virtue of comforting by his sweet savor. Also of closing and constraining for the tooth ache that cometh of the superfluity of humors of the head…' [Anon, 1541, no page number]. | |
Mastic: A resinous gum produced by the mastic trees ( Pistacia lentiscus ) on the Greek island of Chios . In period mastic was used in medicines as well as a varnish. It is still popular in Greek cooking and as a natural chewing gum. |
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As a medicinal ingredient it was thought to have “virtue of containing, comforting, cleansing and losing of humors” in the head (Askam, and others) and to help settle the stomach when simmered in water and drunk. | |
Oil of Roses: This is rose scented olive oil, not an essential oil. I used a 1 pint bottle of olive oil, added organic rose buds, and set the bottle in the sun for a couple of weeks in December 2005 before removing it to a kitchen cabinet to wait for use. |
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“Commonly all oil is warming and softens flesh, keeping the body from being easily chilled with cold, making it more ready to perform actions.” [Discorides, 34]. His recipe for oil of roses is called “Rhodinon,” and includes the added ingredient of honey. | Explicit instructions in Partridge, various editions of The Secrets of Master Alexis, [etc] make it very clear that oil of roses is rose scented olive oil, as used in this lip balm. |
The simplest instructions for healing chapped lips simply call for anointing with almond oil or animal fat [Boorde, The Breviary of health]. One of the more complex reads
“Take…12 ounces of calves grease…then take six ounces of marjoram, and stamp them all well together, and make thereof little balls, and sprinkle them with a little good White or Claret winde, that has a good odor. Then put them in some vessel, and cover them well…and set them in the shadow [for 24 hours], then put them in water and seeth them leisurely: and then strain it again…” More marjoram and wine is added, and the whole process repeated 4-5 times. ”…you may also put to it a little musk, or civet, thus doing you shall have a very excellent thing, to keep the lips and hands from Chappes or Chinkes and from all great cold.” [ The seconde parte of the Secrets of maister Alexis : p. 11]
While almost all recipes note that the weather (especially wind) causes chapping, The Breviary of health singularly adds “a dry humor” [p. 57] and “heat of the liver and stomach” [p. 59] as possible causes.
PROCESS. As no measurements are included, I consulted some modern instructions for wax based lip balms, but because they do not include gum based ingredients as well I only learned two points: it's helpful to grate the wax prior to melting, and the wax to oil ratio ranges between 1:2 and 1:4. This 1:4 ratio is the same as what is found in Partridge's recipe for ointment of roses (“Take oil of roses 4 ounces, white wax 1 ounce, melt them together over seething water, then chafe them together with rosewater and a little white ginger.” No pg #.)
Keeping in mind Dioscorides' comment “…those who [make ointments] must determine whether the ointments smell exactly of those herbs from which the mixture is made. This method of judgment is the best [except when there is a prevalence of strong ingredients,] which are tested by sampling them often,” [p. 48] I first mixed equal amounts of ground mastic, frankincense and grated wax with 2 ounces of oil. The scent of mastic and frankincense was so strong I later doubled the amount of wax and increased the oil to 3 oz, but was still unhappy with the results.
This version contains approximately ¼ oz each of mastic and frankincense, 1 oz wax and 2 oz. oil. The ingredients were melted in a double boiler, then poured into ointment pots made for me by Mistress Clare Hele.
Bibliography
Androse, Richard, translator (1578). A verye excellent and profitable Booke conteyning sixe hundred four score and odd experienced Medicines. Long practysed of…Mayster Alexis… London: John Wyght.
Anon. (1541). A boke of the properties of herbes. London: Elisabeth Redman.
Askam, Anthony (MDL) A little herbal of the property of herbes… London.
Boorde, Andrew (1598). The Breviarie of health… London: Thomas Este.
Dioscorides. De material medica, modern English translation by T.A. Osbaldeston. Johannesburg: IBIDIS Press. Book one is available in pdf at http://www.cancerlynx.com/BOOKONEAROMATICS.PDF
Dodoens, Rembert (1578). A nievve herbal…now translated out of French into English by Henry Lyte Esquyer. London: Gerard Dewes.
Gabelkuer, Oswald (1599). The boock of Physicke… translated from Dutch by A.M., Dorle: Isaac Green.
Oxford English Dictionary, online edition http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl
Partridge, John (1588). The Widowes treasure, plentifully furnished with sundry precious and approved secretes in Phisicke, and Chirugery for the health and pleasure of mankinde. London: Edward Alde for Edward White.
Warde, William, translator (1562). The Secrets of the reverend Maister Alexis of Piemont… London: Rouland Hall for Nycolas England.
Warde, William, translator (1563). The seconde parte of the Secrets of maister Alexis of Piemont… London : Rouland Hall for Nicholas Englande.
Warde, William, translator (1580). The seconde parte of the Secrets of maister Alexis of Piemont… London : Henry Bynneman for Iohn Wyght.
OTHER:
Online modern ‘how to' instructions for wax based lip balms:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5596_make-beeswax-lip.html
http://healthyherbs.about.com/c/ht/00/12/How_Lip_Balm0976403226.htm