Cold Cream, or Galen's Cerate

January 23, 2015 2:52 PM

Cold cream is mostly known from the beauty routines of old ladies or as a makeup remover for stage actors. However, its lengthy history goes back a ways further, to a medical treatment from the Renaissance, perhaps even to the ancient Greeks.
posted by Peregrine Pickle (12 comments total)

Noxzema was part of the coming-of-age ritual for pubescent girls like me. In the early 90s, I was told to wash my face three times a day with it. I avoided most of it, because I wasn't used to washing if I didn't feel dirty. (Welcome to being an American woman!) Plus, it was cold in the mornings. And so I'd break out, and I'd cake my face in concealer, and we'd have the argument again about why I wasn't washing my face. My poor mom!
I did like Noxzema once before bed, though. I liked the way your fingers broke it up into slabs as you took it from the jar. And it smelled like it got something done.
I don't know if a lot of old-time beauty recipes did get much done. The ones in the third link sound comedogenic as hell. I've never seen a woman go to bed in a mask of cold cream, as cartoons suggested they did in the '50s and '60s.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:31 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

It seems so odd to me that cold cream is marketed as a nighttime skin treatment, since it works so nicely as a daytime (right-out-of-the-shower) moisturizer whereas I find products that actually are branded as facial moisturizers are usually either way too oily or evaporate immediately and are often much more expensive.

But then I'm a man who doesn't use makeup, so I'll bet there's something there.
posted by psoas at 4:33 PM on January 23, 2015

I had the flu on a European cruise. My lips were mad, mad chapped. All I wanted was a tube of chapstick. We were in Civitavecchia, and despite what you are told, no, everyone does not speak english. We wind up at a pharmacy, where EVERYTHING is behind the counter, and a comedy of gestures ensues, where I point at my lips and pantomime, somehow, "chapped."

Pharmacist, a slender man with perfectly coiffed hair and a supervillain's goatee, looks at me with puzzled incomprehension a moment, and then a light goes on!

It's a tube of something that looks like lipstick, but is white! There's no label or branding on it. Generic lipstick tube with white stuff in. Twenty euros. Whaddafaaaa?

"Cold cream!" he says helpfully as I walk out shell-shocked, sure I've been ripped off to the tune of nineteen euros.

Goddamn if it wasn't the single best cure for chapped lips, ever, up to and including the now-discontinued Chapstick-with-Lanolin. I've tried various drugstore cold-creams state-side, and they never worked like that original tube did. I've since been told it was probably a custom concoction particular to that pharmacist...

So. If you ever have really chapped lips, go to Civitavecchia and ask for the cold cream.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]

I thought that it was interesting that Galen's formulations asked for vinegar.

I know that, historically, Roman Empire-era soaps were uncontrollably alkaline (caustic). The vinegar might have been useful to counteract the poorly distributed lye-based cleansing soaps (the outsides might be ok, but the middle part would melt layers of your skin off).

pH (alkalinity/acidity) actually has a lot of impact on whether a cosmetic is tolerated/beneficial and it depends on the individual. Modern cosmetics have lots of buffers - chemicals/stuff that counteracts/soaks-up the ions that cause extremes of pH.
posted by porpoise at 8:56 PM on January 23, 2015

The Romans didn't use soap for actual bathing. That was traditionally olive oil which was scraped off with strigil, taking the dirt off with it. Either done for you by an assistant or doing it yourself.
posted by infini at 9:27 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

And so I'd break out, and I'd cake my face in concealer, and we'd have the argument again about why I wasn't washing my face.

Of course, now I've seen plenty conflicting on whether washing one's face more helps or hurts, anyway. My breakouts even in my 30s continue, but are still almost always hormonal or stress-related, and they do not care how often I wash my face, or whether I use moisturizer, or whatever.

The ones in the third link sound comedogenic as hell.

This is one of those things that baffles me because you can look on the internet and find generally that any given oil/wax ingredient is either the worst thing ever for your pores, or some kind of miracle substance that will not only not make you break out but help existing breakouts. But I've generally heard that olive oil is okay-ish and beeswax is reasonably good, though granted with the caveat that these sorts of articles basically never cite sources or anything. For me, breaking out is just kind of the natural state of my skin, the only thing that really improves it is sulfur + salicylic acid. I've seen vinegar recommended as a "natural" alternative to the latter on several occasions, and while it doesn't do anything for me, in times past it might have promoted turnover? Which is to say, sometimes getting layers of your skin off is actually desirable.
posted by Sequence at 10:36 PM on January 23, 2015

And it smelled like it got something done.

That is the superhero strength of Noxzema. You're sure it did something, or pretty sure, because it acts like it did. If it has the self-confidence to smell like that, surely it is working miracles.

I am probably going to run out and buy some today.

I do still use Ponds every day. And I like Coty loose powder too (Grandma products) though my CVS stopped carrying it two years ago. I found this out when I went to buy some last week and was told they stopped carrying it two years ago, which coincidentally was when I last bought it. Stuff lasts forever.

They should start again because everyone's running around coating their faces with powder before foundation these days so it's Coty's new day in the sun, there for the taking.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:56 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

A Terrible Llama, I love Coty powder too. I Googled and found it was carried in several local CVS locations so I went on a mission and bought a ton if it. See if you can hunt some down!
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:18 AM on January 24, 2015

I went on a mission and bought a ton if it.

Good thinking. I will scout for it.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 7:48 AM on January 24, 2015

I thought that it was interesting that Galen's formulations asked for vinegar.

Depending on the kind of vinegar, say apple cider vinegar, it could contain an alpha hydroxy like malic acid or lactic acid which can do things like increase cell turnover, act as a humecant, increase collagen production etc.
posted by redindiaink at 8:35 AM on January 24, 2015

Back when I wore foundation, I found that my usual gentle cleansers were terrible at removing the stuff. I gave Pond's cold cream a try, and found it really effective. I didn't care much for the rose fragrance, but my super-sensitive skin took very well to it -- no breakouts, no redness, dryness kept under control.
posted by maudlin at 6:25 PM on January 24, 2015

Slap*Happy, thank you so much for that story. My lips are always desperately chapped, split, and bleeding and nothing helps much or long. I read your comment and tried putting plain old Pond's cold cream (I had it around anyway) on them even though you said the ones you've tried from drugstores here didn't work as well. It works so wonderfully, much better than chap stick or Carmex or jojoba oil or anything else I've tried ever has.
posted by dilettante at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2015