Talc White Cakes, 1834/1865

TALC WHITE 

Venice talc in very fine powder, 1 oz. Distilled white vinegar, 2 oz. The talc and vinegar are put together for a fortnight, being shaken and stirred from time to time. The liquid is then removed by filteration and the deposit washed in distilled water until no very perceptible smell emanates from the mass which must now be mixed in a mortar with one drachm of spermaceti. This ointment must then be dried in a place where dust will not soil it. This substance is used by means of being rubbed in a few drops of oil when enough powder will be dissolved to whiten the face. This white does not impede tranispiration but it is liable to show a slight and not very natural polish. However, its great advantage lies in the fact that it is perfectly innoxious. 

--The Handbook for Ladies' Maids (1865) 

As with the white paint of 30 years before, this recipe uses starts with talc steeped in vinegar for two weeks. I find it interesting that the later recipe calls for spermaceti to form the cakes (and explains the use of oil to apply the color), where earlier recipe doesn't even specify what liquid should be used when the powder is "wetted and formed into cakes". I assume plain water, but would not be surprised if it used rosewater. Or Hungary water. Or orange-flower water.

Anyway, as given, the 1865 recipe calls for a 8:16:1 ratio of talc powder, vinegar, and spermaceti wax. I set the talc and vinegar two weeks back (50ml of talc, 100 vinegar), and once thoroughly rinsed and dried, I added ~6ml of spermaceti flakes (a scant 1 1/4 tsp), mixed them thoroughly in a mortar and pestle, and promptly got...a white powder.

Not quite cake-like.

In retrospect, the recipe doesn't really specify whether the spermaceti wax should be mixed in solid or melted first. I recall thinking that pounding the mixture in the mortar would make the talc powder adhere to the wax, though the "must then be dried" language does suggest that a liquid is involved at this stage. Since it calls for spermaceti and not "sperm oil", I expect that the solid wax is the right material (and the liquid oil is unlikely to dry into nice cakes), though I strongly suspect that the wax should be melted before incorporating it into the talc.

A little less powdery...

Before wasting two weeks' waiting work, I decided to try melting the spermaceti in the mixture by heating it in a water bath. This appears to have melted the spermaceti, as the powdery mixture started forming into small clumps.

Forming it into cakes. The rose molds come in handy again.

I tried three different methods for forming the talc into cakes. The first was pressing the powder into a small mold. This worked fairly well. The talc/spermaceti mixture formed a very fragile cake, so on the second attempt I added a drop of water to the mixture, which gave a slightly more robust molded cake. I used this same water-moistened talc to press round cakes in my smallest biscuit cutters. I set them on a piece of wax paper, then poured the talc in through the top, and compacted the talc with my fingers. The talc formed cakes easily in this way, though easing the whole cake out of the cutter without it crumbling takes time and care. 

Making the cakes at least 1/4" thick seems to help.

For the cake that broke apart, I added another drop of water and re-formed it in a shallow tin. The instructions don't mention using such containers, though it seems a practical approach (both for storing the cake away from dust or abrasion and for convenience in shaping the cake.)

Unfortunately, after all that work, I can't seem to use the paint itself. I hoped that it would work like a solid mascara: a drop of liquid is applied, it is rubbed into the bar to liberate some coloring agent, and then the liquid is brushed on as desired. I used sweet almond oil at first, then salad oil (olive oil), and finally water, without success. The sweet almond oil had no effect, the salad oil tinted the smaller molded cake yellow, and the water liberated some pigment, but mostly in small grains. I tried rubbing the cake with my finger, and with a small piece of sponge: the latter turned white where applied to the cake, but neither did more than smear oil with crumbs of white onto my skin. 

I suspect that the way I initially mixed the talc with the solid spermaceti might be responsible for the behavior of the cakes. I will need to try this again with melted spermaceti, to see if the texture and usefulness improves. It would be convenient to have solid white cakes instead of loose powder flying around, but so far the powder appears more effective.