Soap making, iron smelting, and glass burning, are the three things that travelers must do
After nearly two years in the Ming Dynasty, Cui Xie finally decided to embark on the path that a normal traveler should take. After Cui Qi packed up his sketches and returned to his room, he took a new piece of manuscript paper, researched the pen and ink, sat at the table, closed his eyes and opened the ancient chemistry book that he had neglected for some days.
Soap making is nothing more than grease and caustic soda. After saponification reaction, it should be stored for a while, so it shouldn't be difficult. In the previous life, a group of people made essential oil soaps and goat milk soaps. At home, they could steam pure dew and buy cow and goat milk. They could make them and sell them as high-end skin care products.
He rummaged through the catalog for a long time, but found several face-washing recipes: there are couscous face, fragrant round soap and pancreas, but there is no modern caustic soda soap making method.
He is a modern literature major, although he occasionally sees soap making in time-travel novels, but when he reads it, he is not interested in it, and the author's writing is not as detailed as the experimental design. It's been two years since I've been through it again, and I've been doing quizzes every day, and I've almost forgotten what I've learned in the past. Looking back now, I can't even remember how much the vegetable oil was heated to and what concentration of caustic soda was put. Recover on your own...
He opened his eyes and saw that he was full of thin calluses, like the hands of an ancient person, and sighed helplessly.
He still took a small step forward and restored the "flavored soap" recipe that Cixi had used.
This recipe is just a mix of various spices, plus soap noodles, saponin noodles, mixed with honey, and it is excellent for recovery. The soaps sold outside have slightly less spices and are bound with flour. Their high-end products do not add flour, and they carve a few fancy molds to print the round soap balls on the market to look like modern soaps. If you have a waist, you can sell it as a high-end product.
In addition to soap, you can also make pancreas.
In the Ming Dynasty, the use of pig pancreas was very popular. Ten pairs of pig pancreas only sold for one cent, which is a very commonly used industrial product. Not only a soap for hand washing, but also a body lotion—now called retting, it is made from a mixture of pig pancreas, spices and wine. Xie Qianhu just gave him a small retort for steaming wine. With this, he can steam the cheapest thin brew into clear shochu. Wouldn't this reduce the cost
However, it was written again in the book that in summer, the use of retting is not light enough, and women use pancreas mixed with goose oil for skin care, which can wash their face and skin care. Soda ash is placed in the pancreas of the ancient method. The Cui family has an ancestral property in Qian'an, and the Zhuangzi can produce alkali by itself. Since ancient times, Hebei has had more saline-alkali land, and called Zhuangzishang to collect some soil alkali and filter it into relatively clean and snow-white sodium carbonate. It is also possible to collect alkali-resistant plants such as ash and ash vegetables in the mountains, burn them into plant ash, and filter them out with flour. Potassium carbonate will also work.
There is not much difference between washing hands and washing clothes between the two, but the alkali made from plant ash cannot make noodles, and it can only be used to make noodles with alkaline water.
The Zhuangzi in Qian'an are all dry land, and although there is water, the entire soil base is estimated to still contain salt and alkali, which is far worse than that of the Zhuangzi in the suburbs of Beijing, which has paddy fields and cotton. If we can develop a tertiary industry for soda production, we can produce and sell it ourselves, and we can save wood and make the people in the village live better.
There are also some anti-wrinkle, whitening, freckle-removing cosmeceuticals, and recipes for refining lead powder, rouge, sesame oil, and mouth grease. He copied a few sheets of paper, thinking about how to interfere with these women's things. striking.
The next morning, when he went to the room for dinner, the second lady, Sister Yun, happened to bump into his eyes.
He couldn't help looking at Sister Yun, the makeup on her face, and seeing that she was embarrassed, so he looked away and said to the old lady, "Our sister Yun is also getting older, and it will be time to get married in a few years. Now, even though I can't take her to socialize with the female family members of those wealthy families, I should add some extra money to make her dress up finer."
The old lady looked at Sister Yun's beautiful face and smiled: "What a silly child, Sister Yun has already dressed up, how should she dress?"
Sister Yun lowered her head shyly, avoiding her brother's gaze. Her biological mother was fidgeting next to her, peeking at Cui Xie, for fear that he would not give more money to her daughter.
Although Cui Xie is a straight man, he is also a straight man who crossed over more than 500 years later. He just can't see the light makeup of modern girls, just the ancient white and pink makeup, the way of drawing red tears when you cry, who can see it? Can't come out
He smiled and said, "I'm an older brother, and I didn't care enough about my sister before, so I'll add more to her in the future. Does Sister Yun use things from the store at home, or from outside? Which one is the best? I asked someone to buy some for you?"
Sister Yun lowered her head and said nothing, her aunt glanced at her hatefully, and she said to Cui Xie, "Sister Yun is not the kind of girl who picks and chooses, she usually uses the fat powder from our shop, Noodle medicine. But the really good things in our family can't be used by a concubine. If you want better things, you can ask the servants outside to buy them with money. If the eldest brother wants to promote her, there is no need to choose Wanrongtang or Qianjintang. The fat powder, as long as we send some good ones in the store."
Cui Xie smiled, looked at Sister Yun and asked, "What kind of thing do you want? You are a girl, you should dress well when you are old, and no one in the family can lose you."
Isn't it all said on the Internet that girls should be rich and boys should be poor? When the powder shop makes money, I should make some head and face jewelry for my sister and make some fashionable clothes.
When he was about to go to school, he instructed Cui Liangdong: "Show me the best fat powder in our shop and the top grades sold by others. There are also soaps and pancreas, and I will see those on the faces of women The stuff is thick enough, don't you feel suffocated if you can't wash it clean?"
Cui Liangdong nodded again and again: "Don't worry, son, I will ask Cui Ting to deliver it to you personally at night."
The Guozijian happened to be repeating lectures for the past two days, and it was not lectured by the instructors, so there was less need to memorize. He was able to do almost the same homework in Sinology, and when he got home in the evening, he just happened to study how to transform Yinzhi Shop.
When he got home, Cui Ting had already been waiting in the small hall of the side courtyard, holding a pack of cosmetics in his hand: there was the scented soap and pancreas he asked for, and the dark green and nearly black luozidai dripped into small nests. Shaped lead powder, peach pollen mixed with silver vermillion, dry rouge made of cinnabar, cotton rouge twisted with red and blue flower juice, white wax rouge for lips, jasmine head oil for slicking hair, retting for soft face and bare hands...
Cui Xie took them one by one and looked at them, and the more he looked, the more he felt the magic of ancient cosmetics.
In ancient times when the chemical industry was so underdeveloped, they could actually make a bunch of cosmetics and skin care products. Aside from the absence of eyeliner and eyeshadow, isn't this the same as modern makeup
Cui Ting looked at his slightly astonished expression, and felt a little smug in his heart, and went up to introduce him: "This is the Lihan Hongfen from the time-honored Wanrongtang in the south of the city, and this is our family's Wotou fan from Guilin. …”
Cui Xie nodded as he listened, and said, "Thank you for your hard work." He put these two items aside and asked him, "Do you have purple jasmine powder?"
Cui Tingzheng was bragging about the products, making him startled for a moment: "What kind of jasmine powder?"
Was there no jasmine powder during the Chenghua years? It is written in the book that Empress Zhang of Emperor Xizong of Ming Dynasty brought this powder into the palace, so either this powder has not been invented yet, or it is only popular in the south.
This is a good opportunity to launch an exclusive product. A Dream of Red Mansions says that jasmine powder is lighter than lead powder and has a lighter white and red fragrance? When they come back, they can also study and use rouge juice to color jasmine powder, without adding lead powder and cinnabar, and make a gimmick of ancient health cosmetics.
Cui Xie pointed to the two extremely toxic heavy metal cosmetics and said, "If you use lead powder for a long time, your skin will turn blue. Sister Yun is still young, so don't use this for her. Bring some British powder in first, and then you can go to the south. When buying makeup powder, I brought a few buckets of jasmine seeds on the boat, peeled the white kernels out and dried them, and crushed them to be used as makeup powder. We also opened a small yard in the village in Changping to grow some white jasmine. , purple jasmine, etc., make some cosmetics yourself."
Cui Ting said embarrassedly, "It's not easy to do. Our family always brings things from the outside. No craftsman in the family can do this."
Cui Xie lowered his eyes and thought for a while: "When the time comes, ask a gardener to help us look at it. It's not difficult to cut a few osmanthus trees on Zhuangzi, right? It doesn't require any skills to grind pollen, just be careful. Let's try planting some roses. , Rose, in the future we will steam the flower dew and sell it for eight taels of silver a bottle, do you think it will be profitable?"
That's so lucrative!
Rose dew is so expensive, because those traders are making money in the middle. The price they buy is eight taels. If they don’t add some price, they will lose money. If you have your own flowers, you can also steam the dew, wouldn't that make money doubled
He suddenly remembered something, his five fingers clenched unknowingly, grabbed the hem of his clothes and asked, "What the young master is really talking about is flower dew, not sesame oil soaked in oil, right? That's not worth the money."
Cui Xie almost rolled his eyes: "You put such a big bottle of head oil here, can't I tell the difference between sesame oil and fragrant dew? You find a smart and handy guy, I took it from Xie Qianhu's house in Jinyiwei. A steamer, and I have seen how they use it, so I will personally train someone for you."
When Cui Xie said this, he wanted to lift his people up and instruct him to run the shop!
The silk and satin shop sold the expensive materials that could not be sold after the son's guidance; the southern goods store, after the son's guidance, the worthless old goods were also exchanged for silver, and they also earned the county honorable mention. The old man has a plaque; if he is a powder shop, he can also make the young master take heart...
Cui Tingya Hanako was exposed, nodded and said, "I'm going to prepare for the little one. As for that guy - there's a 16-year-old girl in the little family, and she is also born with a bit of color. Lose the little girl from outside. The young master taught her the unique skills, and later accepted her as a maid and concubine, and the craftsmanship is not afraid of rumors, and it also means filial piety..."
Cui Xie was very unaccustomed to the Ming Dynasty's tendency to offer daughters at every turn, frowned and said, "What nonsense! Your own daughter, without arranging a dowry for her to marry a young and gentle husband, would you want her to be a concubine? Don't have this kind of thinking anymore, or you won't do it as a shopkeeper! Send a man in and choose a good family for your daughter to marry!"
Cui Ting was frightened by his sudden anger, and stammered: "Young Master and Young Master are not willing to mention it, the youngest dare not mention it again! The youngest will go back, and tomorrow he will ask his son to come in and learn the exquisite arts with Young Master. "
It's not that he doesn't love his daughter, but he wants to offer her in just to curry favor with the master. Isn't this because their son is young and promising, handsome and gentle, that's what moved his mind? If a daughter is married, even if she can only be a maid and concubine, according to the treatment of those concubines in the backyard, isn't it better than marrying a man from a small family outside
It's a pity that this young master also has too much vision, so he doesn't want a concubine who can help the family's business with a gentle understanding. I don't know what kind of fairy he wants to marry in the future!
Cui Ting's brows were sullen, and he wished he could leave immediately. However, Cui Xie sniffed the soap and said, "This thing sold outside doesn't smell very good, and it's also mixed with these white noodles. When washing, the water is slippery, and the makeup powder can't be washed off. Ask your son to come in. Bring me a few spices from time to time, I will add and reduce them back and ask him to try to make something that smells better."
He had written down what he was going to use yesterday, but he didn't take it out directly at this time. Instead, he took out a new piece of paper and wrote the names of various spices while thinking. The amount of spices is more than what is actually used, and the weight is not written. Each item should be two taels and a pound of saponin powder. After it is delivered, it will be tested a few times before the appropriate proportion is obtained.
After Cui Ting left, he asked the servant Songyan to send all the cosmetics that could be used to Sister Yun, and asked him to explain on his behalf why she did not use lead powder and silver vermillion.
Sister Yun had been looking forward to using cinnamon powder to make her complexion white and tender, but she was a little regretful that it was not delivered, but her biological mother, Mrs. Dong, said happily, "My silly girl, the big brother who just saw you valued you. What. I don't really love you, this girl, just ask someone to send some random things, just wipe it on your face, and who cares if your face is blue or not after you wipe it for a long time?"
Although there is no lead powder, the retting, rouge, and luodai on this table are all really good things. Sister Yun took a tube of wax rouge and looked at it again and again, lowered her head and said, "I have nothing to give back to eldest brother, or I can make a purse for my brother."
Aunt Dong smiled and said, "Sister Yun's needlework is good, and everything looks good in embroidery. The elder brother is a scholar, so the things you wear should be elegant, and it would be better if you put some spices in them."
Sister Yun is only twelve years old, and her skills are actually limited. Most of the purse was embroidered for her by Concubine Dong, which was full of cranes and pine stones. The mother and daughter changed their appearance a few times, and it took two full days to get it. After the embroidery was finished, they hurriedly took it out at breakfast and gave it to Cui Xie.
Cui Xie has to paint again these two nights, and has to instruct others to make soap and pancreas. He is so busy that he can't keep his head up, and he doesn't even think of this sister. Suddenly I received the purse from her, and it was so delicately embroidered. I was a little surprised. I put the purse on my waist and thanked her on the spot.
Sister Yun nodded shyly: "Big brother gave me so many things, but I only have this purse, how can I be thanked by big brother."
When she looked up, Choi Xie realized that she had changed her makeup. Her little face was painted white, her cheeks were slightly flushed with rouge, and her eyebrows were slightly slanted upwards, making her more mature and charming, and she looked like an adult.
Cui Xie said politely, "My sister has changed her makeup to make her look more atmospheric. I don't know who drew it for you, but these eyebrows are really pretty."
Sister Yun said: "I drew it myself. I was at my neighbor Xu Zhuzhu's house and saw his eldest sister draw like this. She said it was called Shang Xiangmei, and it was very fashionable right now."
Shang Xiangmei... Have you ever seen Diao Chan Mei and Er Qiao Mei before
Cui Xie grinned, thinking of the red-clothed Mrs. Sun that he had drawn on his illustration.
Unexpectedly, he, a pure single dog who never reads fashion magazines and videos, has actually become the leader of Daming's female makeup style? !
The author has something to say: The ancient cosmetics knowledge in this chapter is referenced from Meng Hui's "The Red Sweat of the Imperial Concubine"