Soap, Perfume & Cosmetics
Sally is the author of The Artifice of Beauty, a history and practical guide to perfumes and cosmetics (Sutton, 2005) and in engaged in ongoing research into the composition and manufacture of soaps and cosmetics across the centuries.
Links to our pages relating to the history and making of soap, perfumes and cosmetics:
Time Traveller’s Toiletries: The new name for our range of carefully researched historic soap, cosmetics and perfumes
The Roman Makeover: Using documentary and archaeological evidence to turn a modern woman into a Roman Fashion Victim.
YouTube clip of Sally disussing Roman make-up with Adam Hart Davis
You can read about the Time Team episodes that Sally was involved in at the following links:
Roman incense and perfume at South Perrott
Roman bathing at Frith
Sally is currently researching Victorian soap recipes, you can read more about the project at the blog The Victorian Shaving Soap Project
A write up of an experiment done for National Archaeology Week in 2005 to try a very small scale batch of Iron Age style soap
And a more in depth write up on making soap from woodash lye
Finally, one of our more unusual commissions recently, making 18th century style condoms from animal gut!