This page from Young's Great Book of Secrets says that in the 1900's, some women believed that there was a recipe to make themselves beautiful. They did so by taking one quart of soft water, four ounces of pulverized castile soap, bitter almonds, eight ounces of rose and orange flower water, benzoin, and borax, then adding five grains of bichloride of mercury to every eight ounces of the mixture. They would make this mixture on their own. I'm not sure how much it would cost to make, but it was less than $3.00. To apply it, women would put the lotion on a cotton cloth and apply it to the face. It's too bad this household remedy doesn't work.

NOTE FROM EDITOR: Do NOT try to make this mixture youself. It is DANGEROUS and HARMFUL to people. Many older beauty remedies, like this one, used ingredients that made women ill, though they didn't know the cause at the time.

Young's Great Book of Secrets
PARO, Acc 3466/HF73.334.50.24 pg21