When
I first started LBCC Historical, it came at a time of personal change..
It was either throw yourself into
your dream career or start looking for a job. I wasn’t sure how the general
public would react to working with and offering historical and historically
based recipes. I was hoping that after some gentle prodding our apothecary and
cosmetics would spark interest in the public. Previously, it wasn’t really talked about save a few brave
souls. It was time to bring it mainstream.
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| YEP! It seems like a long time ago! |
I
wasn’t even sure we could reproduce the exact historical recipe and have
product that people would want. I mean lets face it- when we started this
journey LARD in your hair was frowned upon. We have all come a long way in our
understanding of how beneficial these historically natural ingredients are for
us- I had nothing to worry about after all. Now that we have been at it for a
few years, it’s time to review and upgrade things a bit. We have gone through
the shop and decided that we will be discontinuing some of our first items,
because we can now replicate those according to the exact recipe.
We
have 3 different types of historical products in the store.
1. Historically Accurate
2. Historically Accurate+1
3. Historically Based
We care
greatly about historical accuracy and try to provide accurate products, which
isn’t always easy. But we are proud to say that well over half our recipes are
unaltered and those that are, we have specified what we have done. We never
take away from the recipe. If we need to add something it is usually a
consistency issue or a shelf life issue. We will now be listing these at the
top of the description. Previously we went into detail about what we added, and
we still will, but this will make it easy and clear for everyone to understand.
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What does this mean:
1. Historically Accurate- Obviously this means we haven’t changed
anything. Nothing has changed.
This is the majority of the recipes already in the shop.
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2. Historically Accurate+1 –
This refers to adding 1 historical ingredient. The reason for this isn’t because we don’t want to be as
historically accurate as we can. It’s because usually it’s a consistency issue
or a shelf life issue and when you are making the product at home ( like many
did) it’s one thing.. but if you have a pharmacists, or apothecary, making it
for their shop and it has to hold up on the shelf, that is another thing. We
only will add historically appropriate ingredients which is why we are calling
this Historically Accurate + 1. It happened all the time historically. I even
have original books with the original pencil scratchings, changing things
around or adding something more for stability. ( See Below)
Did
you know, that one problem with cold creams historically was that there really
was no agent to keep the fat and water bound together, so after it warmed up it
had a tendency to separate or to become thin. Cold Creams had a very short life
which is why when they were purchased, they came in little containers- like ours in the shop, vs the large ones the stores sell today. By the end of the 19th
century 2 major advances in cold creams happened. Borax, and Petroleum. We will soon have a 1920’s petroleum
cold cream for you to try.
To
counter this issue, a pharmacist would change the amounts of beeswax or add specific
types of gums that would help with the consistency and shelf life. At home, women who made these recipes
would change or add things as well. We see examples of this with early personal
recipe books. “ Mama’s lip salve” for example, these were recipes, which were
passed down and changed as needed.
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https://lostcookbook.wordpress.com/author/cookinguphistory/
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"Receipt for a Lip Salve – Mammas Way
Take a pint & half of claret, a qr of a pd of currants, 1 pd of butter without salt, 4 or 5 ounces of Virgins Wax & 2 ounces of ye root Alkanet, otherwise call’d Alcony. This last with ye wine & currants must be boyl’d a pritty while. Afterwards, ye butter & wax being put in, must be boyl’d a little, then strain all into a bason. If, when cold, you find it too soft, add more wax. If too hard, add more butter. When it tis cold, ye top must be taken of & melted by it self & strain’d into little cups for use. If you have a mind to sweeten it, strain it with orange flower water or what else you think fit."
We still do this in our shop when we need to
because of a shelf life issue, consistency, or because a specific ingredient (
like spermaceti) is no longer available. So these still are completely
historical in every way. We are thinking as a pharmacist or chemist and even a
housewife of that time.
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| This is an example from my personal collection. This is a book on perfume recipes and it was previously owned by a pharmacist. I found it fascinating to look at his markings and changes. |
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3. Historically Based: These are the ones, which
we took many historical recipes and combined them together, or we took part of
the recipe and combined it with modern/ and or historical ingredients to make
it better. These are the recipes which had potential, but for whatever reason
we couldn’t or didn’t want to reproduce the exact recipe, maybe you don’t want
lead on your skin, or maybe by adding coconut oil and making sure all our ingredients are organic.. we make the recipe 100%
more awesome and our ancestors would be proud.
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| Shakespeare's Love Balm- This salve is taken from, “A Winters Tale,” and combined with ingredients used by famous courtesans throughout history. |
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We
serve people from all walks of life, - not just the historically minded. Some
just want a really unique gift while others need something for their living
history and reenactments. Still others are museums, and some don’t even care
about the historical accuracy, they just want a great natural product. We also
have a lot of customers who are just interested in makeup and different natural
cosmetics. Many of us whether historically minded or modern-ly minded want to stay
away from icky chemicals and get back to nature. We love the fact that we can
offer a wide range of historical and historically based products that our
ancestors used and now people are finding their way back to these great recipes. By
offering a wide array, we can serve everyone and educate at the same time,
which is important to us.
As our business and customer base expands, we will
continue to offer both historical recipes that have and have not been altered.
Some Wonderful Changes Are Happening:
I
thought I’d take this time to fill you in on our upgrades and such.
1. We care about accuracy so
much, that the first few recipes we ever made and maybe even a few
“historically Inspired” ones which we feel aren’t accurate or good enough will
be saying goodbye and we will be replacing these with new absolutely 100% authentic
historical recipes. This is how we prefer to roll -As accurately as we
can..while running a business that caters to everyone while finding recipes, that
help, heal, and are good for you.
2. My Apothecary Lab, Office, & Shipping Area are all
getting completely redone. YEAH!!
3. We now have one of those
sketchy white-working vans. It
won’t look so sketchy when our huge logo is on it. That will be put on as soon
as we get warmer weather. So now you will be able to see us as we drive to
events. Make sure to honk and wave!
4. We are getting a front expansion for our marquis tent. Which
will make your shopping experience nicer, shadier, cooler, or warmer depending
on the weather and we will have a bit more space.
5. We are currently working on getting reproduced 18th
century cosmetic brushes, toothbrushes, and even reproduced toilette boxes.
6. We will also be offering a
new line of wooden pomatum and salve jars.
7. We are diligently working on
improving bottles for you as well. We started already with some of the
authentic rouges, but we will be continuing to replace bottles and containers,
as we find more historical ones to offer and/or we find ones that seal properly
unlike some of our cork woes.
8. We have new product lines
coming out which include the Civil War, the 1920’s , Victorian, as well as more
authentic 18th century rouges and such.
9. We just got the newest
GoPro- which I hope will solve my video problems and help us make better, crisper, and clearer high quality videos for you. We are always open to suggestions for what you want to see. Let is know!
10. Credit Cards? Previously we
were only taking them with the phone which as everyone knows doesn’t always
work the best, we now have a large tablet with a different carrier which
promises to get us a good connection in the places we need it. This will make
it easier and faster for you when you see us in person. I won’t have to walk a
mile now to get a signal. (Happy Dance)
11. We have also been invited to
some Civil War events this year, so maybe you will see us there!
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New and exciting things in progress!!
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To
sum everything up! We have wonderful things happening and are so thankful that
you have supported us ( me) in my journey. Even though we are upgrading a lot
we continued to stay devoted to historical accuracy and any time we can keep a
recipe original we do and any time we can toss out a old recipe from the shop
for one more historical, we will. But please remember as much as we love
history, we want to continue bringing you quality products from history even if
we have to make it better by adding a historical ingredient. We are devoted to
keeping you in the loop and offering top quality naturally organic, and historical
products, so you can live safer and better lives without the chemicals. Our
Ancestors had a few things right.. even if lead wasn’t one of them :)
Posts
Before we get to the time warp I'll show you a few photos of my gowns for the event. Saturday was the big dress up day, so I wore my new Italian gown. In all honesty, it took me a while to finish it. I had a sleeve issue which took me a while to figure out. I finally had to add a piece to make it work, after that it went together really fast. I was a little unsure about trim, because I'm not a fan of trimming gowns unless I self trim- but I had a time constraint and literally no fabric left for any self trim- so I had to make a choice and I went with velvet and metallic trim after looking at many fashion plates. At first I was going to add a waist ribbon belt- but after rethinking things and adding the bows and trim- I felt it just needed a wonderful breast knot. I had never made one before, so one of my friends Mrs. Rockhold of The Fat Reenactress volunteered to help me out. I wanted it to be large and in charge and I LOVE IT!!!! She also made me one for my hair which is really beautiful too.
