Glycerine Creams and Jellies

In 1779, the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele produced a liquid containing a sweet compound. In 1813, the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul isolated the sweet agent and named it glycérine after the Greek word glukeros meaning sweet. Glycerine (also glycerin) was later found to be an alcohol so is also known to science as glycerol.

The primary use for glycerine in the second half of the nineteenth century was the manufacture of nitro-glycerine for explosives. However, glycerine also found applications in medicine, initially for use in skin treatments. Glycerine was thought by many medical professionals to have a number of advantages over traditional greasy ointments and it was incorporated into dermatological preparations for skin conditions such as pityriasis, eczema, psoriasis, impetigo, acne and even syphilis.

The advantages of glycerin over lard for such uses are, particularly, that it is not at all liable to rancidity; that it can be removed at any time without soap or unpleasant friction; that it does not soil and grease the garments and bed-clothing; and, perhaps, most important of all, that it dissolves or combines with the active principles more perfectly than any oil or fat, and, more readily than any such substances, may be absorbed by or distributed through the skin.

(Hartshorne, 1865, p. 30)

Given the medical interest in glycerine it was not long before beauty experts were recommending using it to soften and protect the skin, and to treat chapped skin and lips. Glycerine could be obtained as a byproduct of the manufacture of lead plaster but glycerine from this source contained a number of undesirable contaminants. Better quality glycerine was made by the stearine candle industry but it was more expensive.

A bottle of pure glycerine—but chemically pure, remember, without any of those salts of lime or of lead which are found in much of the glycerine sold, and which will discolor and irritate the skin—should form an indispensable adjunct in every lady’s toilet set. A tablespoonful of it in a pint of water will soften and protect the hands from the air. It should be rubbed in, but not wiped off.

(Brinton & Napheys, 1870, p. 153)

Applying undiluted glycerine to chapped skin could make the situation worse, not better. A high concentration of glycerine had a disagreeable ‘sticky’ feel on the skin and could produce a burning sensation when applied. If pure glycerine was used, as for example on the hands, then it was recommended that the skin was first wetted before rubbing in a drop or two of glycerine. The skin would then be allowed to dry without using a towel. Given that a dilutant was needed, glycerine was often combined with an aromatic water – like rose-water or orange-flower water – to give the skin an agreeable smell at the same time.

Pure glycerin is a substance that has a powerful beautifying effect on the skin, by rendering it white, supple, soft, and glossy; no other remedy will clear a sun-burnt skin in so short a time as glycerin. An excellent wash may be made by the perfumer by mixing equal parts of thick, colorless glycerin and orange-flower water (or some other aromatic water with fine odor), possibly giving it a rose color by the addition of a very small amount of fuchsine. Concentrated glycerin must not be used as a wash, because it abstracts water from the skin and thereby produces a sensation of heat or burning.

(Askinson, 1923, p. 243)

Cosmetics

Although relatively expensive, cosmetic chemists also began to produce glycerine-based cosmetics for the skin and hair.

Glycerine, an article of comparatively recent discovery is one of the most useful articles ever discovered for the purposes of the toilet, and its merits are now being fully recognized. And perfumers have not failed to avail themselves of its useful emollient properties, and to combine it with soaps and other cosmetics with the happiest results.

(Cristiani, 1877, p. 44)

The simplest glycerine cosmetic was the previously mentioned glycerine and aromatic water mixture. At first this was done with equal parts but it was soon realised that lower proportions of glycerine were less likely to produce irritation and also reduced the manufacturing cost. Hydrated glycerine was still being promulgated well into the twentieth century, primarily as a remedy for rough or chapped skin.

Natural glycerine, perfectly neutral, possesses hygienic properties. Perfumery thus gives us an hydrated glycerine, slightly aromatic, which is accepted as one of the best preservatives against the action of too keen or too cold air, or for skins subject to roughness, chaps and wrinkles. Prepare by taking:—

Pure glycerine, 30 per cent1 kilo.
Rose-water600 grams

Rose-water can be replaced by any other aromatic water, also by pure distilled aromatic water. But, in the latter case, filter before bottling.

(Durvelle, 1923, p. 261)

Glycerine jellies

Liquid mixtures of glycerine and aromatic water were also made into jellies by adding a thickening agent such as gelatine, agar-agar or tragacanth gum.

The glycerin gelées have the advantage over lanolin of being more economical; but, on the other hand, are attended with the drawback that they are less readily absorbed by the skin. These preparations are packed either in glasses or tubes, the latter being preferable, and more and more popular, on account of their greater handiness.
The following is a good recipe for such glycerin gelées:—

Finest white tragacanth powder50 grams
mixed with
Alcohol100 grams
Glycerin200 grams
shaken up with a suitable amount of perfume, and then quickly incorporated, by shaking, with
Water650 grams

This forms a transparent mucilage, which can be filled into bottles, etc., at once.

(Koller, 1920, p. 126)

Jelly Cream (Cerbelaud)

Agar-agar6 grams
Glycerin160 grams
Rose-water240 grams
Menthol1 gram
Alcohol, 90 per cent.4 grams

(Durvelle, 1923, p. 257)

Glycerine jellies are made with gelatine, but it is imperative that this should be water white and quite odourless. Two per cent of such a product dissolved in warm water should set to a jelly when cold, so that the consistency of any product can be based on the percentage used in comparison with this figure:—

30  Gelatine.
170  Glycerine
800  Orange flower water—triple.
1000 

Place the gelatine in 500 c.c. of water and stand overnight. Then warm until solution has been effected. Add the glycerine and the remainder of the water and run into pots.

(Poucher, 1932, p. 521)

Glycinerated starch creams

Another way to thicken a glycerine and aromatic water mixture was to use starch; another idea developed by the medical profession. In the medical literature, formulae for these mixtures were referred to as glyceramyls, amylo-glycerins or plasmas.

To the universal employment of glycerin in the place of lard in ointments, liniments, etc., the only objection appears to be its present greater comparative cost. This is not, however, at all so great as to prevent its being preferred in several important preparations; either by itself or in the form of glyceramyl, or “plasma.”

(Hartshorne, 1865, p. 45)

Cosmetic chemists generally called these preparations starch creams or carbohydrate creams. Crème Simon, developed in 1860 by the pharmacist Joseph Simon in Lyons, France – generally acknowledged as the first mass-produced glycerine cream – appears to have been an early example.

The glycerate of starch of pharmacy is prepared thus:—

Starch10 grams
Distilled water10 grams
Glycerine130 grams

Put the starch with the mixture of glycerine and water in a warm porcelain mortar, and heat, stirring continuously with a spatula until the contents jellify.

(Durvelle, 1923, p. 259)

Glycerine Cream
Wheat Starch50 grams
Glycerine900 grams
Rose Water50 grams
Floral Oil of Rose3 grams
Oil of Bergamot1 gram  

The starch should first be mixed with the cold rose water, the glycerine then added and the mixture stirred while heating until it develops into a clear emulsion. The rose and bergamot oils are added after the mixture has cooled.

(Schanzenbach. 1924, p. 91)

Glycerinated zinc oxide creams – also first made by the medical profession – could be made by adding zinc oxide to a starch cream. Zinc oxide, glycerine and rose-water were incorporated into liquid suspensions – wet whites or liquid pearls – used by women to whiten and even out the tone of the arms, neck and décolletage when in evening dress. However, as well as being thickened with starch, glycerinated zinc oxide creams used higher concentrations of glycerine than was generally found in liquid powder suspensions.

See also: Liquid Face Powders

Like glycerine jellies, glycerinated starch creams – with or without zinc oxide – were recommended for dehydrated skin.

The glycerinated starches with zinc oxide are excellent products for dehydrated skins and for use in dry countries. The amphoteric nature of zinc oxide makes it very useful for the variations in the acidity or alkalinity of the skin.

Glycerinated Starch
 Grammes
Starch7.5
Water8.5
Glycerine85.0
Glycerine/Zinc Oxide Cream
 Grammes
Glycerine79
Rose water10
Starch6
Zinc oxide5
Perfume q.s. 

Moisten the starch with water, add the glycerine, and heat to 120°C. until a paste is formed. Add the zinc oxide and finally perfume.

(Gattefossé, 1959, p. 182)

Glycerine cerates

Glycerine creams could also be made up with oils and waxes as a cerate. These salves were protective and were generally compounded to defend hands and lips from chapping. During the twentieth century they are largely superseded by cold and vanishing creams.

See also: Cerates

Other uses

In the late nineteenth century, methods for purifying glycerine from soap waste were developed and this made the production of glycerine considerably cheaper. Glycerine was then added to a wide range of existing cosmetics a process that continued into the twentieth century. These included cleansers, skin creams, beauty milks, rouges, lipsticks, depilatories, after-shave lotions, astringents, hand preparations, nail polishes, cuticle softeners and brilliantines, to name but a few. The amount of glycerine in many of these cosmetics was low, so they cannot be considered to be ‘glycerines’ in the same sense as glycerinated starch creams or glycerine jellies. In many cases glycerine was included to help stop the cream or lotion drying out in the tube or bottle.

The practice of featuring glycerine when marketing skin-care cosmetics gradually faded after the First World War but glycerine and other humectants, like glyceryl monostearate, sorbitol and propylene glycol, continued to be an essential part of cosmetics. Examining the ingredient lists of current skin-care lines reveals that many of them still contain high levels of glycerine, sorbolene creams being a good example.

First Posted: 24th March 2014
Last Update: 27th June 2022

Sources

Askinson, G. W. (1923). Perfumes and cosmetics their preparation and manufacture. A complete and practical treatise for the use of the perfumer and cosmetic manufacturer covering the origin and selection of essential oils and other perfume materials, the compounding of perfumes and the perfuming of cosmetics, etc. London: Crosby Lockwood and Son.

Brinton, D. G., & Napheys, G. H. (1870). Personal beauty: How to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health. Springfield, MA: W. J. Holland.

Cristiani, R. S. (1877). Perfumery and the kindred arts. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird & Co.

Deite, C. (1892). A practical treatise on the manufacture of perfumery: Comprising directions for making all kinds of perfumes, sachet powders, fumigating materials, dentifrices, cosmetics, etc., etc., with a full account of the volatile oils, balsams, resins, and all other natural and artificial perfume-substances, including the manufacture of fruit ethers, and tests for their purity. (W. T. Brannt, Trans.). Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird & Co.

Durvelle, J.-P. (1923). The preparation of perfumes and cosmetics. (E. J. Parry, Trans.). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company.

Gattefossé, R. M. (1959). Formulary of perfumes and cosmetics. (Trans.). New York: Chemical Publishing Co., Inc.

Hartshorne, H. (1865). A monograph on glycerin and its uses. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

Joseph, M. (1910). A short handbook of cosmetics (3rd ed.). (Trans). London: Rebman, Limited.

Koller, T. (1920). Cosmetics: A handbook of the manufacture, employment, and testing of all cosmetic materials and cosmetic specialties (C. Salter, Trans.). London: Scott, Greenwood & Son.

Poucher, W. A. (1926). Eve’s beauty secrets. London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd.

Poucher, W. A. (1932). Perfumes, cosmetics and soaps (4th ed., Vol 2). London: Chapman & Hall Ltd.

Redwood, T. (1848). Gray’s supplement to the pharmacopœia: Being a concise but comprehensive dispensatory and manual of facts and formulæ, for the chemist and druggist and medical practitioner (2nd ed.). London: Longman and Co.

Rion, R. (1913). The beauty book. Holyoke, MA: The Elizabeth Towne Company.

Schanzenbach, J. (1924). Practical use of raw materials in the beauty parlor. New York: J. Schanzenbach & Co., Inc.