BUC'HOZ, Pierre-Joseph. Toilette et laboratoire de Flore, Réunis en faveur du beau Sexe, ou Essai sur les Plantes qui peuvent servir d'ornement aux Dames, & qui sont utiles dans la distillation, contenant les différentes manieres de préparer les Essences, Pommades, Rouges, Poudres, Fards, Eaux de senteur, Liqueurs, Ratafias, Huiles, Eaux Cosmétiques & Officinales, &c.
Paris, chez l'auteur, 1784.

In -12 (162 x 93 mm), (2) ff., 156 pp., (2) ff.
Full red morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, ornate spines, inner gilt lace, gilt edges (Belz-Niedrée).

New edition, extremely rare.
A famous collection of plant-based cosmetic recipes, divided into two parts - here bound into a single volume. The first part, La Toilette de la Flore, gives the composition of numerous essences, ointments, powders, blushes and eaux de senteur, as well as recipes for stain removers. The second part, Le Laboratoire de Flore, is devoted to liqueurs, ratafias, oils, cosmetic and officinal waters.

Along with Dejan's Traité des Odeurs, it is the only eighteenth-century work entirely devoted to perfumery and cosmetics cited by Wiggishoff in his Essai de bibliographie des parfums et des cosmétiques. Our work is also the only one described in Edmond de Goncourt's famous book, La maison d'un artiste, on page 334 of volume 1, which Guy de Maupassant praised when it was published on 12 March 1881 in the newspaper Le Gaulois with these words: ‘It is a summary of French art in the eighteenth century, and at the same time a rapid picture of the wonders of the Orient, an account for the eyes of these sparkling industries of China and Japan’.

Goncourt referred to this title as follows: "The two volumes are a collection of recipes for Eau céleste, the true Eau de la Reine de Hongrie, Eau de Mélisse magistrale, Eau Impériale which destroys wrinkles, Eau très utile après la petite pérole, Eau de Charme pour conserver le teint, Eau de Venise to whiten dark-skinned faces, Eau to protect against tanning, Eau to make lentils and tans disappear, Eau d'Adonis, Eau de Mme la Vrillière, the minister's wife, for teeth, lavender flower ointment for hair, and so on. , and a method for perfuming white gloves with jasmine, in the manner of Rome. There is also a recipe for Perfume for Pleasure and a recipe for Beauty Bath: "Take two pounds of hulled barley, one pound of rice, three pounds of pulverised lupin, eight pounds of bran, ten handfuls of borage and viola; boil the whole in a sufficient quantity of fountain water. There is nothing that cleanses and softens the skin like this bath."

A superb copy, extremely rare in this condition.