Crème Céleste* & Arabella, the Jar Lid

Oh, Arabella! – I call you that, you know,

in homage to your lovely alabaster head –

such finely modeled rare translucent

pinkish tan and cream! – set above your

shoulders, elegantly wrapped in bronze,

delicately tooled – the sort of collar you’d

have worn as an adornment on a deep

blue dress on a perfect summer afternoon.

Oh! – know my heart is with you as you face

another hundred fifty years ahead as what

you’re fated to remain: the lid upon a blue

ceramic jar of an emolument called Crème

Céleste – featuring, though fortunately

at your back where you can’t make it out,

too blunt, too common an accounting

of white wax and spermaceti and the rest

of what cannot suggest the barest breath

of your bless’d gracefulness. It is enough

that you should have to bear the sore indignity

of acting as a jar lid on this hard blue jar –

and yet you pull it off as if it were a minor

inconvenience in your otherwise exquisite life –

which though you are a jar lid – hasn’t kept

you from imagining what on a round enameled

peacock blue container of emolument might

one day magically attract the gentleman

for whom you wait and whom you’re sure now

waits for you to make you his beloved wife.

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* It was during [the 1850s] Crème Céleste became popular, which was a mixture of white wax, spermaceti (from an organ inside sperm whale’s head), sweet almond oil, and rosewater. This facial paste had moisturising properties, but it also hid blemishes and provided a light smooth complexion. It developed into a common emollient and cosmetic remover, soon known as cold cream.

http://www.katetattersall.com/early-victorian-era-make-up/