The Marvel of the Age and the Wonder of the World – nice to know that Ephraim S. Wells of Jersey City, New Jersey was not shy about extolling his Leaurelle (Laurel?) Oil, in this ad (ca 1890-1900). I was not able to ascertain what was in it, exactly; but it seems to have been the Oil of Olay of its day, marketed to ladies who wanted to look youthful and wrinkle-free. It is a shame that Wells made it sound like such a Herculean task to correct wrinkles and lines. Not very flattering to the customers to think that they require some sort of incredible miracle to look lovely!
Ephraim S. Wells was not only known for his beauty preparations – he was actually better known for the pesticides that he produced. Rough On Rats (which was essentially arsenic) was the most widely known of these.
Wells was prosecuted by the American Medical Association in the early 1900s, with reference to the Wells Hair Balsam. It was marketed as being “a vivifying tonic,” neither a dye nor “harmful to the hair or scalp” in any way. However, it contained perfumed sulphur mixed with what the AMA called “a watery solution of lead acetate (sugar of lead) and glycerin.” The AMA noted in its 1912 Nostrums and Quackery (p. 574) that the Hair Balsam was not a balsam, but was in fact a dye, and a poisonous one at that.
Image of Leaurelle Oil ad from IHM (Images from the History of Medicine at National Museum of Medicine). Advertisement from New York, 1890.
Image of ads for various E.S. Wells products from The Pharmaceutical Age, July 1, 1893, p. n27. Larger version is here. In this ad, the Hair Balsam is called a Color Restorer, which seems to imply pretty strongly that it was a dye. I assume that the hyperbole got stronger in the later ads, which would have been the ones that the AMA saw in the 1910s.