CLEOPATRA'S BOUDOIR

This week I found an old brochure by Burnett's, inside it featured a product called Cocoaine which they labeled as a Toilet Article. I was curious to know what the heck that stuff was, as the name threw me off a bit.

Doing some research I found that Burnett's Cocoaine primary ingredient was actually made of coconut (cocoanut) oil instead of cocaine. It was touted as a hair restorer, cured scald head, irritated scalps and dandruff killer. This product was available from 1856 and proved so popular that it was sold for over 40 years.

During the 1880s, Cocaine was in vogue as a cure all and the popularity of the products and was considered "modern medicine". Hoping to capitalize on this idea, Joseph Burnett called their product Cocoaine. Many collector's buy the bottles thinking that they actually contained real cocaine but that is a misnomer.