The vegetable substances which furnish rouge, are red sandal-wood,
root of orchanet, cochineal, Brazil wood, and especially the bastard
saffron, which yields a very beautiful colour, when it is mixed with
a sufficient quantity of talc. Some perfumers compose vegetable
rouge, for which they take vinegar as the excipient. These reds are
liable to injure the beauty of the skin; it is more advisable to
mix them with oily or unctuous matter, and to form salves. For this
purpose, you may employ balm of Mecca, butter of cacao, spermaceti,
oil of bhen, &c.
The red powders, above described, are best put on by a fine
camel-hair pencil. The colours in the dishes, wools, and green
papers, are commonly laid on by the tip of the little finger,
previously wetted.
The Spanish wool, the papers, and the English-made Portuguese dishes,
are all made from a moss-like drug, from Turkey, called safflower,
well known to scarlet dyers, &c.