Carmine red is thus the name of a color or starch of a beautiful red, very vivid, bordering on crimson. One already spoke of this color in the article Carmine; but because that only described it very imperfectly, one thought to supplement it here.

Here is the process by following which one can make carmine with success. One takes 5 gros of cochineal, half a gros  [1] of anabasis [2] seed, 18 grains [3] of autour bark, [4] 18 grains of alum, and 5 pounds of rain water; one begins by boiling the water, then one adds the anabasis seed, one lets it boil five or six times, after which one filters the liquid. One puts it back on the fire; when it has boiled anew, one puts the cochineal in it; after it boils four or five times, one adds the autour bark and the alum. One again filters the liquor, after several times the carmine in the form of a red starch will precipitate at the bottom of the vessel where one put the filtered liquid; the indicated amounts give about two scrupules . [5] One decants the liquor that floats, and one dries the red color in the sun. When one wants to make the rouge that women use for make-up, one grinds a sort of talc known in France as Briançon chalk. [6] When it has been reduced to a very fine powder, one adds the carmine red in proportion to the brightness one wants to give the red color, and one carefully grinds this mixture, which can be applied to the skin without danger. The costliness of carmine means that often one substitutes cinnabar, which one mixes with the talc. [7]

Notes

1. 8 gros = 1 once (Imperial French ounce)

2. Choüan, buds of Anabasis tamariscifolia

3. 576 grains = 1 once

4. Probably Bixa orellana but I have been unable to confirm this. If so, autour is synonomous with raucour and rocou. Bixa orellana , achiote colloquially in English, is a small shrub or tree with bright red fruit that have red, pigment-bearing seeds.

5. 13,824 scrupules = 1 once

6. Soapstone, a metamorphic rock high in talc (magnesium silicate).

7. Which, containing mercury, would be dangerous!