FINE RED OIL FOR LAMPS.—Infuse, for two or three hours, (or till the colour is well communicated,) a muslin bag of alkanet chips, in the clearest and best winter-strained lamp-oil. Then remove the bag of alkanet, (which may be used again for the same purpose,) and put the oil into clear glass lamps. It will be coloured of a beautiful red. According to the quantity of alkanet, or the length of time it remains steeping in the oil, you may have it of different tints, from light pink to deep crimson. Oil thus coloured is beautiful for illuminations; ball-rooms; or dispersed among the shrubbery, at a garden entertainment. The price of alkanet does not exceed six cents per ounce; and an ounce will do a great deal of colouring.
COLOURED WATER.—Slice a fresh red cabbage, and pour boiling water upon it. Cover it, and let it stand till cold. Then strain off the water, and put a portion of the infusion into three glasses. Pour into one glass a little alum-water; into the second, a little dissolved potash; and into the third, a few drops of muriatic acid. The liquid in the first glass will be turned of a purple colour, by the alum-water; that in the second will be changed to a green, by the solution of potash; and the third will assume a fine crimson, from the muriatic acid. This water is used by druggists, for the coloured jars in their shop-windows.
PERFUMERY, REMEDIES, ETC.
MACASSAR OIL.—This popular and pleasant unguent for the hair can (as we know) be prepared at home, so as to equal, in efficacy and appearance, any that is for sale in the shops; and at less than one-third the expense. Take half an ounce of chippings of alkanet root, which may be bought at a druggist’s, for a few cents. Divide this quantity into two portions, and having cleared away any dust that may be about the alkanet, put each portion of the chips into a separate bit of new bobbinet, or very clear muslin. In tying it, use white thread, or fine white cotton cord; as a coloured string may communicate a dirty tinge to the oil. Put these little bags into a large glass tumbler, or a straight-sided white-ware jar, and pour on half a pint of the best fresh olive oil. Cover the vessel, and leave it undisturbed, for several days, or a week; taking care not to shake or stir it; and do not press or squeeze the bags. Have ready some small, flat-bottomed phials, or one large one, that will hold half a pint. Take out carefully the bags of alkanet, and lay them on a saucer. You will find that they have coloured the oil a bright, beautiful crimson. The bags will serve a second time for the same purpose. Put into the bottom of each phial a small quantity of any pleasant perfume; such as oil of orange-flowers; jessamine; rose; carnation; bergamot; oil of rhodium; oil of ambergris; or oil of cloves, mixed with a little tincture of musk. Then fill up each phial with the coloured oil, poured in through a small funnel; and, corking them tightly, tie a piece of white kid leather over the top.
To use macassar oil, (observing never to shake the bottle,) pour a little into a saucer, and, with your finger, rub it through the roots of the hair.