"To make cosmetics, you dye cotton pads. The best color comes from lac insects. Safflower juice and wild pomegranate flower juice are the next best options. You can also use the dregs from safflower dye, which is the cheapest method, but the quality is poor, so it's best not to use it."
Song Yunzhao had done her homework on this, so she spoke with confidence and was very persuasive.
"It sounds so simple," Wang Zhaorong said in a daze. 'And here I am spending so much silver on a single box of rouge. Merchants are such shameless crooks.'
"There are more complex methods, too, like for making face cream. This requires beef marrow, but that's hard to come by, so beef tallow can be used. If you can't get tallow, you can use plain lard. You soak cloves and patchouli in warm wine, use sweet wormwood to develop the color, then filter it with flour and let it set in a porcelain or lacquer cup. If you're making lip balm, you just need to mix in some vermilion and wrap it in tung oil."
