Jacquard Cochineal 1 Oz Jar

No surprises and fast delivery, you get four ounces of whole dead cochineal bug. This is then ground up, and when water is added, it turns a rich red that stains well.

Exactly as expected. Repeat purchase for home dying of silk fabric, wool/silk/and plant fibers for spinning, knitting, quilting, making clothes etc. This dye is not recommended for children's clothing, as some may be sensitive. Adults do not have this issue. This is the same critter that creates carmine color for food and cosmetics. These little gals are organically harvested from prickly pear cactus when they are full of dye-stuffs and dried. To use them, crush them in a mortar and pestle that you do not plan to run edible things through (due to taste, nothing else.)Pour powder into warm/hot water. Add fiber, heat and simmer for 40 minutes to 2 hours (no longer than this. Keep it closer to 40minutes to an hour to avoid over dyeing.). Soak fibers in cool water with some salt before rinsing.These are just basic instructions, treat your fibers appropriately for their needs. That is why I left some of the instructions open, because if you follow dyeing procedures for your fabric, then that will fill in the rest of the steps for you. This yields great color. Make sure you keep dipping fabric/yarns until you exhaust the dye bath. This little jar will go further than you think. You can layer this dye by allowing the fabric to rinse and cure and dry in the shade/dark before reintroducing to the dyebath. This will yield some dark, red/magenta colors that are stunning. If your dyebath looks a little purple give it a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice. Not too much though, just enough to turn it a nice pink/red color.

Created a purple on one type of wool and a lovely cotton candy pink on another note course type wool (churro). Haven’t been able to get red yet lol but I think that has more to do with the wool than the dye. Not perfectly color fast but very close. Loved being able to experiment with this natural dye and think it garnered a lot of attention from it origins. A fun experience!

I was looking for a natural dye to create pink Easter eggs (beets always turn my eggs beige), and these little bugs worked great. In a quart of water, a boiled about 10 of the insects until the water turned pink. Then cooled the water and dyed the hard-boiled eggs by soaking them in the dye bath for a few hours. The pink was very bright and clear. Plus, my daughter thought it was pretty cool that we were using bugs to dye eggs.In case you are wondering about the safety of this for use with eggs, my understanding is that cochineal is used as a food dye for many red or pink colored foods, as an alternative to the FD&C red food dyes, which are derived from coal tar.

I used it for making natural blush, but as many people know this product has multiple uses. I'm very satisfied with the quality of this product.