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.
ANTIQUE OIL.--This is a fine oil for the hair. Mix together, in a clean glass vessel, half a pint of oil of sweet almonds, and half a pint of the best olive oil. Then scent it with any sort of perfume.
To give it the colour and odour of roses, infuse, in the mixed oil, a small, thin muslin bag of alkanet chips, and set it in a warm place, till coloured of a beautiful pink. Then remove the bag of alkanet, and perfume the oil with ottar of roses. Put it immediately into a bottle, and cork it well.