the.com/carmine
A red so gorgeous it's made by boiling fifty thousand crushed beetles.
means A deep, vivid red verging on crimson, named for the pigment historically extracted from cochineal insects.
from From Medieval Latin 'carminium,' a blend of 'kermes' — the scale insect from which red dye was drawn — and Latin 'minium,' meaning red lead or vermilion. 'Kermes' itself traces back through Arabic 'qirmiz' and Persian to a Sanskrit word for 'worm-produced,' the same ancient root that also gives us 'crimson.' So the name has carried its tiny insect inside it for thousands of years.
- source
- Extracted from cochineal insects on cactus pads
- yield
- Roughly 70,000 bugs make one pound
- hidden everywhere
- Colors lipstick, yogurt, juice, and candy
- ancient luxury
- Aztecs traded it like gold to Spain
- vegan dealbreaker
- Listed as E120 on ingredient labels
carmine beetle — cochineal insect from mexico and peru that produces deep red dye used for centuries in textiles
carmine prison — historic jail in rome, italy where political prisoners and cardinals were held