*Red Rouge - Red Rouge (Red iron oxide) has an affinity to absorb moisture which facilitates the particles bonding together to form larger particles that can scratch your mirror surface as you polish unless you take step to separate them from the smaller particles. One method of doing this is to mix a "small" quantity of the red rouge with sufficient water in a "large mouth" jar (consistency of the mixture should be thinner then a melted malt) and then to shake this mixture vigorously for a few minutes. After you have shaken the mixture, place the jar on a flat surface and leave it along until the rouge settles to the bottom of the jar and the water becomes "clear" again. The larger particles should have settled to the bottom of the jar first and finer "particles" should be at the top. Going from the top to the bottom, the particles should become larger if there has been any larger particles formed. Scoop out the upper layers of the rouge without disturbing the particles near the bottom of the jar.

Cerium Oxide - Cerium oxide does not suffer from the moisture problems associated with red rouge. It has replaced red rouge as the polishing compound of choice in most precision polishing companies. Read the Material Safety Data Sheets.