Bluing is a popular product in Surinamese culture in particular. It can be used to protect against the evil eye (nazar). Everything that is desirable can therefore fall under the spell of the evil eye.
You heat a bath in which you dissolve half or a whole block of bluing. It’s mainly used to bathe babies or by Surinamese to hold a large ritual wash at the turn of the year so that they can start the new year with a clean slate.

Those affected by the evil eye can have bad luck, illness, loss or other calamities. The belief in the evil eye is more than 5000 years old and was centuries ago feared among Greeks and Romans, but nowadays also among Hindus, Buddhists and Surinamese and Arab Christians and Muslims. Basically it means harming something or someone with your gaze. It refers to a curse that someone sends you, unconsciously or consciously. An important characteristic of the evil eye is therefore that this "curse" is concealed in a compliment that someone makes, which actually contains some form of envy.