Welcome to the home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys)! Here you’ll find over 5,000 posts and formulas written over the past 16 years for everything from lotions, creams, and body butters to hair care products to fancy facial products filled with actives and cosmeceuticals! Enjoy the site without distractions – no ads, pop ups, sponsored posts, affiliate links, “one weird tricks” – all supported by readers like you.
It seems there are dozens of waxes to choose from for personal care type products, which it makes it both confusing and exciting for formulators! Waxes give structure to our products, keep them firm – in the case of lip balms or lotion bars – and help our products be flexible but not brittle. There...
This is my beloved double boiler. From left to right, clockwise, you see the lip balm base, the classic base, and Croda’s super sterol base. Although I really like the lip balm base for a lipstick base, I couldn’t resist trying this recipe for a (supposedly) less greasy, more dry, stiffer recipe than the lip...
Boron nitride is a great addition to a lipstick at 2 to 5%. It offers slip, glide, a pearly sheen, and a little whitening that won’t morph your colours too much. It is a great adhesion ingredient, and that’s always welcome in my lip colours! A note: 1 cc = 1/5 tsp or around 7...
If you joined me yesterday, you’ll remember I was on a quest to make a Tutti Fruiti lipstick, but found it was too draggy with the titanium dioxide alone. What will make my lipstick less draggy? Ronaspheres! I added it at 6%, which worked out to 1 cc for this mixture. Tutti Fruiti matte1 tbsp...
Sometimes it’s hard to find an ideal iron oxide for the base colour of that lipstick colour to die for, so we turn to our fillers for help. (This is even harder when you consider ultramarine pink is right out!) Titanium dioxide is always my first choice for making something opaque, but often it can...