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.
So what’s the difference between a conditioner and a cream rinse? A cream rinse is basically a detangler that should eliminate fly-aways (reduce static charge), and give our hair a smooth feeling. A conditioner also has these goals, but offers an increase in glossiness or lustre, an increase in body or volume, and may include...
Yesterday, we took a look at making basic conditioners with cetrimonium bromide – today, let’s add some goodies to our creations! From our posts on BTMS-50 based conditioners, we know we can add all kinds of wonderful ingredients to our conditioners – proteins, silicones, cetrimonium chloride, and so on. So let’s take a look at...
I’ve been thinking a lot about how overcome our crafting fears, and I’ve realized I’m part of the problem – if you ask me the time, I tell you how to build a clock. It’s a little overwhelming at times to take in a ton of information or recipes and sort those through your head...
Cetrimonium bromide isn’t used a lot by homecrafters as it isn’t easy to get, but it is a great cationic quaternary compound for really damaged hair, especially hair with gaps in the cuticle. It isn’t as lubricating as BTMS, so you’ll want to include some oils or silicones or cetyl alcohol to ensure you are...
Adding butters to a conditioner may only work for the most dry haired girls out there – normal and oily haired girls might find them too intense, and fine haired girls will probably hate these. All butters contain stearic acid, which is a great moisturizer, so they’ll work for a dry, itchy scalp, and some...