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.
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that my preservative of choice is liquid Germall Plus. It contains propylene glycol (60%), diazolidinyl urea (39.6%), and iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (0.6%). It’s a broad spectrum liquid preservative that should be used at 0.1% to 0.5% in the cool down phase of your products....
Some of you are so eager to learn more about various preservatives, that you’re jumping ahead and asking questions about posts that haven’t been written yet! I like to establish the components of the various ingredients – in this case, what we find in our preservatives and how they work – then go into the...
A huge thank you for purchasing the e-book as a way of supporting my youth groups! If you don’t know about it, here’s a quick synopsis… It’s a 122 page e-book entitled Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products. The book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath...
Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (IPBC) is a non-formaldehyde releasing chemical based on iodine. It is effective against fungus and bacteria and can be combined with diazolidinyl urea or parabens to create a broad spectrum preservative. The Cosmetics Ingredient Review Panel notes it is safe to use at levels equal to or below 0.1% and the EU allows...
Phenoxyethanol is a phenolic compound with an alcohol functional group that we find in quite a few preservatives. It is not a formaldehyde releaser. It has good activity* against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria as well as yeast, and is generally paired up with another preservative – a quaternium, benzoic acid, or parabens to...