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.
Welcome to a short series on much maligned ingredients, those that are considered thisclose to being evil when it comes to cosmetic products. I’ll be taking a look at propylene glycol and mineral oil first, then moving on to a few of those found on the Suzuki Foundation’s “Dirty Dozen” list. As a quick note,...
So we’ve spent some time getting to know our preservatives, so let’s take a look at what preservatives we might want to use and those we should avoid when creating our products. Let’s say you’re making a scented body spray and you want to use polysorbate 20 to emulsify your fragrance into the water based...
There’s one more thing to consider when using our preservatives – inactivation by cellulose derivatives! In this study, various cellulose derivatives were tested with various preservatives to see which ones retained their efficacy. Here’s the list… Methylcellulose reduced paraben efficacy. Methylcellulose, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose all reduced phenoxyethanol efficacy. Gelatin reduced paraben efficacy. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)...
Thanks to everyone who has been voting in the Aviva competition – 2 days left, so if you have votes left, please use them – and buying the e-books, Back to Basics and the Hair Care Products: Shampoos & Conditioners! You have no idea what your contributions mean to our groups! Your donations make it...
I bet you never though your pigments could have such an effect on your preservative system – but they do! As with the inactivation of preservatives by non-ionic ingredients, this problem is one for the parabens. If you make mineral make-up, this really relates to you! (Click here to read the entire study.) Inorganic pigments...