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.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what posts to write next, and I think I’m going to do a series on learning to formulate our products from scratch. Although these posts will mostly relate to lotion making, you can take what I’m posting here and use it for other products. If you are...
I know most people, if asked, will say they prefer a drier feeling lotion, but a lot of those perceptions are based upon commercial products that contain mostly mineral oil. Most of our vegetable oils feel less greasy than mineral oil, and all of our esters definitely feel that way. So here are a few...
As I mentioned the other day, the thickening posts and Iron Chemist will be delayed a few days until the weather warms up enough for me to enter my workshop! I’m willing to suffer for my beloved chemistry, but not so much that the headaches return and keep me in bed for days! I thought...
It is so cold in my workshop that I can’t go into it, so the posts I was hoping to write about using the thickeners and the Iron Chemist results may be delayed! It’s been below freezing since Saturday, -3˚C or lower in the mornings, and not much higher in the afternoons, and the moment...
Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (also known as hypromellose or HPMC as I’ll be typing from now on!) is a non-ionic, water soluble polymer derived from cellulose. It comes as a white or off-white odourless powder that we use to thicken our products. Because it’s non-ionic, it has many uses like shampoos, lotions, shaving gels, and pretty...