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.
Papi asked this question: I have a question, if we heat oils (like grapeseed) at 70˚C won’t it get rancid? And maybe we ruin some of its properties too (like evening primrose oil) or the 70˚C is the safe temperature? This is a good question because the last thing we want is to have rancid...
I’m asked all the time about using honey as a humectant in our products. Is it possible? Honey is a good humectant, which is why we want to use it in our products, but this is also where we run into problems. Honey is self-preserving – to a certain extent – when there’s no water...
Terri wrote this comment (and Priya seconded it): My nagging question is how do you account for the loss due to evaporation of ingredients during the heat and hold? Have separate pots with just water and/or other ingredients heating as well to add later? And I never checked, but is there a change in the weight...
As you’ll see in my recipes, I tend to use a lot of extracts. Most of them are powdered extracts (like this chamomile extract from Voyageur Soap & Candle), and I will indicate if they are liquid (like the liquid green tea extract I get from the Personal Formulator). To use a powdered extract, I...
After looking through the posts, I felt that I hadn’t written enough on formulating our less watery lotions before delving into lighter lotions and moisturizers, so let’s step back to those for a few more posts before moving on to facial products. BASIC LOTION RECIPEHEATED WATER PHASE (69.5% of the lotion)69.5% water HEATED OIL PHASE...