The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
The youth in our groups are so creative! It’s been a few weeks since we had our polymer clay class, and I’m still blown away by the amazing things they created! I adore Michael’s little brown puppy, Melissa’s Disney princesses, and Emily’s polymer clay Kurt from Glee! (Chayla’s pokemon character was definitely photo worthy, but…...
I’ve already broken down the ingredients for the Hope in a Jar in this post, but I’ll repeat it here with an eye to duplicating it. As a note, this is the Hope in a Jar product, not one of the variations (click here for the Sephora link). And as a note, I don’t see…...
Sarah suggested the Liz Earle Gentle Face Exfoliator as a possible duplication, so let’s take a look at it! (If you want to make your own suggestion, please click here and make a comment. Please include the ingredient list and a link to make my life easier!) Aqua (water): Our solvent. Caprylic/capric triglyceride: Fractionated coconut…...
In the duplicating products post, Lana asked if we could duplicate this product, the Pear & Poppy Seed Microderm Polisher… Pyrus Communis (Pear) Pulp, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Pulp, Pyrus Communis (Pear) Juice, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Juice, Papaver Somniferum (Poppy) Seed, Juglans Regia (Fine Walnut) Exfoliant, Silica, Vegetable Glycerin, Cyamopsis Tetragnoloba (Guar) Gum, Plantago Lanceolata (Plantain)…...
I’ve been using glycol distearate (HLB 1) and ceteareth-20 (HLB 15.2) as my emulsifiers for these HLB posts, but you can use any combination you wish as long as you have a low HLB emlusifier and an high HLB emulsifier in the mix. Here’s what I have in my workshop right now: glycol distearate –…...
Melian poses some very interesting questions in this post, and I thought they needed to be answered here! Bear with me as this is a really long post (not that I’m the Queen of Succint-land on normal days, but this one seems really long!) I’m finding disagreements on the hlb of a few oils. how…...
Let’s take one last look at the HLB system for making our own emulsifiers before we return to duplicating products. Remember that if you make a change to any of the oil soluble ingredients you’ll need to re-calculate your emulsifier! If you’re going from one vegetable oil to another – soy bean oil to sunflower…...
The one down side of using the HLB system is that you have to figure out the HLB of the oil phase if you change an ingredient (unless you’re substituting one vegetable based oil for another one, but even then jojoba could throw you off because it’s 6.5, fractionated coconut oil is 5.5, and emu…...
In the duplicating products post, Pam asked if we could duplicate this product, Aubrey’s Vegecol with Aloe Moisturizing Cream Coconut Fatty Acid Cream Base, Organic Aloe Vera, Witch Hazel (natural herbal extract) , Horsetail Extract, Calendula Oil, St. John’s Wort Oil, Coltsfoot Extract, Coneflower Extract, Panthenol (Vitamin B-5), Linoleic Acid (Vitamin F), Carrot Oil, Organic Lemon Peel Oil, Aubrey¹s Preservative (Citrus Seed Extract, Vitamins A, C and E)…....
All right! How did you do with yesterday’s challenge to figure out how much emulsifier to use in this recipe? Don’t worry – it wasn’t a trick question (I always hate those in math exams)! I’ve realized this was really silly to post this on Easter Sunday because most of you were enjoying your Easter…...