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 know a lot of people cringe when they see math, but I say give numbers a chance! When I started taking math again – I needed to submit a mark for grade 12 math that was within the last five years – I would sit at my desk and say how much I hated,...
Now you try it! Here’s a recipe (originally found in this post) on which you can practice your mad HLB figuring out skills! BODY BUTTER FOR ITCHY WINTER SKIN WITH MINIMALLY PROCESSED INGREDIENTSWATER PHASE25% water10% aloe vera10% chamomile hydrosol10% witch hazel2% hydrolyzed protein5% tamarind seed extract3% glycerin0.5% allantoin OIL PHASE10% soy bean oil7.5% cocoa butter7.5%...
Let’s choose a few more lotion recipes and see how we can use the HLB system to make our own emulsifiers! Let’s go with an easy one first – the six ingredient lotion for my husband’s itchy skin! SIX INGREDIENT LOTION WITH SHEA, SOY BEAN, AND SESAME OILHEATED WATER PHASE39.5% water20% aloe vera3% glycerin HEATED OIL...
Every time I write a recipe with more or less than 25% of the oil phase in emulsifier, someone writes to me to correct me. I appreciate it when I’m working with Polawax, but this isn’t applicable to any other emulsifier out there. (Click here for the post on how much Polawax to use!) The...
So how do we use the HLB system to create an emulsifier? Click here for a great PDF with all the required HLB values of our oil phase ingredients and the HLB values of our potential emulsifiers. You will need to refer to this to play along! The steps to finding out the HLB value...