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.
Randi of Creations of Eden now has cetrimonium chloride in stock! Yay! Please note: I’m not affiliated with any retailers or suppliers and I share this information with you, my wonderful readers, so you can find ingredients you might want. I receive no renumeration of any sort by sharing this with you. I just want…...
I decided I’d try behenyl alcohol in place of cetearyl alcohol in this recipe – the rice bran oil based hand protector cream I made as a duplicate of the Body Shop’s hemp hand protector cream for my husband. The original recipe is a very thick lotion that feels slightly greasy going on your hands,…...
I do love working with thickeners in my products! We know that cetyl alcohol can produce something slicker and silkier than stearic acid, and that cetearyl alcohol can offer those same qualities with a little more waxiness, so what does behenyl alcohol bring to the party? First, a review…. Cetyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol…...
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on creating products! Keep those helpful hints coming! I’m moving on to review some new ingredients I’ve bought and experimented with in the last few months. We’ll start tomorrow with behenyl alcohol and take a look at some new surfactants, some new emulsifiers, and other ingredients! I have to…...
We don’t necessarily think of labelling our products as being an essential part of product creation, but when you accidentally use mentholated foot lotion as a facial moisturizer, you’ll realize that we must label everything! Original post from January 24, 2010…Why you must label everything! Look at the picture to the left. Look at the…...
Originally posted on October 14, 2010…I’ve written a lot about packaging in the past, but I’d like to share with you a study I read recently on the value of packaging and preservation.When we’re packaging our products, we need to think of the end user, how she will treat the product once it reaches her…...
Original post from July 13, 2009, modified today… Filling containers can be such a huge pain in the bum! Here are a few things I thought I’d share… Since I’m a surfactant junkie, I make a lot of bubble baths, body washes, and shampoos that need bottling. I find the easiest way is to get…...
Original post from July 14, 2009…Alternatives to bottles! I know a malibu or tottle bottle isn’t really an alternative to a “bottle” because we consider them to be a bottle, but they are a fantastic way to package hair care products, surfactant systems, and lotions. They’re also cheaper than using a pump bottle for thick…...
Packaging our products is more than just putting them in a pretty bottle! We have a few things to consider, such as what we’re packaging in the bottle and what kind of plastic we need for specific products. Here are two posts from the past to give you some things to think about when it…...
We’ve chosen a good recipe, we’ve assembled our ingredients, we’ve heated and held, and we’ve mixed! It’s time to add the cool down ingredients. What do we put into our cool down phase? (Click here for the original post.) We put in the ingredients that might be sensitive to heat, such as our silicones (cyclomethicone…...