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’m half way through the post but I won’t be able to post it until later tonight as I’ve run out of time before work this morning! So look for it later tonight or tomorrow or whenever you get time to visit here again. Sorry – so much going on this week and last and...
The periodic table. You see it everywhere, but what the heck does it all mean? Take a look at it for a moment. It’s arranged by atomic number, which is the number of protons in an atom’s nucleus. Let’s meet the atom! When we look at the periodic table of elements, we’re looking at the...
I’ve recently discovered – and love – the oil soluble green tea extract at Brambleberry. I’ve tried it in quite a few things, and I think it makes for a lovely addition to my products. Because it’s oil soluble, we can add it to things when we can’t add water soluble extracts or powders, like...
In this post, Aicha asks: I love matcha green tea powder! Can this be used in lotion bar recipes? The short answer…no. The long answer…yes, but not the powder. Green tea powder is a fantastic addition to our products (click here for the PDF on the topic!). It’s full of catechins, anti-oxidants, caffeine, proanthocyanidins, and more,...
What do you think about having a post in which a basic concept in chemistry is explained every week? We could go over basic concepts in chemistry or I could answer questions or whatever you want. I’m thinking about things I’ve already covered like anionic, cationic, and non-ionic, solubility, miscibility, emulsification, and so on, but...