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’ve heard from a few people that gel toners are all the rage right now, so I thought we should try to formulate one. As an aside, I have turned a toner into a gelled toner in the past using Amaze XT, but I’m hearing that it’s hard to find this ingredient, so it’s time...
I love making eye gels because they offer such great qualities for what I think is pretty low effort. It’s such a simple process: Weigh the gel, add the extracts, mix, package, and rejoice! How much easier could that be? The first part of the process is to make the gel. (Visit this post to...
I’ve become interested in date palm extract lately – I’ve seen quite a few references to it lately as an anti-wrinkle ingredient, and I was given a sample of it from the Formulator Sample Shop*. I’m already using it in the form of their Volumizing Complex PF (Water & Rice Amino Acids & Lactobacillus/Date Fruit Ferment...
As I mentioned yesterday, some gels aren’t great with electrolytes. Check the suggested usage and abilities of your gel before trying it with electrolytes. Carbomer Ultrez 20 and ETD 2020 are good for an aloe vera gel, while Carbomer 940 isn’t. To make a basic aloe vera gel, you can make up your gel as...
I love making gels. They’re just so versatile! I thought we should take a look at five products you could make with gels! What do you need to make a gel? You need a carbomer of some sort. There are various ones available – I’m using Carbopol Ultrez 20 (from Voyageur Soap & Candle), but there are others...