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.
Hi everyone! I’m having a blast offering these Zoom workshops and engaging with you in the Discord chats, and I hope you are too! I’ve been working through the schedule for the summer, and here’s what I thought would work for various dates… Please note Discord and Zoom workshops are only available to subscribers, so … Read more
Please please please please please don’t make your own sunscreen. I say this every year, and I’ll continue to say it this year. You simply can’t be sure that what you’ve made works, and if it fails, you risk sunburn, premature signs of aging, and possible future skin cancers. It’s not as easy as adding … Read more
Sorry for taking so long to share this, but when you see how huge it is, you’ll understand why! This month’s e-zine is The Big Book of Conditioners! Over 27,000 words and 82 pages, with profiles of 27+ conditioners with many sample formulas and a huge section on creating and modifying base formulas! My goal in…...
I’m still going through the chat log for the shampoo bar workshop we held on Sunday, June 14th, 2020 trying to answer the questions I might not have addressed. In today’s post, we’ll review a few general questions about the process of making shampoo bars! Ever wonder why it takes me so long to answer questions? I’ve…...
I thought this photo of all the empty containers for conditioners I was testing was a fun way to introduce this topic. I do have posts for all those formulas on the blog somewhere! Happy Saturday! Sorry for the lateness in sharing this, but this is where you find everything you need to join our…...
I’m still going through the chat log for the shampoo bar workshop we held on Sunday, June 14th, 2020 trying to answer the questions I might not have addressed. In today’s post, we’ll take a look at adding all kinds of other ingredients to our bars. Wow, this should have been a book! I’m over 7,000 words…...
In the shampoo bar Zoom workshop on Sunday, June 14, 2020, Zikhona asked about Crodazoquat MCC (INCI name: Behentrimonium Methosulfate (and) Quaternium-87 (and) Cetearyl Alcohol). Let’s take a look at this conditioner that’s advertised to work well for African hair types. “Crodazoquat MCC is a hair conditioning agent that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse…...
I’m still going through the chat log for the shampoo bar workshop we held on Sunday, June 14th, 2020 trying to answer the questions I might not have addressed. In today’s post, we’ll take a look at adding emollients and other moisturizers. Links for the entire series… In part one, we took a look at how to substitute…...
So 5 minutes crafts decided they would share this video, “5 colourful crayon ideas”. The one that made me scream so loud I startled the dog is number four. Spoiler alert if you don’t want to watch the video: Don’t make lip balms from crayons. Video on Facebook. Making lip balms are actually pretty simple…...
I’m asked a lot how to make volumizing shampoos, both liquid and solid, and the key is to leave out all those things that could weigh down hair, like Cetearyl Alcohol, hard butters, liquid oils, and large quantities of conditioning emulsifiers, like Incroquat BTMS-50. If you see a formula that contains these ingredients, you can…...