The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! 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.
SwiftCraftyMonkey 
In this post on solid bubble bath bars, Susan wrote, I had a couple questions about bubble bars. I looked at countless recipes, looked up the ingredients of the lush bars, watched videos, and rounded up all the potential ingredients I had on hand. Cream of tartar is stupid expensive but it appears it’s needed...
I’m shocked I’ve never written about this ingredient before, so let’s rectify that mistake, eh? Cream of tartar is an an acidic ingredient also known as potassium bitartrate or potassium hydrogen tartrate* derived from wine making, and used a few different ways in cooking and creating bath and body products. We use it as a...
It’s been a wonderful year of adding new ingredients to my workshop, and in this e-zine, I’m sharing my process and base formulas for trying new ingredients in warm and cold lotions, hair conditioners, moisturizers, and more, and playing with five new ingredients – tamanu oil, cloudberry seed oil, Iselux Ultra mild surfactant blend, a...
Catch up on this series: Part one, the chemistry and nomenclature of esters; part two, types of esters and their sensory characteristics; and part three, chemistry of the sensory characteristics. We also took a look at the hydrolysis of esters, and simple esters! The other day, we met cetyl palmitate, a simple waxy, flaky, oil soluble...
Catch up on this series: Part one, the chemistry and nomenclature of esters; part two, types of esters and their sensory characteristics; and part three, chemistry of the sensory characteristics. We also took a look at the hydrolysis of esters, and simple esters! Yesterday, we met cetyl palmitate, a simple waxy, flaky, oil soluble ester that...