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.
SwiftCraftyMonkey 
I am so excited to announce that’ll be teaching at Windy Point Soap Making Supplies in Calgary, Alberta, in September! From their site: We’ve updated our Class schedule to include Swiftcraftymonkey’s classes in September. She will be teaching: Sept 14: Liquid Hair Care (morning) & Foamy, Bubbly, Lathery Surfactants (afternoon) Sept 15: Cold Emulsifiers (afternoon) Sept … Read more
As you saw in this post recently – magnetic stirrer with hot plate – we heated our water phase that included hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) on the magnetic stirrer with hot plate as it needs both agitation and heat to fully hydrate this starch. Why did we need to do that? It’s the idea that thickening ingredients...
First, we met my new favourite gum, gellan gum, then we took a look at the Moisture Renew Body Wash formula from the manufacturer along with some ideas on which preservatives will work for it. Today, let’s make this formula and take a look at how to mix it along with testing and adjusting the...
The other day, we met my new favourite gum, Kelcogel® GG-LA, low acyl gellan gum, so let’s get formulating with it today! The first formula I tried was a variation on their Moisture Renewal Body Wash, which uses a combination of gellan gum and xanthan gum as a thickener and suspender. As a quick aside,...
Before we start, I just wanted to remind you that any links to any shops of any sort, including Amazon, are presented not as affiliate links but to show where I purchased various things. I don’t benefit in any way if you purchase anything from any retailer anywhere on the blog. As I shared with...