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 
Hi, everyone. Hope your November is going well. I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t get an e-book out this month. I’ve been really struggling with my health for the last five or so weeks, and I just couldn’t finish anything in time. I have a few drafts going at once, but the lack of sleep...
Welcome to part seven of this series/course – Formulating Friday cold process emulsifier series – in which we’ll look at how to increase the viscosity by adding oil-soluble solid-at-room temperature ingredients by creating a new heated oil phase for the formula. In our last post on October 31, 2025, we looked at increasing the viscosity...
A very hearty hello to everyone who is playing along with this series! Unfortunately, part 42 will not be seen this week as I’ve reached a point where I’ve had to make loads of graphics, and it took up all the time I had allotted for the post. Then I realized I had something I … Read more
I’m working through all my ideas for this and the coming months, and I realized I hadn’t done anything from this series in almost ten years! Eeek! Click here to see the posts in that series. In that series we covered… Stearic acid Gels! Cucumber extract Sunflower oil (10 products) Incroquat BTMS-50 (10 products) …creating at … Read more
In any of the formulas I share with you here on the site, in my classes, or in my e-books, you can substitute any oil for any oil, any butter for any butter, any oil for any butter, or any butter for any oil and you will create something successful.* Your lotion will still be...