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 know you’re probably itching for me to get to facial moisturizers, but I thought I would give the dry skinned amongst us time to do some playing with the ingredients in the lotions I’ve been writing about for the last few days to see what you like before we get into make more expensive...
In this post, Dawn asks: Susan, I noticed you are using glycerin and not hydrovance in the dry skin formulations. Is glycerin a better product for extremely dry skin? I love hydrovance but if there is an advantage to using glycerin with the dry skin issue, I’d like to formulate the most effective lotion. I...
I’m afraid I can’t find the e-mail/comment I wanted to quote here, but someone noted the other day that their body butter wasn’t very thick. I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that our products may take up to a few days to thicken to their final viscosity and not to panic if...
If you’re the type who likes a less greasy feeling lotion, there are a few ways you can reduce that feeling in your lotion. Most of these options can be found in the heated oil phase as we switch one oil for another, one butter for another, and add a few esters and fatty alcohols....
Why are you using camellia seed oil in your hair care products? Is it because it’s been used for hundreds of years by Japanese women on their hair? And if so, what the heck does that phrase mean? Think about it for a moment…I could say that women have been using CP soap in their...