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 Let’s take a look at a few questions that ended up in the comment box this week! Kari posed this question in this post on cetyl alcohol: Hi! I recently bought your e-books from Lotion Crafter and had a question about adding Cetyl Alcohol to the conditioner when there isn’t a lot of oil. Is it...
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We’ve just enjoyed Mole Day (Commonwealth date, 6-02 or February 6th), and now it’s Pi Day! (March 14. 3-14. Get it? The first numbers of pi!) In honour of this day, may I suggest you find the circumference of something? (That’s 2 ∏ r, in case you’ve...
Click here for the original post from March 4, 2011… The first step in making a moisturizer is to learn your skin type. Some of us can’t stand any oils on our skin and some of us can slather on shea butter and still feel like we need a little more moisturizing. I recommend your...
I regularly see people asking if it’s okay to use a failed lotion or a product without preservatives and they justify it by saying, “Well, it’s just for me”. Aren’t you worth a good lotion, a product that is well preserved, or a product that has a ton of great stuff in it? Isn’t that...
So let’s see what we’ve learned so far about our skin and how to make products for it! Our skin is made up of many layers, and the uppermost one is the stratum corneum. Moisturizing is all about preventing transepidermal water loss by trapping water against our skin through emollients. Hydrating is all about bringing water...