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 Between not having internet access since Saturday night, the stomach flu – from which I’m mostly recovered, although I’m still feeling a bit weak – and my mom’s exciting case of this ailment, I’m afraid I’m behind on posts, comments, and e-mails. I hope to catch up tomorrow and Wednesday, so I ask for your...
There’s been a lot of talk about mineral make-up lately, and I thought I’d address a few of the issues I’ve seen… Fillers: Fillers aren’t a bad thing – they’re necessary. Fillers are what give the pigments adhesion, water proofing, shine, skin protecting qualities, and so on. Without fillers, you’ve just got some mica that...
Niacinamide (aka Vitamin B3 or nicotinic acid) is an absolutely fascinating cosmeceutical and one that has a lot of science to back up the claims! It’s a water soluble vitamin that can be found as a powder we add to the heated water phase of our products. So what can this amazing vitamin do? The...
As I mentioned, I feel like I’ve tweaked moisturizers to death, so here are a few ideas for ingredients you can include in your products. I can’t stress enough the idea of making a basic moisturizer then adding ingredients once you see if your skin likes it – give it a week before deciding, unless...
The first place to start to formulate a good moisturizer is to choose a recipe. We’ll start with this very basic recipe and tweak it until we get something we like! I suggest starting with a basic recipe and seeing how your skin reacts to it before adding all those lovely (and expensive) cosmeceuticals. It...