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.
Susan Barclay-Nichols Yesterday we took a look at a post sun, summer time hand lotion – let’s take a look at some winter hand lotion oil combinations! What are my winter-y needs? I kinda sorta forget to wear gloves and coats and sweaters and things of that nature this time of year. I get warm really easily,...
I keep seeing things about my conditioner recipe being too thick at 7% (click here for the download, or just go through the blog to find the various recipes for conditioner…), and I couldn’t quite understand it. It’s just liquidy enough to squish out of a bottle and spread nicely, but not so liquidy that...
I’ve been thinking a lot about lotions lately – which is probably a good thing, considering the posts I’ve been writing! – and I realized I should go back to the beginning, to a basic lotion recipe which I can then tweak. I have my basic conditioner template, as it were, so let’s take a...
What exactly is the difference between a cream, lotion, butter, milk, or moisturizer? They’re all oil-in-water emulsifications, meaning there’s more water than oil in the product, but the key difference is the ratio of the water phase to the oil phase. In a body milk or facial moisturizer, you’re looking at about 90% water...
Wasn’t the point of all the oil research supposed to be making lotions? I mean, I’ve been going on since October 10th about oils and butters and exotic oils, when am I going to get to the lotion making? Well, here’s a start! I’ve been trying different things to help my wonderful husband’s itchy legs...