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 So this week’s Iron Chemist challenge was to make at least two products with sodium lactate. I admit this was a very hard ingredient to use because I use it in just about everything, so how am I to come up with some new ways of using it? I can’t use it in a rinse...
I thought I’d take a look at the resolutions I made last year and see if I made any headway on my plans. And no, this picture has nothing to do with my resolutions – this year I plan to chew more monkeys? – but I think my dog is adorable! Get organized: This went...
With all this talk about natural emulsifiers and surfactants, I thought we’d get into a little chemistry about sapogenins and saponins! Saponins are steroid or triterpenoid glycosides that have amphiphilic or amphipathic features. They are grouped together by having “soap like foaming qualities they produce in aqueous solutions” – in other words, when you put...
So what the heck are terpenes? We see them mentioned a lot in information about essential oils, but what are they and do they benefit us as bath and body formulators in any way? Terpenes are organic compounds, the major building blocks within nearly every living creature. For instance, steroids are derivatives of the triterpene...
Sorry, I didn’t get around to formulating with the emu oil as I’ve been running around testing everything with my pH meter, and got into the surfactants bin in the workshop! I’ll have some posts on emu oil shortly! My husband has started calling me “magpie” because I’m easily distracted by shiny things! Now that...