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 Sunflower oil is a fantastic oil if you are looking for a high linoleic acid oil. It is light, meaning you can make some very light moisturizers containing great ingredients, and it’s inexpensive. Its fatty acid make up is…5 to 7% palmitic acid (saturated, C16)3 to 6% stearic acid (saturated, C18)16 to 36% oleic acid...
Won’t someone please think of the pirates?Winter is coming, and this means red cheeks and dry, chapped skin. Moisturizers can be a great help, but what about our manly friends with beards? Moisturizers can leave their beards a lank, greasy mess, but the skin underneath needs a little love! We know linoleic acid can help...
A simply way to get linoleic acid on your skin is to make a simple lotion bar. (And my picture isn’t great – I have to learn how to use that white balance!) SIMPLE LOTION BAR32% beeswax33% butter33% liquid oil1% Vitamin E or other anti-oxidant at suggested rates1% fragrance or essential oils (at safe levels)Melt...
As an introduction to looking at the various oils we can use in making our bath & body products, I thought I’d take a look at the various fatty acids on their own and see what they bring to the mix…and linoleic acid (C18:2 or octadecadienoic acid ) seemed like a good place to start....
Caroline posed an interesting question…My question is if I use a certain percentage of presevative how long will my product last? How long will it be protected? Is there a timeline? Great question! How do we figure out how long something will last? Preservatives and anti-oxidants are only one part of the equation. We...