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 In this post, still learning asks: Wonderful site! I’ve been looking to understand phases in a hair conditioner and just in general. I know oils goes in the oil phase and water in the water phase. Yet, I have seen other ingredients in each phase. How do you know what goes where? Thanks. If you’re making...
So let’s say you made yesterday’s recipe, but still consider it too greasy or heavy for your tastes. It’s easy to make a very light feeling, dry lotion by taking out a few things or adding a few things. If you leave out the thickener – stearic acid, cetyl alcohol, cetyl esters, or cetearyl alcohol...
As I mentioned the other day, it seems like the men who contact me want drier feeling lotions – but then again, so do a lot of women. I tend towards the greasier side of the the lotion spectrum, so let’s take a look at a few ingredients and tweaks we can make to create...
The chemistry of men’s skin is just slightly different enough to be interesting and relevant when we’re making products for men. (Click here to see an overview of our skin’s chemistry.) Men’s skin tends to be thicker than women’s skin and they experience more gradual thinning of the skin over their lifetime, whereas women’s skin...
My dad was a manly man. He liked manly things like plumbing and/or pipefitting, hockey, drinking alcoholic beverages, and bubble baths. Whaaaaaat? Yep, almost every man I know enjoys a good bubble bath from time to time, and why shouldn’t they? It’s an enjoyable experience! I didn’t get to share any of the products I...