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 Nothing says creamy and moisturizing like an opaque product, so I think I’ll modify yesterday’s recipe to include glycol distearate as a pearlizer and moisturizer. I’m going to be honest – I find using glycol distearate a pain in the bum to use as you have to make sure it melts, but if I have...
I’ve always thought about making a liquid hand soap – I don’t make CP soap, so I don’t make liquid soap – but I thought I could make a nice syndet one out of my lovely surfactants, some moisturizing ingredients, and my polyquats. What’s the goal of a hand soap? We want something that cleanses...
I’ve written about polyquat 7 and honeyquat before, but let’s take a look at those polyquaternium ingredients along with a few others! So what is a cationic polymer? A polymer is “Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds of usually high molecular weight consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units, each a relatively...
I do love a good conditioner, and even more so since the incident with the Dremel left me with a big chunk of hair that has been really really damaged. I wouldn’t normally combine cetrimonium bromide and BTMS-50 in a conditioner as they don’t play well together and tend to separate, but I need some...
I know the cetearyl alcohol will keep my oils whippy, light, and not separating, so I think I’ll try a version with esters to make it feel less occlusive and less thick. I’m using my favourite ester, cetearyl ethylhexanoate, to make the product feel very light and non-greasy, and the IPM (or IPP) to increase the...