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 I’m asked all the time about how to make infusions or steeped teas for use in our products, and I generally give the same answer – don’t. I know it sounds like a great idea to use something like green tea – both plentiful and inexpensive at the local grocery store – but inexperienced formulators...
I touched on this lightly in a short rant at the bottom of the previous post, but I thought I needed to writer further on this topic. I’m not a fan of what I call “blah blo” talk. You know, when your boss says some important issue is “under review” or takes your concern “under...
In some recipes, you’ll see the addition of citric acid or sodium hydroxide (lye) at the end to alter the pH of the product. Ideally, our products will be between 4.5 and 7 (there are few products that fall outside these areas, like cold processed soap and some moisturizers with AHAs), and the citric acid...
In the first part (which you can read here) we took a look at including our ingredients in the heated or cool down phase. In this part, we’ll take a look at including our ingredients in the right order. I’ve been using Amaze XT quite a bit lately as I research further the effects of...
Welcome to Workshop Stadium. This week the Chairman, Raymond (my lovely husband), has chosen the fourth Iron Chemist ingredient – rice bran oil! Here are the rules. (Click here for the long version.) Raymond rolled a 3, which means he chose an ingredient from the third box in my workshop, the oil box. He chose...