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 With most crafts, you know right away if something works – your earrings don’t fall off, your skirt fits, your cookies look and taste great. With making bath & body products, time is an essential component in determining success or failure. I like to give it at least three months – preferably six months –...
Yesterday we added hydrosols and extracts to our conditioner to make a good, basic conditioner. Today we’ll take a look at tweaking the basic recipe for specific hair types. Aloe vera is a good inclusion for most, if not all, hair types. It’s a film former and humectant, which means it can draw water to your...
I went to the doctor’s office this morning, and on my way home I thought I’d stop by a scrapbooking store to see if I could get some ink for my new cupcake stamps! Oops, wrong street (weird, ’cause the store’s named after the street!) I happened to have a frequent buyer card, so I...
I’m of the firm belief that humectants are a girl’s best friend. They draw water from the atmosphere to our hair or skin to moisturize them. We use them pretty much every product we make – if possible – but some people are wary about using humectants in hair care products. Humectants can be amazing...
With a million different conditioners in the marketplace, it seems like insanity to think they’re all based off the same recipe…but they pretty much are. We saw the other day that there are really just three kinds of conditioners – rinse off, leave on, and intense or treatment – and the central component of any...