The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
Are you ready for another cosmetic chemistry coffee klatch? Come join us on Sunday, February 23rd from noon to 3 pm at Decades Coffee Club in Chilliwack for an afternoon of hanging out and talking formulating, sharing ideas, and having a laugh with people who love creating things as much as you do! It’s about…...
Welcome back to this series demonstrating how to use new ingredients and create new formulas! To catch-up on this series, check out these posts: Part one: How do I research ingredients? STEPANQUAT® Helia (INCI: Disunfloweroylethyl Dimonium Chloride (and) Sunflower Seed Oil Glycerides (and) Lauryl Lactyl Lactate)? Part two: Creating the ingredient reference chart? Part three: Finding starting…...
We’re working through the ingredients we need to make this conditioner – Formulas from Stepan: Links to the Multicultural Collection for textured or curly hair. We evaluated the formula in this post – How do I learn about new ingredients? STEPANQUAT® Helia (part six) – reviewing the formula from Stepan’s multicultural series – and found their were four…...
Welcome to week six of the Newbie Tuesday lotion making series! I hope by now you have your ingredients and you’ve made some lotion! I thought I’d share the first round of questions, thoughts, and modified formulas with you in this post, then share more with you next week, on February 25th, 2020. If you…...
Moringa oil (INCI: Moringa Oleifera (Moringa) Seed Oil) is an interesting oil filled with a few neat fatty acids. It’s used as an emollient as well as an occlusive to reduce transepidermal water loss (TEWL), a fragrance stabilizer, and a hair care additive. It’s a light, non-greasy, dry feeling oil that has a slightly nutty odour…...
Gondoic acid (C20:1) – also known as 11-eicosenoic acid – is a monounsaturated oil found in jojoba oil, camelina oil, and moringa oil, amongst others. It works as a moisturizing, skin conditioning, and emollient ingredient. I can’t find out much about this fatty acid, to be honest, and why it’s more special than any other…...
Arachidic fatty acid is a saturated, straight chain fatty acid with 20 carbon atoms in the chain. It has a melting point of 75˚C (167˚F), and a boiling point of 328˚C, so it can handle being heated and held. It’s found in a number of our favourite oils and butters – cupuacu butter, illipe butter,…...
Behenic acid is a straight chain (C22 or 22 carbon), saturated fatty acid found in some of our oils, like moringa and pracaxi, and in small amounts in peanuts. It has a melting point of 80˚C (176˚F), and a boiling point of 306˚C, so it tolerates the heat at which we create our products pretty…...
Are you ready for another cosmetic chemistry coffee klatch? Come join us on Sunday, February 23rd at Decades Coffee Club in Chilliwack for an afternoon of hanging out and talking formulating, sharing ideas, and having a laugh with people who love creating things as much as you do! It’s about spending some time with people … Read more
In the January Q&A, Emma asked: I have a question about some products I recently received as a gift from my brother in Berlin. There is a really nice store there called Urban Cosmetics and they have a lot of natural products, hydrosols, etc. Reading the ingredients I notice they put silver in their serum and…...