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.
I realized I don’t have a page about who I am and what I do, so here’s a little bit about me, SwiftCraftyMonkey! Hello, I’m Susan Barclay Nichols, perhaps better known as SwiftCraftyMonkey, writer, instructor, and formulator for this site, Point of Interest. I started creating bath, body, and hair care products in 2006 after … Read more
In this month’s Q&A, Flore asked, Hello Susan, I’ve formulated a simple body cream recipe that includes 8% BTMS-50, 4% Cetyl Alcohol, 27% soft oils, 53% distilled water, 5% glycerin, 1% optiphen. What would be your advice on decreasing the soaping effect without adding silicones? This recipe takes a long time to rub in and feels tacky...
Rather than break this into a number of posts over the course of a few days, I decided to leave this as one giant post for easier reference. Honestly, I didn’t expect this to reach over 3,000 words, but here we are! What causes the “soaping effect” or “an undesired foaming phenomenon observed in skin creams...
If you’ve been around this site long enough or have read a few of my e-books, you’ll have noticed my signature combination of ingredients* popping up all over the place, in everything from conditioners to lotions to toners and anything else containing water. It goes a little like this – 3% glycerin, 3% propanediol 1,3,...
Hi everyone! Thanks for joining me here on the site in August 2022! Hope you’re all doing well and avoiding the heat waves that seem to be devastating so many parts of the world. We’re just coming out of a week 35˚C to 39˚C (95˚F to 101˚F) that felt like up to 44˚C (104˚F) with … Read more