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.
Join me this Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 11 am PDT (Vancouver time) for a shampoo bar making workshop! We’ll be making two shampoo bars – one warm process, one cold process – and along the way, we’ll be talking about how to make modifications, use that cool purple dye, add and remove ingredients, create...
When we’re looking at INCI names, you’ll see things like stearate, palmitate, cocoate, and more. What do these names mean? When an ingredient is derived from fatty acids, you’ll see a name like sodium stearate or ethylhexyl palmitate indicating which one they’ve used. If you see laur- in a name, it means it’s derived from lauric...
The FDA has put out a recall for Arbonne’s Shea Butter Body wash because “because product testing by the manufacturer revealed the presence of Pluralibacter gergoviae.” This bacteria “is an opportunistic pathogen that has repeatedly been isolated from personal care products.” (Reference) This isn’t the first time this company has been involved in a recall...
I’ve been taking some time to inventory my ingredients, formulas, and draft posts to find out what I haven’t shared with you yet. I didn’t realize I’ve been playing with St. John’s wort oil for quite some time now! Let’s take a look at this interesting oil! There are two versions of St John’s wort...
I wrote this last year, but didn’t share it, for some strange reason. It was supposed to come after the ingredient entry for cream of tartar last November… So why use might we use cream of tartar (INCI: Potassium bitartrate) instead of citric acid? Why do I use it in my bubble bath bars instead of citric acid?...