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 went into quite a bit of detail in this post – Acids, bases, and pH – oh my! Part four: Testing our products with pH meters – but thought I’d write up a quick reference post on how to adjust the pH of our products. If you want to reduce the pH or make...
This PEG-ester or polyethyleneglycol diester of fatty acids is a good thickener for a variety of surfactant blends, including sulfate free products. The white flakes are soluble in hot water, surfactants, and alcohol, and has an HLB 18.9, indicating it could be paired with a low HLB emulsifier to create lotions. good for sulfate free...
If you want to catch up on this series, please check out the pH & pH meters section of the blog by clicking the link. I thought I’d share a little more of the science of our pH meters with you as I found it really interesting! You don’t need to know this to test...
Cupuacu butter (INCI: Theobroma grandflorum seed butter) is a relative of cocoa butter, with a less greasy skin that leaves a less shiny appearance. Its melting point is more like refined shea butter at 32 ̊C to 36 ̊C (89˚F to 96.8˚F), so melts in contact with skin, which is lovely. It can be used anywhere you might...
You’ve met all the meters I own and have learned how they work, so let’s do a recap of the things to consider when using and storing them. If you’d like to see the rest of this series, please visit the pH & information about meters, a new section we’ve created for the blog! You can...