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.
It’s been weirdly arid where I live, but getting adequate moisturizing is a nearly impossible task! Sasja’s developed a taste for oils, butters, and lotions, and if I apply it before I go to sleep, she licks my hands all night. So I have to make a choice – a good night’s sleep or moisturizing...
As you may have read on the SwiftCraftyMonkey Facebook page, on March 29th I had to cancel my attendance at the 2018 conference in Atlanta due to these ongoing muscle spasms I’m enjoying so much. Because the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild felt that cancelling with five weeks’ notice because I’m in agonizing pain was a “hardship...
I swear I shared this with you in another post, but I couldn’t find it, so please indulge me if you’ve heard it before. A few years ago, a cosmetic chemist contacted me and said he could always identify my formulas as I have a very strong signature, in this case that I use certain...
It’s pretty incredible to see how changing one small thing – the type of fragrance oil you use – can make such a huge difference in the viscosity of surfactant based products, like bubble baths, body washes, cleansers, and more. In the video below, I used this formula for my ultra bubbly bubble bath. I thickened...
We’ve been talking a bit about increasing viscosity over the last few days as we worked on a potential duplication for Bath & Body Works CocoShea Honey Shower Jelly (Member exclusive). I’ve been working with so many new thickeners over the last 2 years, and I’m getting it all together to finally share what I’ve been...