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 love the love so much, I wanted to share with you this massage oil that’s super easy to make and can be customized to include what’s in your workshop! You could put this in a bottle with a treatment pump or another cap, but I like to make these in roller bottles to make...
I am so bored lying here on the couch on my heating pad as my back pain continues. I went for an epidural on Saturday and have a second scheduled for this upcoming Saturday, but it’s still too painful to stand for more than a few minutes or sit for a while. I have another...
On February 11, we took a look at ways to thicken oils that won’t be greasy. Today, let’s look at a few other ways to thicken oils! A few years ago – holy cow, was that in 2010? – I did some experiments thickening oils with cetyl alcohol, stearic acid, cetearyl alcohol, and complicated with...
I’ve been having a blast playing with all kinds of surfactants and thickeners over the last 18 months, and I’m getting ready to share them with you shortly. In the meantime, check out these new posts on the new blog about surfactants! Using powdered surfactants like SCI or SLSa in liquid products Separation in surfactant...
I mentioned this on Facebook and the old blog in the digest for the week, but I want all my writing to be in one place, so I’m sharing it here, too. When you’re making surfactant based products like shampoo, body wash, facial cleanser, bubble bath, and so on, mix very slowly in a zig...