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.
As you may or may not know, I won’t be attending the 2017 Soapmakers’ Guild conference in Niagara Falls. Why? I simply can’t afford it. As a presenter, although the Guild offered to pay for my hotel, flight, and some food, they did not offer an honourarium or fee for teaching four workshops at last...
Wow! Look at this amazing box of ingredients sent to me by Maggie at the Formulator Sample Shop! Water soluble extracts, oil soluble proteins, emulsifying wax, and their new Phytoscents! These were originally intended for the Guild’s conference in Niagara Falls, but since that has been postponed to next year, I can use them make...
It’s been a pretty hard week around here. My back is slowly getting better thanks to more resting and a weekly epidural, but it’s still pretty awful. I managed to stand yesterday to teach my hair care class at Voyageur Soap & Candle, but today is kinda crap, and I’m writing lying down on the...
A few points of interest for the last Sunday in February… I’ve been asked to write a monthly column for Handmade magazine, and the first one just came out – The Science Behind Citrus! I just received my copy on Friday, and I’m thrilled to bits about it! For those of you asking about my back,...
I don’t know if you noticed, but I seem to be having a torrid love affair with this new emulsifier, Aristoflex AVC, which can create lotions and gels cold! N-acetyl glucosamine (NAG) It is a bio-identical ingredient that can reduce hyperpigmentation in the skin, and has been shown to work well when combined with niacinamide. It...