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 work a day job as a family support worker, and my hours have gone from five days a week to three. It’s a bit of a shock to our family budget and to my brain, which is accustomed to working every hour I’m given. I thought this...
On this post on creating foot scrub bars, Yekatherina asks: Back in December 29, 2011 you posted about the Solid Foot Pumice Bars with a recipe that included sodium lactate. The one on this particular post does not include it and it adds more of the stearic acid. Is there a particular reason why you took...
What have we learned about stearic acid this last week? 1. It’s a fatty acid derived from animal or vegetable sources. (Ask your supplier if this concerns you.) It’s found in almost all our butters and oils, and even in ourselves! 2. It’s oil soluble, meaning you can combine it with oils and butters well,...
I love shampoo bars. I think they may be my favourite product I make. Don’t get me wrong! I love my lotions and potions and body washes and everything else, but the thing that changed the way I see my hair and making things was this shampoo bar. I didn’t create this bar from scratch....
With summer sandal season looming on the horizon in the northern hemisphere, a lot of attention is paid to our feet. Check out this recipe for a foot scrub bar containing stearic acid. (Which can be paired nicely with the thicker foot cream with stearic acid we made last week…) A lot of the ingredients...