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.
Heidi suggested we take a look at the Hope in a Jar cream by philosophy in light of what we learned about the dollar store lotions the other day. This cream can cost between $38 and $105 for 8 ounces, so what makes it so expensive? Let’s take a look at what Sephora says about...
The second of our three phases is the oil phase, so let’s take a look at this phase and how to tweak it! The oil phase consists of oil soluble ingredients that can be safely heated and held at 70˚C for 20 minutes. This is where you’ll find our emollients, emulsifiers, thickeners, and anything that is...
I plan to go into this in more detail in the near future, but for those of you who are interested in learning more about the HLB system (hydrophilic-lipophilic balance system), here are a few links to posts I’ve written on this topic… What is the HLB system?A demonstration of the HLB system with a...
As we know, there are generally three phases to our lotion – the heated water phase, the heated oil phase, and the cool down phase. Let’s take a closer look at the water phase. The heated water phase consists of water soluble ingredients that can safely be heated and held at 70˚C for 20 minutes....
Will and Patrick did the most important thing you can do in learning this thing we call cosmetic chemistry – they stayed curious – and both went out to the dollar store to buy lotions. Let’s take a look at what each of them found! (And be warned, this is a long post!) Will: I made...