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 I organize the workshop a little better, I’m encountering ingredients I didn’t remember buying and haven’t used. I have a few esters and ingredients for hair styling products for my mom that I’ve never even cracked open! I’m dying to play with them, so I’m planning a day on the Easter weekend to go...
As a rule, you can use any lotion as an in shower lotion – just use it in the shower – but let’s take a look at the Ultra Moisture Oil of Olay In Shower Lotion contains and try to duplicate it. Remember the six steps for duplicating products… Step 1: Get the complete ingredient...
When you’re duplicating products, you’ll soon come to realize that the commercial products contain a lot more water and a lot more mineral oil than we generally use in our products at home. One of the reasons for using a lot more water is cost. Water is fairly inexpensive compared to oils, butters, surfactants, and...
There’s been an ongoing debate about the everlasting flower absolute in the Lush Afterlife moisturizer. It’s not helichrysum but this wonderful plant, the marsh cudweed. After quite a bit of research, I found some reasons why this plant might be found in a moisturizer. It contains caffeic acid, which is a powerful anti-oxidant, a great...
There’s been a lot of debate about the ingredient Everlasting Flower Absolute (Gnaphalium uliginosum) in Lush’s Afterlife moisturizer. Some people have argued it’s helichrysum, which is a very expensive essential oil or extract that is used in facial products, which can also be known as everlasting or immortelle. If you go to the Lushopaedia, they list...