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’ve been having a lot of problems with my shoulder, as has my mom, my best friend, my best friend’s husband, and my aunt, so I thought I’d try using the pain relief blend of essential oils and oils I made up a while ago in a deodorant container. (What’s going on here? It’s not...
I know this can be a demanding hobby/craft/art/calling/obsession and I know it can be an expensive one sometimes, but making mistakes and “wasting” supplies is part of the process. I know this is a hard thing to accept – I can’t count how many times I’ve kept a product around thinking I’ll try to fix...
Welcome to Workshop Stadium. This week the Chairman, Raymond (my lovely husband), has chosen the third Iron Chemist ingredient – LSB (surfactant from Stepan). I’m grateful he chose this one; I accidentally bought two bottles of it, forgetting I had already purchased the first, so I have tons with which I can play! Here are...
At least once a day, someone writes to me to ask if they can substitute this oil for that one, and my answer is always “yes!!!” (although I don’t always put exclamation marks at the end of the sentence). I spent a small fortune on oils and butters when I started on this amazing journey...
Last Sunday, my lovely husband chose SCI as the ingredient for this week’s Iron Chemist! And here are the results! SYNDET BODY BAR50% SCI33% SLSa10% cocamidopropyl betaine3% cocamide DEA2% glycol distearate2% fragrance oil Weigh the SCI and cocamidopropyl betaine in a heatproof container and place into the double boiler. Weigh the cocamide DEA and glycol...