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.
It’s March 1st, the second anniversary of this blog and National Crafting Month! I think I’ll celebrate with some homemade ice cream topped with our homemade strawberry sauce and homemade caramel sauce (and a heaping dose of Lactaid Ultra!). A lot of people write to me asking about my motivation in writing this blog every...
I thought I’d take a moment today to recap what we’ve learned so far about formulating and tweaking lotions. I like to start by figuring out the goal of the lotion. What kind of lotion do I want to make for what skin type or body part? Next, choose your recipe. If you want to...
As I’ve been writing this series on lotion making, I’ve realized there are so many little things I do to make lotions, both in formulating and the process itself, that I wasn’t taught by someone else but learned along the way. And we all have those little things that we’ve figured out ourselves based on...
I admit I’m addicted to stencilling because it gives me a chance to make funky personalized t-shirts and other fabric items with an X-acto knife, some freezer paper, and fabric paints. My How’s That Made group has spent the last two weeks stencilling. Week one, we learned how to make stencils. Week two, we decorated...
We know that a light lotion has about an 80% water phase, 19% oil phase, and 0.5% to 1% preservative. And we know we can tweak that lotion silly with any ingredients we want as long as we stay within those guidelines if we want it to remain the consistency of a light lotion (You...