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.
In line at a shop the other day, a woman turned to me and told me that propylene glycol was in anti-freeze and ranch dressing! “I’m not eating anti-freeze,” she said. I have no idea why she told me this. It wasn’t like I was telling her about my love of cosmetic chemistry or holding...
Thanks so much for voting for our youth groups in the Aviva Competition. We had about 694 votes and made it to number 34, which means we won’t make it to the semi-finals this time. I really appreciate all your time and effort in supporting our groups. I really can’t thank you all enough! We...
Welcome to a short series on much maligned ingredients, those that are considered thisclose to being evil when it comes to cosmetic products. I’ll be taking a look at propylene glycol and mineral oil first, then moving on to a few of those found on the Suzuki Foundation’s “Dirty Dozen” list. As a quick note,...
So we’ve spent some time getting to know our preservatives, so let’s take a look at what preservatives we might want to use and those we should avoid when creating our products. Let’s say you’re making a scented body spray and you want to use polysorbate 20 to emulsify your fragrance into the water based...
There’s one more thing to consider when using our preservatives – inactivation by cellulose derivatives! In this study, various cellulose derivatives were tested with various preservatives to see which ones retained their efficacy. Here’s the list… Methylcellulose reduced paraben efficacy. Methylcellulose, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose all reduced phenoxyethanol efficacy. Gelatin reduced paraben efficacy. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)...