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.
Raymond and I are taking a much deserved camping holiday on the Oregon coast, leaving today and we might be back on Thursday or Friday (we haven’t decided yet). It’s going to be a little cold, but I understand Portland is a mecca for us crafty types, so there’s much fun to be a had....
As you can tell by the name, PEG-7 olivate is derived from oleic acid, which, in this case, comes from olive oil. It seems that what you’ll find at your supplier is OlivEm 300, a brand name for the product from B&T in Italy. It’s a polyethylene glycol ester, which means it’s considered a surfactant with...
You’ve seen these esters around, with names like PEG-7 olivate or PEG-12 laurate, but what the heck are polyethylene glycol esters? Point of interest: What we’ve been taking a look at for the last week are called alkyl esters, just one of the many types of esters! There are a ton of different types –...
Yesterday we made a hand lotion using our esters…today we’ll take a look at making a body lotion by tweaking those ingredients. How is a body lotion different than a hand lotion? I like my body lotions to be thicker and more occlusive. So I’ll switch the cetyl esters for cetyl alcohol and change and...
We took a look at using esters in facial moisturizers, so let’s take a look at using esters in our lotions and creams! Why use esters in a lotion? Esters take a long time to go rancid, so your lotions would have at least a year long shelf life (depending upon the other ingredients). They...