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.
So how will a shampoo bar for dry hair differ from one for oily hair? We can’t reduce the surfactants as we normally would for dry hair, but we can change the types of surfactants we’re using and increase the oils and butters. Dry hair likes gentle cleansing, so we want to use really gentle...
What makes fine hair different than average or coarse hair? Fine hair tends to lack firmness and rigidity, is susceptible to fly-aways, is hard to style, and tangles easily. Why is that? Our hair is made up of three layers – the medulla, the cortex, and the cuticle. The medulla is the important part when it...
It’s June 2, which means it’s Mole Day in North America! From wikipedia: A mole has 6.02×10(23) atoms or molecules of the pure substance being measured. A mole of a substance has mass in grams exactly equal to the substance’s molecular or atomic weight. So if carbon has an atomic weight of 12 grams, this...
Let’s take a look today at making shampoo bars suitable for oily hair (because that’s what I have!). The first recipe is a conditioning shampoo bar, the second a variation for clarifying shampoo bars, and the third a recipe for a 2-in-1 type product. Powdered surfactants: We know from yesterday’s post we want to include...
It really doesn’t feel like we’re only three weeks away from summer here in southwestern B.C. – we’re getting rained on constantly, the temperature is in the mid-teens ˚C, and we’re still waiting for strawberry season – but I can still prepare for the horrible heat…I mean, loveliness…of summer. So I thought I’d put together...