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 hope you enjoyed making melt & pour soap today! I’m sure you can see the possibilities for making your own soap molds using silicone ice cube trays, chocolate molds, and containers from around the house. If you are interested in melting & pouring at home, click here for the instructions from today’s class! If...
Cleansing our skin is vital, and using surfactants can irritate the heck out of any skin type, but dry skin is particularly susceptible to stripping of oils when using detergent based cleansers. You can even get away without using surfactants if you have very dry skin (my mom hasn’t used anything except water on her...
Let’s make a lovely facial cleanser specific to your skin type. What are the general goals of a facial cleanser? We want to remove the excess oils and dirt that accumulate over the day without feeling overly dry and irritated. Ideally, we’d have something that leaves our skin feeling moisturized and conditioned, and we don’t...
I do love SCI (sodium cocoyl isethionate). It’s creamy, it’s foamy, and it makes my skin and hair feel lovely when I’ve used it in a syndet bar or shampoo. It’s a great addition to any surfactant mix…but it’s hard to melt and it wants to be solid again. When we add it to to...
A lot of people want to replicate the Dove moisturizing body washes – so let’s take a look at what makes this product moisturizing! These are the ingredients for the Dove Moisturizing Body Wash “Deep Moisture”. Water: Okay, that’s a givenHelianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Sunflower): This is an interesting addition. It makes sense because the...