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.
Although I really like yesterday’s recipe – it’s great as a light lotion without having to go to the effort of using emulsifiers and water – I really wanted a balm. What do I need to change? I realized I’d left out the cetyl alcohol or stearic acid, so I added 6% cetyl esters (again,...
We’re already aware of the awesome power of lecithin and lanolin in our nail care products, so let’s take a look at a lotion or cream you could make as a nail and cuticle treatment product. Considering this would be a lotion or cream, we want the same types of ingredients you’d find in those...
I touched on this idea a little in this post – how to research ingredients – but I thought I’d add a little more on finding data bulletins or data sheets. Let’s say you find an ingredient that looks interesting – let’s say Amphosol CG – but you want to know more about it. You...
There are a million ways you could make an oil based manicure scrub. I like to make mine with a combination of different weights and greasiness levels – avocado (heavy, dry), sunflower (light, greasy), fractionated coconut oil (very light, dryish), and jojoba oil (heavy, dry) – because each offers a different property. In the end, I...
Using a cuticle balm in a stick format is a super easy way to get the goodness of all those wonderful ingredients without having to get your hands completely messy. So let’s take a look at formulating a lotion bar in a tube using lecithin and lanolin. LOTION BAR FOR CUTICLE CARE WITH LANOLIN AND...