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.
Carboxylates are produced by the alkaline hydrolysis or saponification of animal or vegetable fats and result from the neutralization of fatty acids. They are extremely soluble in water up to C18 (or 18 carbons), and are insoluble over C20. If you use an unsaturated oil or butter to produce these surfactants, you might see some...
Take a look at the right hand side of this blog and scroll down to where it says “links to lists”! There you’ll find pages I’ve created for general topics like oils & butters, extracts, and skin chemistry & skin types so you can find them all in one handy dandy place without having to...
I know there’s a lot of misunderstanding about surfactants – especially about SLS – so here’s a way of figuring out what type of surfactant you have! Sodium lauryl sulfate Okay, the sodium part is the cationic or positively charged ion in this surfactant. The lauryl part indicates which fatty acid was used to make...
As I’m writing this series of posts on surfactants, there are a few things to consider when formulating… foaming lathering bubbling good skin or hair feel substantitive to skin or hair how it performs in hard water foamy resistance to soap and/or sebum how to thicken it These qualities will make it clear which one...
An anonymous commenter on this post asks…What is the difference between an EO, Extract or tea? (Besides how they are made) For example, if I was going to use Rosemary, which form would be the best to use in a shampoo or conditioner? Or is there not much of a difference between the effectiveness of...