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.
A triglyceride is made up of a glycerol backbone and three fatty acids. So let’s take a look at fatty acids! If you’re a lotion maker, you’re familiar with stearic acid as a thickener. Stearic acid is a C18 fatty acid, which means it is a long chain (C18) fatty acid without any double bonds,...
I find one of the hardest things about making lotions is choosing the right oil for the job! I’m faced with a shelf of wonderful oils filled with wonderful and amazing qualities and I can’t use them all! How to choose? Here’s a little chemistry on triglycerides as a preface to a series on oils…...
I love conditioner bars, and I thought I’d share this visual tutorial for making them with you while I write some lotion posts! If you want to follow along, please check out the conditioner bar or shaving bar recipes! SOLID CONDITIONER BAR RECIPE60% Incroquat BTMS10% cetyl alcohol (you can use stearic if you want a...
My headache is still here, hence the visual tutorial on shampoo bars – I was preparing it for a few weeks from now. But I’m wondering what you want to know about lotions. I am going to be working on a few posts on oils and butters – more chemistry about what they are, how...
I do love shampoo bars, so I thought I’d make up a visual tutorial to share the love. If you want to follow along, you can use this recipe. This is the recipe I’m using for this batch… MELTY INGREDIENTS 30% SCI flakes 30% SLSa 15% DLS mild 10% Bioterge 804 3% cetyl alcohol 3%...