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.
In this post about making whipped avocado butter, Katie writes: I am just wondering why you did not use a preservative in this product? I just made a whipped shea butter for the first time using sweet almond butter, shea, vitamin e, and essential oils. It sounds like its consistency is similar to yours and it...
Someone suggested Neutrogena’s Body Oil for a duplication, so let’s take a look at it! Ingredients: Isopropyl Myristate, Sesame (Sesamum Indicum) Oil, PEG 40 Sorbitan Peroleate, Propylparaben, BHT, Fragrance Isopropyl myristate – An ester that makes our products feel less greasy. It can be used as an oil to make products feel less greasy. Sesame oil...
Kukui nut oil is kinda pricey – 30 ml was the same price as 1 litre of soy bean oil – so using at really high levels can be a very expensive proposition. I’ve been trying it at 20% in these products, which I think is a really nice level of usage. Add to the...
Randi from Creations by Eden sent me out some green avocado butter, which is “…made from solid fraction of raw-green avocado oil, then fortified with sal butter-stearic fraction and virgin oil de coco-crème® solid fraction.” It’s light green in colour and has a very earthy smell to it. It’s quite hard and would need to...
I know the cetearyl alcohol will keep my oils whippy, light, and not separating, so I think I’ll try a version with esters to make it feel less occlusive and less thick. I’m using my favourite ester, cetearyl ethylhexanoate, to make the product feel very light and non-greasy, and the IPM (or IPP) to increase the...