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.
Esters are a great inclusion in a facial serum to increase its ability to spread nicely over your skin and to decrease the feeling of oiliness. If you’re a person who can’t handle oils on your skin, esters can be a way to get some emolliency and occlusion without having to worry about break outs!...
I think the best way to try a new ingredient is to take an easy-to-make product you know and love – let’s say a whipped butter – and tweak it using the new ingredient. In this case, I’m using C12-15 alkyl benzoate with soy butter. I haven’t used soy butter in a while as I...
Lissa wrote in this post on body oil sprays: Have you tried an ester in a body spray? C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate? I love, love light weight sprayable lotions or after shower oil sprays. I generally use an ester in my body spray – I like to include IPM because it reduces the feeling of greasiness –...
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...