The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
Stearic acid is a great bar hardener, and I like to use as both a bar hardener and emollient in my body and foot scrub bars. Let’s take a look at the body scrub bar today and the foot scrub bar on Monday. What do I want in a body scrub bar? I want something that...
Solid scrub bars are a great place to use Incroquat BTMS-50 as it will impart some great conditioning and moisturizing without a lot of greasiness, and it stiffens the bar so it’ll keep its shape. Adding Incroquat BTMS-50 to a bar means it’s now an emulsified scrub bar. Why make an emulsified bar instead of...
I’ve been going on and on about pumpkin seed oil as it’s my new favourite oil, one that has a nice balance of linoleic acid and oleic acid, phytosterols, polyphenols, and Vitamin E. It’s also an appropriate time of year to be using the seeds from this gourd in our products because it seems like...
I love lotion bars. They’re super easy to make and you can customize them in so many ways! But what is a lotion bar, exactly? These are generally solid-ish, anhydrous products made with oils, butters, and waxes. The basic recipe is generally 1/3 butter, 1/3 oil, 1/3 wax, but you can make loads of modifications to...
In this post on solid scrub bars, Julia asks: I love this scrub bar, but so far I have always made it without sodium lacate. Which is fine until it reaches about 27˚C, it starts getting soft and mushy. So I want to add the sodium lactate. Problem I’ve run into: It is 60% Salt to...