The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! 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.
When we were at Windy Point Soap Making Supplies two weeks ago, we had great fun testing the pH of various Lush products, including three shampoo bars – Jumping Juniper, Montalbano, and Trichomania – as well as two “self-preserving” shower gels, Honey I Washed the Kids and The Olive Branch. Let’s take a look at…...
We had much fun playing with our new pH meters in the pH & preservative class at Windy Point Soap Making Supplies in Calgary last night! Michele and I popped into the local Lush to buy a few products for testing as we’ve always been curious about the pH of some of their products. We…...
As you saw in this post recently – magnetic stirrer with hot plate – we heated our water phase that included hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) on the magnetic stirrer with hot plate as it needs both agitation and heat to fully hydrate this starch. Why did we need to do that? It’s the idea that thickening ingredients…...
We find this compound, pyrrolidine carboxylic acid (PCA), with sodium or zinc as a salt we can use in our products, and as a component in the natural moisturizing factor of our skin. It’s a type of salt, which means it’s an electrolyte, so it can mess with the viscosity of our gels, emulsions, and…...
What exactly is a salt? “A salt is a chemical compound consisting of an assembly of cations and anions. Salts are composed of related numbers of cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negative ions) so that the product is electrically neutral (without a net charge).” (Reference) If you’ve taken my introduction to chemistry course – free…...
If you want to catch up on the acids, bases, and pH – oh my! series, please visit the pH & pH meter section of the blog! On the 7th, we created the water phase of this light summery lotion with Varisoft EQ 65, and yesterday, we looked at the oil phase and considered which…...
Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday in creating this light, non-greasy summer weight lotion using Varisoft EQ 65. We figured out what we wanted to include in our water phase, so let’s take a look at the oil phase. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m using Varisoft EQ 65 as the emulsifier to create a…...
I hate summer so very much, but I’m handling it far better this year because we just had central air conditioning installed, and it can get so chilly, I need to put on a light cardigan. (I’m the type who wears shorts all year ’round, so this is a big big deal!) But I know…...
Thanks for joining me today to create this foaming facial cleanser with decyl glucoside, which we’ll then test with our pH meters and strips! I’m so excited to share this all with you, so let’s get right to the formula, then the process! Yay! If you’d like to catch up on all the posts in…...
This is a bonus formula I teach during my eco facial classes at Voyageur Soap & Candle to demonstrate the fun of testing and adjusting the pH of a cleanser. I call this one my sulfate-free, ECOcert foaming facial cleanser with decyl glucoside, which kinda describes it really well as it contains decyl glucoside as…...