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, Nancy asks: Okay, here goes. I feel so dumb asking this question. If you make a facial serum out of oils and extracts with vastly different specific gravity, how do they stay together without shaking, or an emulsifier? I’ve seen plenty of shops on Etsy selling these. I make a product, but I...
Some people would have you believe that everything can penetrate the upper layers of your skin – the epidermis – and make it into your bloodstream, creating all kinds of problems and “poisoning us from the inside out”. They will argue that nicotine and estrogen patches prove their case that things that go on our...
Aquaglyceroporins are “membrane proteins that form water channels over cell membranes. They faciliate transport of water and solutes like glycerol or urea.” (This document, p. 78) In other words, aquaporins regulate the water flux in our skin (specifically in our epidermis, or outer layer of our skin). They are embedded in our cell membranes to help...
I’ve updated this post with interesting things I’ve learned in the past two years. The original post can be found here. Your skin is composed of three layers – the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis or subcutis. Our main focus will be the epidermis or the outer layer of our skin. I find it interesting...
I’m still on a quest to figure out the answer to this question…so let’s review information I’ve found so far. What is a humectant? “Humectancy or hygroscopy is the tendency of a substance to attract water from the surroundings by absorption and adsorption at defined conditions (temperature, humidity).” (page 26, this review). Is glycerin a...