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, Sarah asks: One thing I’d like to know is the specifics as to why we preserve anhydrous sugar and salt scrubs – I’ve had so many discussions with regards this (I say we should, to be safe) and would like it clarified if poss.! I know you’ve touched on it before but could...
I’ve written about polyquat 7 and honeyquat before, but let’s take a look at those polyquaternium ingredients along with a few others! So what is a cationic polymer? A polymer is “Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds of usually high molecular weight consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units, each a relatively...
Since my first experiments with cetyl alcohol and stearic acid were a bust, I thought I’d turn to another fatty alcohol – cetearyl alcohol! (And you’ve seen how well the other two ingredients worked out!) Cetearyl alcohol (also known as cetostearyl alcohol and cetylstearyl alcohol) is a blend of cetyl and stearyl alcohols that we can use...
In this post on humectants, Aesthete asks: I was re-reading this post on humectants and was wondering if you’ve ever formulated with sorbital? It’s described as having “excellent plasticizing & thickening effects providing viscosity & texture, stabilizes gels & provides good clarity, effective moisturizing properties, good smoothing & conditioning effects.” It almost sounds too good...
All materials reflect and refract light, which is to say all materials alter the angle of light. The refractive index is a ratio defined as the speed of light in a vacuum (which equals 1) over the speed of light in the material. Light slows down when it enters a substance, so every refractive index...