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.
The periodic table. You see it everywhere, but what the heck does it all mean? Take a look at it for a moment. It’s arranged by atomic number, which is the number of protons in an atom’s nucleus. Let’s meet the atom! When we look at the periodic table of elements, we’re looking at the...
What do you think about having a post in which a basic concept in chemistry is explained every week? We could go over basic concepts in chemistry or I could answer questions or whatever you want. I’m thinking about things I’ve already covered like anionic, cationic, and non-ionic, solubility, miscibility, emulsification, and so on, but...
I do love working with thickeners in my products! We know that cetyl alcohol can produce something slicker and silkier than stearic acid, and that cetearyl alcohol can offer those same qualities with a little more waxiness, so what does behenyl alcohol bring to the party? First, a review…. Cetyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol...
Tara made a great comment in response to yesterday’s question about why some of my lotion recipes are so thick – I used to agree that your recipes came out awfully thick, but then I learned to account for evaporated water. I now make sure my vessels that contain my ingredients for heating weigh the same before...
Two new elements have been added to the periodic table at 114 and 116, and they are – as yet – unnamed! I would like to suggest that one of them have the symbol E as it would make Periodic Table Scrabble much more fun (right now, we only have Er as an option) so...