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.
Let’s take a look at including EDTA in a lotion formula…The disodium EDTA I have from the Personal Formulator recommends usage at 0.1%, so I’ll use that as my number.A THICKER FOOT CREAM RECIPE (originally in this post…)WATER PHASE59.9% water3% glycerin0.1% disodium EDTA OIL PHASE15% oils – olive and rice bran are great choices here...
EDTA (or ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid) is a wonderful polyamino carboxylic acid that has the ability to chelate, sequester, and offer anti-oxidizing properties to our lotions. And we only need to use 0.20% to get maximum benefits in our lotions and surfactant based products! What exactly is a chelating or sequestering ingredient? EDTA binds with metal...
Anti-oxidants can stave off rancidity in our oils, giving them a longer shelf life in our products. Nothing can make the possibility of rancidity go away completely, but anti-oxidants are huge weapons in our fight on ickiness! Free radicals are constantly running around in our lotions, seeking out electrons to fill its valence shell. When...
There are different ways by which our oils can become rancid, most of them involving oxygen. I know we need it to live, but it’s such a nuisance! OXIDATIVE RANCIDITY The double bonds of the fatty acid react chemically with oxygen. This turns the fatty acid molecules into other molecules that smell awful! This can...
EEEK! Rancidity! The curse of lotion makers everywhere! You know how oils can go rancid now – through the breaking of the double bonds – but how exactly does that happen and how can we prevent it from ruining your lotions and potions! For a short post on anti-oxidants, please click here. I will be...