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.
I know the words “trans fats” sends a shiver up our spines these days, but they are really relevant in understanding the differences in our oils! But wait – I’ve just realized I haven’t really explained what a double bond is! EEK! Carbon has 4 electrons that want to connect with other atoms (the blue...
No, I’m not getting into how bad hydrogenated oils are for your heart (’cause you need a heart to live), but my interest in this topic is all about the oils we use in bath & body creations! HYDROGENATIONWhen a molecule has double bonds, that double bond can be broken and the fatty acid now...
A triglyceride is made up of a glycerol backbone and three fatty acids. So let’s take a look at fatty acids! If you’re a lotion maker, you’re familiar with stearic acid as a thickener. Stearic acid is a C18 fatty acid, which means it is a long chain (C18) fatty acid without any double bonds,...
I find one of the hardest things about making lotions is choosing the right oil for the job! I’m faced with a shelf of wonderful oils filled with wonderful and amazing qualities and I can’t use them all! How to choose? Here’s a little chemistry on triglycerides as a preface to a series on oils…...
I know I recently wrote a post on this topic, but I thought I’d add a little more to it here… What is phase inversion? We know we have two phases in our lotions – the oil phase and the water phase (if you want more technical terms or to learn more about emulsification, please...