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.
How does a conditioner work? Okay, a little bit of chemistry for you… A conditioning agent (like BTMS) is a cationic quaternary compound. It’s a positively charged compound that adsorbs to the surface of your hair. (Adsorption means the molecules accumulate on the surface of your hair. It’s different from absorption in that it doesn’t...
I asked, you responded, so what interests you?From Esmee: She’d like more solid things as her daughter is a bit of a mixing mad scientist in the bathroom. I’m working on things so stay tuned! From Christine P: Hi, I have a suggestion! I was wondering if you would consider doing another post on hair...
I feel like the subtitle to this post should be “two go in, one comes out, it’s a battle to the death!” These two are always compared to each other because they serve the same function in lotion making – they offer co-emulsification, they increase viscosity, and they act as fatty ingredients to add to...
Cetyl alcohol! This short chain, saturated, fatty alcohol imparts an emollient feel to our lotions and creams and works with our cationic quaternary compounds to super-charge our conditioners. Compare the cetyl alcohol molecule to the stearic acid molecule. It has 16 carbons (stearic has 18) and it has an OH (oxygen-hydrogen or hydroxy group) whereas...
Oh, stearic acid, how we love you as a thickener! Inexpensive and multi-functional, you make a lotion become a decadent cream! Stearic acid is a saturated, long chain fatty acid with 18 carbon molecules, which is to say it is a chain of carbons and hydrogens with a carboxyl group (that COOH you see at...