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 the October Q&A post, Chelsea asked, Hey swift – I am super interested in azelaic acid and some in general information about it. I made sure to to check via the search first and didn’t produce results; though I hope I didnt accidentally miss this ingredient info on the blog. Thank you much for...
In the August Q&A post, Brian asked, What are these new products using “Essence” in the name? Fresh Black Tea Kombacha and Tatcha The Essence, Plumping Skin Softer, both listing saccharomyces as the first ingredient, and both hitting near $100 in price. The dictionary definition of “Essence” makes no sense here but it is a...
In the July Q&A, Heather R asked, I need help in understanding “Resveratrol” – Does it need to be diluted first like Hyaluronic Acid does? I would like to use it in a spray on facial toner. I bought 5g of it from Lotioncrafter. I’ve written a short post on Resveratrol, which I’ve linked in the...
In the March Q&A, Olja asked, My question is about NAG (N-acetyl glucosamine). To which phase do you put it. If you put it to the cool down phase, do you dissolve it prior? Can you dissolve it in a glicerite extract (which also contains some water) and than put it in the lotion? Moreover, if using...
Oops! I realized I haven’t written much on melanin and such, so I had to stop for a moment to do that before we move on to looking at other ingredients we could use in yesterday’s ECOcert moisturizer. In the first part of this series, we looked at what it means for an ingredient to...