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.
From Petra on her third attempt… I started on this quest because I loved the concept… have a scrub that does not need a preservative, is single use, isn’t oily so it won’t clog the drain, softens reasonably well so that it can be used, nice consistency, and does a good job of scrubbing. I...
Okay, so attempt #2 held up well, but it didn’t moisturize enough. So my goal is to increase the moisturization of the product – but it needs to remain hard outside the shower and crumble when used under water. Here’s attempt #3… 40% berry sugar (finer grain than white sugar) 30% baking soda (Arm &...
Petra wrote to me with a challenge – could we try to duplicate Lush’s Sugar Babe Sugar Scrub? We both took up the challenge, and here are her results so far… Batch #1 58% sugar 29% baking soda 7.2% cream of tartar 2.9% SLSa 2.9% virgin coconut oil witch hazel used to bind it together....
Okay, so let’s try another attempt at making a sugar cube recipe. (The first attempt didn’t go all that well!) Here’s what I tried this time… 40 grams white sugar 30 grams baking soda 10 grams mango butter – I thought the shea was too soft 10 grams cream of tartar 10 grams melt &...
Petra wrote to me and proposed a challenge. Could we come up with a recipe to duplicate Lush’s Sugar Babe Sugar Scrub, a bath bomb like scrub that manages to remain hard enough to cut into pieces when dry, but would offer exfoliation and moisturization in the shower? Here are the ingredients… Fair Trade Sugar,...