The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
On Thursday, we took a look at the emulsifiers and simple esters we could use to make this formula, then yesterday we created the heated oil phase. Today, let’s take a look at the water phase and preservatives we might use. When I make a lotion, I always include 0.5% allantoin in the heated water phase…....
Catch up on this series: Part one, the chemistry and nomenclature of esters; part two, types of esters and their sensory characteristics; and part three, chemistry of the sensory characteristics. We also took a look at the hydrolysis of esters, and simple esters! The other day, we took a look at the emulsifiers and simple esters…...
Catch up on this series: Part one, the chemistry and nomenclature of esters; part two, types of esters and their sensory characteristics; and part three, chemistry of the sensory characteristics. We also took a look at the hydrolysis of esters, and simple esters! The other day, we met this lovely, silky, non-greasy, naturally compliant simple ester…...
Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday in creating this light, non-greasy summer weight lotion using Varisoft EQ 65. We figured out what we wanted to include in our water phase, so let’s take a look at the oil phase. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m using Varisoft EQ 65 as the emulsifier to create a…...
I hate summer so very much, but I’m handling it far better this year because we just had central air conditioning installed, and it can get so chilly, I need to put on a light cardigan. (I’m the type who wears shorts all year ’round, so this is a big big deal!) But I know…...
Earlier this week, we met a new-to-me oil, tamanu oil! On Friday, we created a summery body milk with this oil with a ton of humectants to give our product a quick break kind of feeling, then we made the lotion using three variations on the formula. Today, let’s take a look at how we…...
Earlier this week, we met a new-to-me oil, tamanu oil! Yesterday, we created a summery body milk with this oil with a ton of humectants to give our product a quick break kind of feeling. Today, let’s make that lotion before considering a few ways we could alter it with thickeners, oils, and rheology modifiers…....
On Thursday, we met a new-to-me oil, tamanu oil! Let’s take a look at how we might use this in a lotion! As a note, I find the smell too strong to use in huge amounts in an anhydrous product, like a lotion bar or whipped butter, but you could certainly use it in those…...
Glyceryl stearate SE seems like an old school emulsifier – we can use it with the HLB system as it has a value of 5.5 to 5.9 – but it makes lovely light, fluffy, non-greasy lotions with an elegant skin feel. It’s a modified version of glyceryl stearate, so it can be used as the sole…...
Thanks for joining me for this aside on the idea of a product that contains water, like a lotion, can be “self-preserving”. There’s a post on Lush’s site – A beginners’ guide to self-preserving – that we’ll get to shortly, but first, we need to take a look at the idea of hurdle technology, “a term used…...