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 shared a bit about this butter a few years ago, but I’ve been playing with it a lot more lately, so I thought it was time to take a closer look at this hard, brittle butter. Illipe butter (INCI: Shorea Stenoptera (Illipe) Seed Butter) aka Borneo tallow is a hard, white to cream, brittle...
I’ve been using myristamine oxide in my body washes, shampoos, cleansers, and other surfactant-y products for years, but I’ve never given it its own post. Let’s take a look at it and some related amine oxides to see why we might use them. There are three amine oxides I use – lauramine, myristamine, and cocamidopropylamine...
As part of our ester series, Emrys and I have been testing many different lip balms and lotion bars with solid esters to check their pour temperature, colour pay off, skin feel, flavour oil retention, prettiness, and more. Solid esters used in place of butters can increase colour deposition and may feel less greasy, more silky,...
Moringa oil (INCI: Moringa Oleifera (Moringa) Seed Oil) is an interesting oil filled with a few neat fatty acids. It’s used as an emollient as well as an occlusive to reduce transepidermal water loss (TEWL), a fragrance stabilizer, and a hair care additive. It’s a light, non-greasy, dry feeling oil that has a slightly nutty odour...
Gondoic acid (C20:1) – also known as 11-eicosenoic acid – is a monounsaturated oil found in jojoba oil, camelina oil, and moringa oil, amongst others. It works as a moisturizing, skin conditioning, and emollient ingredient. I can’t find out much about this fatty acid, to be honest, and why it’s more special than any other...