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.
Last week, I introduced you to one of my favourite new butters – tucuma butter – so I thought today I’d share with you the awesome new emulsified scrub bar I created with it. When I make scrub bars, I tend to make the base, then add the scrubby stuff outside of the main formula...
Tucuma butter (INCI: Astrocaryum tucuma seed butter) is derived from the kernel of the fruit of the Amazon palm tree, astrocaryum tucuma. It’s a solid white to off-white butter at room temperature that melts with an average melting point of 28˚C to 38˚C or 83-97°F, which is lower than body temperature. It comes as a...
I’ve been on a bit of a butter buying spree over the past 18 months, trying new ones like cupuacu butter (E-zine: Shiny things, volume 1 and Emollients you will love) and working with old favourites like sal butter (E-zine: Shiny Things, volume 2 and Emollients you will love) and kokum butter (E-zine: Emollients you...
I was fiddling around with a basic cosmetic certification test from a guild, and again and again these two oils showed up as part of a lotion bar, body melt, and lip balm. These aren’t oils I’ve encountered as a bath & body product maker, but I know both are used quite a lot in...
The horrible recipe from HGTV we saw yesterday used fresh cucumber juice as the water phase, which is a really terrible idea. If you want to incorporate all the awesome power of cucumber in a formula, consider trying cucumber seed oil. Cucumber seed oil (INCI: Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Oil) is cold pressed and smells absolutely...