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 continue to see oils listed as having essential fatty acids or containing omega 3, 6, or 9. What does this all mean? An omega 3, 6, or 9 bond means the fatty acid contains a double bond between carbon atoms that is 3, 6, or 9 atoms from the end of the molecule, as...
Welcome to Workshop Stadium. This week the Chairman, Raymond (my lovely husband), has chosen the sixth Iron Chemist ingredient – Lanolin! Here are the rules. (Click here for the long version.) Raymond rolled a seven, which means he chose from the assorted butters and things that haven’t been put away properly box. I have until next...
Mineral oil. This is probably one of the most maligned ingredients out there. If you read just a sampling of what shows up in a google search, you’ll start to think it’s a greasy demon just waiting to damage your skin, give you cancer, cover your skin like plastic wrap, and generally kill you well...
Jojoba oil (INCI: Simmonsia Chinensis Oil) isn’t composed of the same things as the other oils we use – it’s full of wax esters with 40 to 42 atoms! Its fatty profile is all about the weird and wacky fatty acids we rarely see in other oils – 2% palmitic acid (C16), around 7% stearic...