The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! 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.
Cetyl esters are an interesting ingredient indeed! Composed of a number of esters of saturated fatty alcohols and saturated fatty acids, they can contain a number of different esters in one product, including cetyl stearate, cetyl myristate, cetyl palmitate, myristyl myristate, and myristyl stearate. They are derived from vegetables, and you know you have cetyl...
I’ve said it a hundred times so far, but esters are a great way of increasing the feeling of dryness or reducing the feeling of greasiness, increasing the lightness and spreadability, and decreasing the thickness of your lotions or butters. So let’s take a look at a really greasy product – body butter with shea...
I’m a big fan of both IPM and IPP – I generally add them at 2% in a lot of my creations to make it feel slightly less greasy (although I do like a greasier feeling lotion, IPP and IPM offer just enough reduction to stop me from leaving huge greasy fingerprints on my iPod...
A facial moisturizer is the perfect place to use C12-15 alkyl benzoate or cetearyl ethylhexanoate as they’re lightweight, emollient, non-comedogenic, and non-greasy, meaning we get the benefits of an oil without the possible drawbacks like blackheads or break-outs. And the increased occlusivity of C12-15 alkyl benzoate is always great for facial products! Let’s take a...
Esters are a great inclusion in a facial serum to increase its ability to spread nicely over your skin and to decrease the feeling of oiliness. If you’re a person who can’t handle oils on your skin, esters can be a way to get some emolliency and occlusion without having to worry about break outs!...