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.
So let’s try experiment number three with cetearyl alcohol. For this experiment I used 10% cetearyl alcohol and 90% shea oil from Soapcraft (the less creamy looking one). I weighed both ingredients in a Pyrex jug and heated it until the ingredients melted. I popped the container into the freezer for about 30 minutes. When...
For the second experiment, I’m using 10% stearic acid and 90% rice bran oil (I’m running out of shea oil and it’s not cheap stuff!), hence the slightly yellowy cast of the picture to the left. Stearic acid is a great thickener, although it will make my creation feel more draggy than cetyl alcohol. And...
For the whipped shea without butter experiment, I know I need some shea oil and a thickener. Today I’m experimenting with cetyl alcohol… For my first experiment, I used 90% shea oil and 10% cetyl alcohol. I weighed both together in a Pyrex jug, then put it into the double boiler. It melted relatively quickly...
Whipped golden shea butter I’ve purchased or been sent a ton of new supplies lately, ingredients with which I’ve never worked, so I thought it would be fun to do a kind of random series of posts on what I’ve been making lately in my workshop with those ingredients while I do more research for...