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.
In this post, if you’re new to lotion making, Ann asks: I have made a couple of lotions, each time increasing the water content to try and make them more runny. My last batch was 80% water and it is still quite solid. I was wondering if it is due to the mixing stage. How...
In this post, Pumpkin seed: Making a light lotion, Anamaria asked, I would like to know if I could ever make this same lotion adding magnesium chloride oil? Would it survive to the heat? Thanks Magnesium oil isn’t an oil. It’s a solution of water and magnesium flakes, so it’s a water soluble ingredient, not an...
Stearic acid is a natural inclusion in a cream. In fact, you can thicken any basic lotion into a cream by adding some stearic acid. We took a look at a hand lotion yesterday. Let’s take a look at a cream today. Actually, let’s back up a second. What’s the difference between a cream and...
If you’ve never used stearic acid in a lotion before, this is the lotion formula I recommend as a great starting point. It’s a small variation on the basic lotion you’ll find in the newbie section of the blog, but it’s a great way to learn what stearic acid brings to your product. As I mentioned...
In this post, Why did I buy this and what can I do with it? Foaming bath butter, N. Bax asks: Please, will you go through what the textual and other differences are for the following body moisturizers :Milk-up to 90% water, super thin lotionLotion-up to 70% water, Crème-up to 10% water, very thick “lotion” w/1...