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.
The most common question I’m asked is “why did my lotion fail?” I thought we’d take a few days to look at the various ways a lotion could fail and how to fix it. What is a lotion? (From Back to to the very basics: Lotion making!) A lotion is an emulsified product. It can...
In this post, More information on calculations, Chris B from the Dish asks: I was just wondering what oils/butters you recommend adding to a lotion to make the lotion last longer on the skin? I have tried many of your formulas (love a few of them) but after about two hours, the moisturizing effect is gone...
In this post, Lotions: A basic recipe, Helga asks: 1) does lotion need vitamin E? 2) is the percentage of preservative and fragrance based on the absolute total produced with those included or of the foundation of the recipe without those? I include Vitamin E for two reasons. The first is because it’s lovely for your...
We might not be getting snow this year, but it’s still dry outside! (The lack of snow is so bad, local mountains are calling the ski season over!) Raymond’s skin needs some serious moisturizing and hydrating, and I thought I’d make him a lovely body butter to help his skin get back to normal! If...
Let’s take a look today at altering recipes as there have been a lot of questions about this lately. (Original post can be found here…) Let’s say I have this recipe from this post: SWIFT’S BASIC HAND LOTION FORMULA69.5% water15% oil5% butter3% cetyl alcohol or stearic acid6% Polawax1% fragrance oil0.5% liquid Germall Plus Please use...