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 bought Raymond this fantastic book on the science of cooking, Cooking for Geeks, and I’ve been reading it over the past few weeks before bed. (He’s studying furiously for end of term projects and exams, so it’s not like I bought him the book because I wanted it…okay, I mostly bought it for him!) It’s...
If you’re new to lotion making, welcome! This is a most addictive hobby, and I must warn you in advance that you will find yourself thinking about what you can do to tweak that lotion while you’re going to bed, sitting at a boring meeting, or in traffic. You’ll find packaging in drug stores really...
I know I’m all excited about testing the pH of various products now that I have my lovely pH meter (click here for more information on my lovely pH meter) and I’ve written a bit about how to adjust pH in surfactant based products in the past, but I thought I’d address the issues of pH...
As I mentioned, I feel like I’ve tweaked moisturizers to death, so here are a few ideas for ingredients you can include in your products. I can’t stress enough the idea of making a basic moisturizer then adding ingredients once you see if your skin likes it – give it a week before deciding, unless...
The first place to start to formulate a good moisturizer is to choose a recipe. We’ll start with this very basic recipe and tweak it until we get something we like! I suggest starting with a basic recipe and seeing how your skin reacts to it before adding all those lovely (and expensive) cosmeceuticals. It...