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.
At least once a day, someone writes to me to ask if they can substitute this oil for that one, and my answer is always “yes!!!” (although I don’t always put exclamation marks at the end of the sentence). I spent a small fortune on oils and butters when I started on this amazing journey...
As I’ve mentioned in the past, my husband has vitiligo, and his legs get very itchy during the winter (too dry) and the summer (exposure), so I’m always thinking of ways to create products to stop him from scratching and to help heal the wounds. (Not making any claims here, just going on what the...
So here’s my first entry into the six ingredient challenge. I debated many oils while making this first one…did I want something with loads of linoleic acid for the winter time or did I want something with occlusiveness? What did I want as a humectant? Did I want to spend an ingredient on an extract...
Welcome to the six ingredient lotion challenge! The rules are simple – make a lotion using only six ingredients. Water, preservative, fragrance or essential oils do not count towards the six ingredients, but everything else does (including hydrosols or aloe vera that you might substitute for the water portion). You can make type of lotion you...
Someone asks: Say you have a cream that came out too thick and you have to thin it. You measure out the water and just add? THEN how do you refigure the % of your original formula? You cannot thin out a thick lotion once you’ve made it. If you add water to it, you’ll mess up...