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.
Sorry I didn’t post this on September 17th like I planned – I was studying for a math test and simply forgot to check my posts!Magnesium myristate at 10% in a powder is supposed to be a good binder. So I thought I’d try it! To 1/2 tsp (2.5 cc) of eye shadow powder I...
I thought I dismissed the idea of alcohol far too quickly, so I tried it this morning. To 1.0 grams of paradise eye shadow I added 20 drops or 0.2 grams of denatured alcohol. I put it into the container as I figured this would be easier. It didn’t make as much mess as the...
I figured dimethicone would be a good choice as a non-oil binder. It’s not volatile like cyclomethicone, and it comes in different weights so I could use a light weight one to mimic the success I had with fractionated coconut oil. Because it’s an oil, you don’t need to add a preservative and it is...
I decided I’d try pressing eye shadows just out of curiosity, and found there are some interesting ideas out there on how to bind the eye shadow ingredients together. There are two main schools of thought – liquid and powder. The liquids consist of pretty much everything from water and glycerin to alcohol to oils...
I was so surprised by how nice talc felt in my mineral make-up, so I thought I’d do a little experimenting. From the post on make-up fillers – I used rhapsody talc from TKB Trading as the only filler in a colour grind. I found it did change the colour a bit, but was very...