The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
The FDA has put out a recall for Arbonne’s Shea Butter Body wash because “because product testing by the manufacturer revealed the presence of Pluralibacter gergoviae.” This bacteria “is an opportunistic pathogen that has repeatedly been isolated from personal care products.” (Reference) This isn’t the first time this company has been involved in a recall…...
Quick note: The picture above is of the bubble baths we made in our live Zoom meeting on May 2nd, the formulas for which you can find as a post and as a PDF by clicking this post. This formula doesn’t contain the surfactants I mention in this post: I chose this shot because I…...
In the January Q&A, Emma asked: I have a question about some products I recently received as a gift from my brother in Berlin. There is a really nice store there called Urban Cosmetics and they have a lot of natural products, hydrosols, etc. Reading the ingredients I notice they put silver in their serum and…...
Welcome back to this short series on choosing preservatives. I’m considering this part three of week three’s Newbie Tuesday series, Making naturally compliant lotions with Ritamulse SCG. Tuesday, January 14th, 2020: Shopping lists for ingredients, supplies, and packaging as well as optional components. Tuesday, January 21st, 2020: We took a look at the general formula we’ll…...
Welcome to part one of week four, Newbie Tuesday: Making naturally compliant lotions with Ritamulse SCG. I realized I needed more time to talk about how to choose preservatives properly. I think it’s a topic we can all enjoy and discuss, but it’s a huge topic that needed to be split into two parts. If…...
Jen from Lotioncrafter was kind enough to send me some sodium phytate to play with over the summer. Sodium phytate is a water soluble chelating ingredient we can add to our products at 0.05% to 0.5% to bind with metal ions to keep the ingredients from reacting with them. These metal ions can precipitate in…...
As we meet the preservatives in the Euxyl series, this PDF might come in handy… Euxyl K903 (INCI: Benzyl alcohol (and) benzoic acid (and) dihydroacetic acid) is a broad spectrum preservative that can be used in products that contain water, such as surfactant blends and emulsions. It’s considered naturally compliant. Benzyl alcohol is a polar molecule…...
Euxyl K 900 (INCI: Benzyl Alcohol (and) Ethylhexylglycerin) is considered by the company to be a strong broad spectrum preservative. “euxyl® K 900 is a liquid cosmetic preservative based on benzyl alcohol and ethylhexylglycerin. The addition of ethylhexylglycerin affects the interfacial tension at the cell membrane of micro-organisms, improving the preservative activity of benzyl alcohol…....
You might see this ingredient in preservatives like Euxyl® K900 and Euxyl® PE 9010, so what’s it all about then? Ethylhexylglycerin is an alkyl glycerol ether we can use to boost the preserving power of ingredients like phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, and methylisothiazolinone, and works as an effective deodorant, inhibiting the growth of bacteria that might cause body odour…....
In the June Q&A, smc asked, Preservatives for liquid soap. I’m playing with liquid soap make, and due to the high percentage of water I’ll need a preservative. What preservatives work well in a high pH environment and doesn’t have a horrible scent? Thanks. As a quick note before we start, I have pages where…...