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 two preservatives from TKB Trading – Preservative Cap-2 and Preservative Cap-5 – as I really wanted to make a lip balm that contains water, and that means I need a preservative. My favourite one, liquid Germall Plus, isn’t suitable for oral or lip care products, so I had to find something new. Let’s take a...
There was such interest in this post on inactivation of parabens by various ingredients, I wanted to share more with you about preservatives. One of the things on this blog that isn’t so obvious at times is that we need to evaluate each product to see which preservative works best with it, there’s not a...
In the December Q&A, Mia Makes Things noticed, Something I just noticed… So non-ionic solubillizers and emulsifiers can deactivate paraben-based preservatives… but I have yet to come across a solubilizer or emulsifier (O/W or W/O) that is *not* non-ionic. So how do people manage to use paraben-based preservatives, like Germaben II or Phenonip, in any product?...
In the November Q&A, Liza asked: I am very allergic to anything to Phenoxyethanol and was wondering if you could tell me, what would make a good alternative preservative for oil based products, like a body scrub? Let’s take a look at phenoxyethanol and what it does. Phenoxyethanol is a phenolic compound with an alcohol functional group...
As I mentioned, I’m doing my best to respond to many of your comments, so I’ve gone back three weeks to see what interests you! I’m responding to the questions you’ve posted in the Let’s formulate: Chamomile & aloe botanical summer time body butter posts at the moment. We looked at the reasons for making whipped...