The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! 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.
As a note, there are a few different kinds of carrageenans we can buy, the most common being iota-carrageenan or kappa-carageenan. I’ll be writing about both. If you’ve ever made jelly soap, you’ve probably used iota-karageenan, which creates soft, wiggly, elastic gels. Genugel® G-130 carrageenan (kappa) is an anionic or negatively charged water dispersible thickener derived from...
Ina reminded me yesterday at our cosmetic chemistry coffee klatch that I hadn’t shared this formula, so I thought I should remedy this before the year is over! Back in May, I met with Shannon of IMCD, a distributor of so many of the ingredients we use and adore, and I fell in love with...
I have a really interesting question from this month’s Q&A that I want to answer, but first we need to take a look at hydroxypropyl guar. I have this ingredient as Jaguar® HP-105 from Solvay but you can also find it as Polycos, so some of this might be specific to one version or another. Hydroxypropyl...
As you saw in this post recently – magnetic stirrer with hot plate – we heated our water phase that included hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) on the magnetic stirrer with hot plate as it needs both agitation and heat to fully hydrate this starch. Why did we need to do that? It’s the idea that thickening ingredients...
A massive thank you to Shannon of IMCD for introducing me to and sending me this ingredient! I didn’t think I could love working with gums, but she made me a believer! 🙂 We’ll be making two products over the few weeks with this – a lovely fluffy Moisture Renewal Body Wash and those gorgeous, Blooming Jelly...