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.
In this post on solid scrub bars, Julia asks: I love this scrub bar, but so far I have always made it without sodium lacate. Which is fine until it reaches about 27˚C, it starts getting soft and mushy. So I want to add the sodium lactate. Problem I’ve run into: It is 60% Salt to...
CAN YOU TURN A LOTION BAR INTO A SCRUB BAR?In this post, Back to the very basics: Defining terms for anhydrous products, Karen asks: I want to ask, is there a reason why a person can’t just add exfoiliates to a lotion bar recipe and have a shower scrub bar? And for the scrub bar, can I substitute...
ADDING SURFACTANTS TO EMULSIFIED SCRUBSIn this post, Experiments in the workshop: Black cocoa butter emulsified sugar scrub, Stephany writes: Could I incorporate a little bit of surfactant in this to make it foamy???And in this post on facial scrubs, Stephany offers a potential recipe. (Click to see it.) An interesting thought, but no, you can’t add...
We took a look at using BC Glacial clay, jojoba beads, and dermabrasion crystals in our surfactant based cleanser in yesterday’s post, yesterday. Let’s take a look at a few other exfoliants we could add. AUSTRALIAN PINK CLAY (INCI Kaolin clay)I bought some of this from Voyageur Soap & Candle because it’s supposed to be good for...
It’s been a while, but my testers have responded, so here are the results! I’m working with the base surfactant for oily skin we figured out in this post. If you don’t know what the ingredients are, you’ll find them in that post or in the ingredients list or the surfactants section of the blog. Part...