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.
A tale of two body washes. Same formula, different fragrance oils. On the left, pistachio cream: On the right, sweet Meyer lemon. This isn’t a testament to the quality of the ingredients or fragrance/essential oils – this can happen with any mix you create. Working with surfactants isn’t as easy as just changing the fragrance...
In the January Q&A, AA asked, Hi Susan!! Is there any way to make SCS not so drying?? Not just for hair but also skin. I’ve checked and adjusted the pH and also combined surfactants to no avail.. I would just throw in the towel, but I bought a bunch on sale a while back...
We first met this ingredient when I made my honey, apple & kale foaming kitchen hand cleanser with d-Limonene, but I didn’t go into great detail about it. Let’s take a closer look at babassuamidopropyl betaine (BaB) Babassuamidopropyl betaine (BaB) is an amphoteric foamy, bubbly, lathery™ surfactant like Cocamidopropyl Betaine or Lauramidopropyl Betaine derived from...
I’ve been playing with lauramidopropyl betaine for almost a year now, and it definitely has a permanent place my workshop shelves as a very mild, primary or secondary surfactant I can use in pretty much any foamy, bubbly, lathery™ product I make, and you know how much I love these kinds of things! Let’s take...
Sorry for taking so long to share this salad de fruits* foaming facial cleanser, the final part of the apple a day foaming cleanser formula series, but I wanted to get some ideas from Raymond about how he enjoyed it. You’ll see his comments at the end of this post. *I took 7 years of...