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’ve been giving a lot of thought to the down side of certain ingredients, especially in surfactant mixes. Oils can reduce your foam and lather and Crothix might thicken your mixtures and offer anti-irritancy, but it can start decreasing foam at around 5%. So let’s say you want to make a nice facial cleanser without...
Kontakt asked this question: As I understand it, the only difference between centrimonium bromide and cetrimonium chloride is the negatively charged ion: chloride or bromide. What differs between these two compounds in effects, and why? In solutions, the ions should be free from each other so unless the chloride/bromide ion does something in itself, I...
As per the comment on this post, here are some expanded instructions on how to make shampoo. (I’m expanding on this post – instructions for making shampoo – so I might repeat myself here.) Instructions for making a heated surfactant mix (this applies to all surfactant based products, including facial cleansers, body washes, bubble baths, and shampoos)....
Yep, us normal to oily types can use a cream cleanser with some modifications. If you have normal skin, I’d leave out the stearic acid and avoid the SCI containing stearic acid as it really is too moisturizing for your skin type. You can choose from a variety of surfactants – SMC or SMO taurate...
Cleansing our skin is vital, and using surfactants can irritate the heck out of any skin type, but dry skin is particularly susceptible to stripping of oils when using detergent based cleansers. You can even get away without using surfactants if you have very dry skin (my mom hasn’t used anything except water on her...