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.
In this post, Anastasia writes, When you have time for a question (totally for my own info!), I am having trouble understanding the difference between cetyl esters and cetyl alcohol. When would I use one over the other? Thanks! In this post on formulating and using thickeners, I take a look at what each fatty alcohol,...
I’m afraid I can’t find the e-mail/comment I wanted to quote here, but someone noted the other day that their body butter wasn’t very thick. I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that our products may take up to a few days to thicken to their final viscosity and not to panic if...
In this post on xanthan gum, Anonymous writes: Hi Susan! Just wanted to make sure I understood right, is it ok to use xanthan gum up to 2%, even for mild facial cleansers? Some say xanthan gum lowers the shelf life of products. Is that true? Lastly, I really like using polyquat 7 because it...
Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (also known as hypromellose or HPMC as I’ll be typing from now on!) is a non-ionic, water soluble polymer derived from cellulose. It comes as a white or off-white odourless powder that we use to thicken our products. Because it’s non-ionic, it has many uses like shampoos, lotions, shaving gels, and pretty...
Don’t confuse guar gum with cationic guar gum – regular guar gum is non-ionic and does not offer any substantivity to your hair, and it’s a fine white powder, not a yellowy powder. It will, however, behave as a good thickener for our products. It’s water soluble and non-ionic, which means you can add it...