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 month’s Q&A, Cass asked, then followed up with another comment. hello, beginner here. I’m sorry if this is glaringly obvious but I am someone who has to triple check myself. How can I know if an ingredient is water or oil soluble? I feel so silly looking at the comments because they’re all so...
What’s the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients)? The INCI is the name you’ll see in brackets for an ingredient at our suppliers’ shops, in data sheets or bulletins from manufacturers or distributors, in trade magazines and formulas, and ingredient lists. You’ll see these names on the ingredient lists of commercial products, and if you’re...
What’s active surfactant matter (ASM)? This is the percentage of the surfactant as presented, the actual foamy, bubbly, lathery™ surfactant in a liquid or solid ingredient. Liquid products can range from 10% active to 60% active, but most fall in the 25% to 40% range. The rest of the ingredients will consist of water and...
This is a question that’s been asked for longer than I’ve been formulating: When we combine the heated phases when making lotions, do we pour the water into the oil or the oil into the water? How fast should we add one phase to the other? And why does any of this matter? The short...
For the love of all that is good and holy, do not use tap water in your products! It’s full of all kinds of things – chlorine, fluoride, metals, bits of soil, and so much more – that can mess up the clarity, stability, preservation, and general goodness of your products. Check out this post...