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’m trying to get this search engine working, so I took LiseLise’s advice and updated the template. I really hope this works because I’m not good with change, and I miss the old template for the blog already! (And I can’t get it back as it was an old template!) Those of you who have...
In the What do you want to know post, Lucy asks: How do you determine best before dates? In general, we look at all the ingredients and determine which has the shortest shelf life. If we have a lotion with olive oil, grapeseed oil, e-wax, cetyl alcohol, water, green tea extract (water soluble), and preservative, the...
In the What do you want to know post, deedee sugar asked: I would love to know if I don’t have a scale that can weight less than 1 gram. Can I use the 0.5 teaspoon to measure the allantoin and other powder ingredients with the same amount? The problem is using volume measurements is that...
In the What do you want to know post, Lynne asked me for my favourite speciality ingredients, so I thought I’d share my favourite fancy ingredients with you. I’ve had a hard time winnowing the list down to the five or six she suggested, which is why this post has taken me a week of thinking....
Just wanted to remind everyone about the What do you want to know post in which I’m asking you, my lovely readers, to tell me what you want to know! Feel free to ask for anything, and I’ll do my best to make it so! (However, please don’t ask me to duplicate specific brand name...