Welcome to July 2026 here on the site! Our very polite Emjay wishes you very happy summer or winter month of fun!
Writing stats!
I wrote 36,443 words on the site, 7,701 words in the hair care Zoom workshop, and 33,027 for the e-book of the month, Panthenol: A love story, for a total of 77,171 words.
I used up yet another purple pen, which means I’ve completely used up six pens in 20 months! Woo hoo!
As always, you’ll find no ads, sponsored posts, pop ups, affiliate links, or anything like that and you will never ever ever ever find AI here in any form. We want you to have a seamless reading experience with nothing to distract you because that’s so annoying!
My thoughts on AI
God, am I tired of AI or what? There are so many people trying to teach cosmetic chemistry who don’t understand what they’re doing, spreading nonsense and “recipes” that don’t work, stuff I knew when I started in 2006. It all looks so pretty and well-written, until you realize there’s no “there” there.
Please, don’t trust these AI sites – they really don’t know what they’re doing and you will waste supplies and get really frustrated.
Trust cosmetic scientists and chemists who can explain in easy, short words what you have to do, and don’t call formulas “recipes”.
Look up Natalie Skiller of This Formulating Life for an awesome formulation experience – she has a workshop coming up in July on gels!
Enjoy Jane Barber of Making Skincare – she’s great! You can find all kinds of awesome things on her site and her group, Making Skincare, on Facebook. Check out her social media as she often travels to cool conferences and shares new ingredients with us all!
Check out my free workshop with Jane and Perry Romanowski at Learn Cosmetic Formulation! It’s massive and it’s free!
Zoom workshop!
We have a Zoom workshop planned for Sunday, July 19, 2026, at noon PDT (Vancouver time).
Please note, I’ve pushed it back a week as I’m getting my arms treated next week, and I might not be up for using them with heavy things, like bottles and such, so shortly afterwards.
Let’s have fun with surfactants! We’ll make a lovely body wash, bubble bath, and shampoo this month during our Zoom. I’ll show you how to make gorgeous, crystal clear formulas that are beautifully thickened.
I’ll have the meeting link with password and handout ready next week sometime, which you can download before the event.
Could you please RSVP to swiftcraftymonkey@swiftcraftymonkey.blog if you’re interested attending, even if you won’t be there on the day. It helps me with my stats. Thanks.
Where to find previous Zoom meetings?
You can find the ones from this year by clicking this link to see all five of them!
Does anyone want a machine for filling lotions?
Does anyone want a machine for filling lotions? If you can get to my house in Chilliwack to pick it up and don’t mind cleaning it yourself as I will never have the time to do it, please write to me at swiftcraftymonkey@swiftcraftymonkey.blog and I will happily give it to you. I’ve stopped making huge batches.