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.
I like Polawax (INCI: Emulsifying wax NF). It’s a fairly fool proof non-ionic (neutrally charged) emulsifier that works well with even large amounts of oils in things like body butters or creams. (For a technical data sheet on Polawax, please click here.) In my humble opinion, Polawax is the easiest of the emulsifiers for lotion making....
What exactly is in Polawax? This question has come up a few times lately and the answer is that we don’t know what is in Polawax. It’s a trade secret. But if this is the case, why has New Directions Aromatics posted this in their listing for Polawax? “Emulsifying Wax NF consists of four ingredients. These are...
In this post on the Chemistry of our nails: lotion bars with lecithin, Laura asks: What can I substitute lecithin with? Beeswax, more lanolin, exotic butter (which sounds fantastic for my ‘gardening without gloves’ hands? 😉 When we’re trying to figure out what we can use as a substitute, the first thing I do is refer to...
In this post on lotion bars, Tina asks: I’m trying to figure out if there’s a general rule for tweaking the basic recipe (33/33/33/1 -beeswax/butter/oil/fragrance). You said that, for example, with cocoa butter, you’d use less beeswax. So if I use beeswax at 25%, what’s the rule for altering the butter and oil? Does that now...
I have to ask this question as well – if you are a beginner, why are you trying to make products from scratch? I’ve been getting quite a few e-mails and comments from people who are creating their own recipes and wondering why they won’t work. Please please please find a tried and true recipe...