The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! 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.
A quick reminder if you’re interested in subscribing to my Patreon feed, which includes duplicated recipes and a monthly e-zine (at the $10 level), you need to be subscribed as of August 1st to be part of it for that month. As a note, the money you pay for the subscription is going to me … Read more
I don’t talk about the inner workings of the blog very much, but I would ask those of you reading this somewhere other than on my blog – for instance, in an RSS feed, something like Blog Lovin’, or even through the e-mail subscription on my blog – to pay me a visit soon! When … Read more
You know I can’t leave well enough alone, so I thought I’d take yesterday’s Emulthix recipe and add some of my favourite ingredients to take it from great to fan-freakin’-tastic! Want to know more about Emulthix? Cick here! Let’s alter my heated water phase first. I’m adding a humectant – sodium lactate – along with … Read more
Yesterday, we said “hello!” to Emulthix, a cold process emulsifier that can handle quite high levels of oils. I thought I’d try making a basic lotion with only one oil – pumpkin seed oil, one of my favourites – and see what I thought of the viscosity! EMULTHIX LOTION WITH PUMPKIN SEED OILOIL PHASE20% pumpkin … Read more
As you may or may not know, I was fortunate enough to visit Jen at Lotioncrafter in April. And it’s taken me quite some time to inventory all the amazing ingredients she gave me before I started crafting with them. One of my new favourites is Emulthix (INCI: Sodium Polyacrylate (and) Dimethicone (and) Cyclopentasiloxane (and) … Read more
In this post, Modifying our lotions into creams, Dawn asks: I’d like to use your thick cream recipe and add bentonite and kaolin clay to make it an exfoliating foot scrub. Can I simply add the clays to the finished cream at safe usage rates? Adding clay really can be as easy as adding a certain … Read more
If you’re a subscriber for the blog at the $10 level through Patreon, today you’ll see the first of my e-zines, Summer Products, available for download! You’ll get 31 pages of exclusive to the e-zine recipes for summer products, like aloe vera gels, light summery lotions, and beachy hair sprays, as well as my favourite … Read more
In this post, Ultra Bubbly Bubble Bath, HG moisturizer asks: Not sure if this was asked before but I’m really curious, how did you learn to formulate when you first started out? There aren’t many schools that teach this and other than your blog (WHICH I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL FOR!!!) I never seem to find … Read more
My mom loves a nice bubbly bubble bath. I’ve stuck with my basic recipe for quite some time, but I thought it was time for a change to see what else would work. I was excited to see Voyageur Soap & Candle has brought LSB (INCI: Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (and) Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate) back. SLSa is … Read more
In the suppliers’ list for Canada, Lily asks: Does anyone know where I can buy a lime hydrosol in Canada? And James wants to know where to find a goat’s milk lotion base in Canada. Any ideas, my fellow Canucks? In this post, Shampoo: Modifying the basic shampoo recipe to be more conditioning, Unknown asks: … Read more