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.
Over the last year, I’ve gone on a few spending sprees and at least one jag – never a good idea when I’m full of muscle relaxants and codeine, but at least I get to formulate with new things, right? – and I find myself in possession of at least 400 new ingredients. Some of...
Cromollient SCE is a bit different than the solubilizers we’ve been playing with over the last few days in that it’s an emollient that offers moisturizing after application on our skin, which is simply lovely! We can make a really nice one using as little as 2% or increase it as high as 5% for...
When it comes to making an ECOcert micellar water, I turn to caprylyl/capryl glucoside, a non-ionic surfactant that helps us solubilize small amounts of water that works as the cleanser on our skin in the same way the PEG-6 caprylic/capric triglycerides and polysorbate 80 worked. I have to admit something to you – I don’t...
I wrote a bit about this solubilizer caprylyl/capryl glucoside in this post on glucoside surfactants, but let’s learn more about it now! Caprylyl/capryl glucoside (aka octyl/decyl glucoside or C8-10 alkyl polyglucoside) is an Ecocert non-ionic solubilizer with a pH of 5.5 to 6 that can be used as a solubilizer and a very gentle surfactant. It...
As I’m trying to work with more ECOcert ingredients this year, I thought I’d share my thoughts on Geogard ECT, (INCI: Benzyl Alcohol & Salicylic Acid & Glycerin & Sorbic Acid), an ECOcert, COSMOS certified, NPA accepted broad spectrum preservative. It might also be found as Neopres ECT. Geogard ECT is a water soluble, low...