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.
Winter is not a great time for our skin! The cold and wind certainly don’t make for soft, moisturized skin, and the low humidity is incredibly drying (although awesome for making my frizzy hair straight and smooth!). I like to make a moisturizer just for the winter months filled with all kinds of wonderful ingredients...
I realized I hadn’t offered many ideas lately about how to formulate with some of the more recent oils I’ve written about, so here are a few recipes I hope you’ll enjoy! Zinc oxide cream is intended to create a barrier between the outside world and the damaged skin, so we want something that is...
Castor oil (INCI Ricinus communis (castor) seed oil) is an oil with a very interesting fatty acid profile. It contains about 2 to 6% oleic acid (C18:1), about 4% linoleic acid (C18:2), and 85 to 95% ricinoleic acid (C18:2, w-9). It is a very thick, pale coloured oil with very little taste. In fact, it...
Hemp seed oil (INCI: Cannabis sativa seed oil) has an interesting fatty acid profile with 6% palmitic acid (C16), 2% stearic acid (C18), 12% oleic acid (C18:1), up to 57% linoleic acid (C18:2), 19 to 25% linolenic acid (C18:3), and up to 5% gamma linolenic acid (C18:3). You might see it claimed that hemp seed...
Grape seed oil is a light oil containing 7% palmitic acid (C16), 4% stearic acid (C18), 16% oleic acid (C18:1), and 72% linoleic acid (C18:2). With such high levels of unsaturated acids and such low levels of Vitamin E (at 265 ppm), this oil has a very short shelf life of 3 to 6 months,...