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.
Camellia oil, known as “tea oil” or “tea seed oil” (INCI: Camellia sinensis seed oil), is a light, non-greasy, really affordable oil filled with oleic acid, polyphenols, and vitamins! It is generally cold pressed and comes from the seed of the tea plant, not the leaves. You can even cook with it (the smoke point...
Calendula oil is made up of about 2% palmitic acid (C16), 2% stearic acid (C18), 3.1% oleic acid (C18:1), 27.5% linoleic acid (C18:2), and 64% conjugated linolenic acid (C18:3). It’s high in tocopherols at 1,937 ppm! With all this conjugated linolenic acid (or CLnA), calendula oil is effective at reducing inflammation and improving epidermal differentiation....
Pomegranate oil is a new one we’re seeing on our suppliers’ shelves, but what does it offer over other oils? Pomegranate oil has an interesting fatty acid profile – 2% palmitic acid (C16), 1.3 to 2% stearic acid (C18), 5.7% oleic acid (C18:1), 7% linoleic acid (C18:2), 70 to 76% punicic acid (C18:3, n-5), and...
What the heck is a CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) or CLnA (aka CLN or conjugated linolenic acid)? From Wikipedia, a conjugated molecule is an organic compound is one where atoms covalently bond alternating single and double bonds that influence each other to produce a region called the electron delocalization. In this region, electrons do not...
Much like our friend evening primrose oil, borage oil (INCI: Borago Officinalis Seed Oil) contains a lot of GLA, more, in fact, than any other oil we can find on our suppliers’ shelves. With 4% palmitic acid (C16), 11% stearic acid (C18), 17% oleic acid (C18:1), 36% linoleic acid (C18:2), and 23% GLA (C18:3), borage oil...