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.
Yeah, I know National Craft Month is over (sniff! sob!) but I’m having so much fun with the posts, I’m going to continue for a while longer. The mineral make up posts will be back next week (I’m thinking purples without purple?) and I’ll keep posting these tutorials until I get too busy with the...
Making your first lotion is a very exciting moment! Watching oil and water come together in a creamy emulsion seems almost like a magical event! The basics…. Oils – you will want to choose an oil that offers some nice qualities. Something with a decent shelf life. And something not too expensive for your first...
A few times I’ve mentioned using polysorbate 20 or 80 to mix your oils into water. But what are these ingredients? They are emulsifiers. (If it’s in bold, you know it’s important!) Normally, oil and water don’t like to mix. Water is polar, oil is non-polar, so the oil just floats on top of the...
We’re going to learn all about emulsification tomorrow (the pre-cursor to lotion making! Yay!) but here’s a tutorial to give you some of the basics in the form of a fun, water based fragrance spray. Oil and water don’t like each other, so oil based and water based things don’t like each other. But we...
Reviewed and revised May 20, 2020. My favourite make-up remover is water based. I don’t wear waterproof mascara, so this is perfect for my needs. It leaves a nice slightly oily feeling on my skin but doesn’t leave that oily film on my eye lashes. The key ingredient in a water based remover is a...