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.
Consider the lotion bar. Easy to make, easy to tweak, and easy to carry around in your purse or pocket. We can make them as simple or as complicated as we wish. We can wrap them in foil or cellophane, package them in adorable tins, or put them in lip balm or deodorant containers. I...
Whipped butters are so impressive but so darned easy to make! They might seem all complicated with their whippiness, but they’re simple to make if you have a mixer with a whisk attachment. (I bought my Black & Decker 250 watt mixer for $20 from Canadian Tire with two whisk attachments! I’m sure you could...
I’m declaring April the month to try something different (at least for me, but you’re welcome to play along). I made a lotion yesterday with all kinds of ingredients I’ve never used before, and today I thought I’d make a new whipped butter. (If you want to know more about babassu oil, click here!) WHIPPED...
More Cowbell poses this question…What timing! I was just looking at this on another site and wondering what the “hydrogenated vegetable oil” is. Do you know? Are we talking Crisco??? 🙂 It seems to also have sweet almond oil, so what hydrogenated oil is so firm that it can incorporate that and still qualify as...
Since I’ve decided to try different things in my creations this year, let’s take a look at a few other butters. In the food and cosmetic industry, six butters are considered substitutes for cocoa butter – palm, illipe, kokum, sal, shea, and mango – but they do offer different qualities and fatty acid profiles for...