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.
We’ve turned our whipped butters and lotion bars into balms by using specific essential oils and using specific oils and butters (click here and here). Let’s take a look at creating balms that are really softer versions of lotion bars that we’ll store in jars or tins. (Because there’s no water in this balm, you...
Choosing the right oils and butters can turn your anhydrous product into a balm. For instance, choosing an oil high in phytosterols like sesame seed, soy bean, or apricot kernel oil might help with inflammation. Choosing olive oil might help with post-sun exposure. Or choosing an oil high in Vitamin E, like wheat germ oil,...
We’ve taken a look at whipped butters and lotion bars, so let’s take a look at another type of anhydrous product – the balm. What exactly is a balm? It is a “medicated topical preparation for application to the skin…(that is) rubbed in” (from Wikipedia). Obviously I won’t be making any claims for the products...
I could probably start a blog called “modifying your oils and butters for lotion bars” and write posts every single day for a year going over every single possible combination – but since I already have a blog that I enjoy writing and since the whole point of this series of back to basics is...
I realized I didn’t include this in the whipped butter or lotion bar posts, so I’ll include it here… Sometimes your mango or shea butters can get grainy (this can happen to cocoa butter, but not as often as the other butters). The reason for this is the fatty acid profile of the butters. Let’s...