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.
In this month’s Q&A, Dalel asked, I am making solid conditioners. I use panthenol powder and I think it might be the culprit in the issue I’m having. It is very difficult to dissolve it or melt it. The temperature of the mixture when I put it in is always above 60°C (140˚F) (sometimes up to...
I’m getting a lot of questions about this, which makes me think you’re all making conditioner bars out there! Yay, they’re so much fun! The short answer is that you add the “cool down phase” to the heated conditioner phase after you remove it from the heat, mix, then pour it into moulds. In my...
In the December Q&A, Sherri asked, I was hoping to make conditioner bars for my girls’ stockings, but I’m almost out of polyquaternium 7, and my usual Canadian supplier is sold out. Are there any substitutions I can use? Quick note: I’ve started a Q&A post on conditioner bars that you’ll find pinned to the right...
I realized I wanted to share more with you about hair and potential damage and such in this series about my new favourite conditioner from the other day. I’ll share my post on my new favourite ingredient, keratin hydrolysate silox tomorrow as I wanted to share a few formulas I found from various manufacturers using...
In this post on conditioner bars – Weekend Wonderings: All about conditioner bars – Cassandra asked, I’ve been making these conditioner bars and sometimes they do this. Why? They cooled too slowly and were probably on a surface that was bumped a little, even something as simple as writing something down and jiggling the table...