The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
I thought it’d be fun to take a look at the trends we’re seeing in bath & body products this year, especially after my adventures at In Cosmetics! These tiny fridges that generally hold a few pop cans are all the rage right now on Instagram, but what’s the point? “Anyone who follows a lot…...
My lovely colleague and future columnist for the blog, the amazing Ginger of Neos Skin Care, brought to my attention that it’s National Sense of Smell Day! (Click to see her Facebook page!) I’m always a huge fan of Yuzu or white chocolate from Voyageur Soap & Candle Company, and blood orange & goji and…...
Check out this video from Perry of Chemists’ Corner about the use of fear marketing in cosmetics. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it I’m honoured to be presenting a free beginners’ formulating course with him and Jane Barber of Making Skincare. Check it out on our course site, Learn Cosmetic Formulation! … You are...
Thought for the day: It’s not a good idea to store your sodium hydroxide (lye) or potassium hydroxide with your humectants, which draw water from the atmosphere. Doing inventory in my workshop today, we found a plastic box with a ton of humectants like propanediol 1,3, glycerin, sodium PCA, sodium lactate, urea, and Hydrovance all…...
In the December Q&A, Donna commented! So many things to make! I just can’t decide. Sometimes I think I try to put too much into one face cream to simplify my routine. I call it the all purpose cream – good for moles, colds, sore a@#holes, fits, freckles and farts. When it comes to multifunctional products,…...
There is a fabulous discussion going on in the November Q&A about how to figure out the volume of our products. I’m sharing the discussion here with some thoughts, and I hope you share some of your own! (I wrote about this a number of years ago, but I’d love to hear more about what…...
I think most of us are thinking back to the year we had, and I thought I’d share some of the random thoughts, epiphanies, and rants I’ve enjoyed in 2018. I hope you’ll share your thoughts on some of these topics or add a few more of your own! Over the last year I’ve seen…...
In the October Q&A, Charlette asked, Sometimes I’ll see sodium hydroxide at the end of an ingredient list for skin products and I wonder why would this be used? Wouldn’t it be much easier to use TEA (triethanolamine) to increase pH rather than lye (which is usually bought in huge batches when all I’d be using…...
I know it’s hard to buy presents for crafters as it’s hard to know what specific and awesome ingredients we want, so I thought I’d share a few ideas then ask you for your suggestions to make life easier for those who might be buying us gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays. This post…...
I can’t believe it’s only 39 days until Christmas, my favourite time of year! I love making and giving handmade gifts all year ’round, but I particularly love the fragrances that remind us of winter, cuddling up under blankets drinking hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows! Last year’s basket contained vanilla mint bubble bath, a lovely…...