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.
I know a lot of us get into making products in the hopes of duplicating products we love by making it more moisturizing, more concentrated, or better smelling. Oftentimes we’re motivated by saving money (and you know that isn’t going to happen until we’re out of the playing and experimenting phase). Sometimes it’s easy –...
Heidi suggested we take a look at the Hope in a Jar cream by philosophy in light of what we learned about the dollar store lotions the other day. This cream can cost between $38 and $105 for 8 ounces, so what makes it so expensive? Let’s take a look at what Sephora says about...
Another week, another Iron Chemist challenge!. I love rice bran oil and use it by the bucketload in so many products I make, so it was hard to create two products in which I could use it in a different way. I chose to add to the challenge this week and attempt to duplicate two products...
Yesterday we took a look at argan oil. Today we’ll take a look at the most famous products containing this oil – the MoroccanOil products, since I keep getting e-mails about this product. Let’s take a look at a few of them… Disclaimer: Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the...
Yesterday we took a look at the Fragile to Strong shampoo from Pantene for fine hair. Let’s take a look at the conditioner today! How does Pantene do it? “Pantene has created a lightweight strengthening* conditioner with micro-fortifiers, which reinforces structural weakness along each strand. Targeted moisturizers protect your hair from future styling damage without...