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.
One of the first recipes I posted when I started this blog was a detailed post about toners. I’ve learned a lot since then, so let’s update that recipe with all the stuff we’ve learned about hydrosols, extracts, water soluble oils, and so on! For a toner, you will want to stick to all...
Hydrosols are defined as “an aqueous solution or colloidal suspension of essential oils, usually obtained by steam distillation from aromatic plants”. They are also called floral waters, hydrolates, herbal waters, or essential waters. They contain the water soluble molecules from the plant material, and generally have a pH of 5 to 6, which is perfect...
I realized when writing a post on toners that I had failed to write up the post on witch hazel. So here it is…Join me tomorrow for more fun formulating with extracts! Witch hazel (INCI: Hamamelis virginiana) can be found as an extract or steam distilled water and is reputed to do many wonderful things....
I thought I’d put together a summary of all the recipes I’ve written up that include extracts. Before you go throwing around all these lovely powders, please read the post on combining extracts! (There are many other recipes on this blog that contain extracts that weren’t part of the extract series of posts…please do a...
Let’s play with our extracts and oils to come up with a really decadent light facial moisturizer for someone with dry, aging, weather damaged skin. (For the post on basic facial moisturizers, click here…) Let’s start with our oils and butters. I don’t like to use butters in a facial moisturizer because it can bother...