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.
What exactly is a facial serum? The definition I’m going with today is this…an anhydrous product made up of lighter oils intended to hold active ingredients against the skin for better penetration. It is considered a treatment rather than a moisturizer – although I’d never say any product is intended to treat a condition! (I...
Facial moisturizers should be light, moisturizing, and slightly occlusive. I like to have a moisturizer that offers anti-inflammatory features because my skin tends to be on the red side. A facial moisturizer containing sunflower oil offers all of those features – although it’s not going to have a really long life span. We are going...
Won’t someone please think of the pirates?Winter is coming, and this means red cheeks and dry, chapped skin. Moisturizers can be a great help, but what about our manly friends with beards? Moisturizers can leave their beards a lank, greasy mess, but the skin underneath needs a little love! We know linoleic acid can help...
I had some samples of super sterol liquid and Crodamol STS lying around the workshop – I know, I’m a lucky girl, eh? – so I thought I’d try Croda’s recipe for a lip balm with these products. What is super sterol liquid? The INCI reads C10-30 cholesterol/lanosterol esters. It’s a light emollient that is...
This is my beloved double boiler. From left to right, clockwise, you see the lip balm base, the classic base, and Croda’s super sterol base. Although I really like the lip balm base for a lipstick base, I couldn’t resist trying this recipe for a (supposedly) less greasy, more dry, stiffer recipe than the lip...