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.
There are so many theories on how to mix your products after combining the two phases, so I’m just going to share with you what I do! Remember that we need three things for a great emulsion… chemical emulsification – this is where our emulsifier comes in. Pick a good emulsifier and use it at...
After heating and holding, should we add the water phase to the oil phase or the oil phase to the water phase? My first instinct is to add the oil phase to the water phase as, generally, my water phase container is larger than the oil phase container. But then I read something two years...
pH indicators: You can get pH strips from your local supplier, and there always seems to be a great debate about whether or not they are useful. There’s always a place for testing your pH in bath and body products, but my experiences with strips have been spotty at best. I’ve tried three different kinds...
Let’s get back to our look at equipment! Mixers: There’s always this great debate about mixers – do we go with a stick blender, hand mixer, Kitchenaid, or whisking by hand? Yes. I went into a little detail in this post about mixers, and you can use any of those mixers listed above when making lotions....
The more you create, the more it seems you need to buy special equipment for your crafting…but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ll give you an idea of which things I feel I really need and which I don’t (and I hope you’ll chime in with your favourite toys for the workshop) Scale:...