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.
Beeswax is not an emulsifier. We can use it as a thickener in our products – in lotions, scrub bars, lotion bars, and so on – but it will not emulsify your lotions. I know I’ve mentioned this before – in the how can I tell if it’s a good recipe post – but the...
I mentioned the other day that I find moisturizers the hardest product to create, and I should start off by justifying this comment. They aren’t hard products to make – the process is the same as any lotion with the heated water phase, heated oil phase, heat and hold, cool down phase, and mixing –...
Papi asked this question: I have a question, if we heat oils (like grapeseed) at 70˚C won’t it get rancid? And maybe we ruin some of its properties too (like evening primrose oil) or the 70˚C is the safe temperature? This is a good question because the last thing we want is to have rancid...
Terri wrote this comment (and Priya seconded it): My nagging question is how do you account for the loss due to evaporation of ingredients during the heat and hold? Have separate pots with just water and/or other ingredients heating as well to add later? And I never checked, but is there a change in the weight...
As you’ll see in my recipes, I tend to use a lot of extracts. Most of them are powdered extracts (like this chamomile extract from Voyageur Soap & Candle), and I will indicate if they are liquid (like the liquid green tea extract I get from the Personal Formulator). To use a powdered extract, I...