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.
Someone asked if I could make a shampoo recipe with fewer ingredients than those that are currently on the blog. The answer is yes, but… Yes, but the problem that those ingredients are the ones that take a shampoo from okay to freakin’ awesome! If you’re new to the idea of creating a shampoo, take...
I love leave in conditioners! They offer so much wonderful awesomeness to your hair with low levels of ingredients. Where to start making a leave in conditioner? As usual, think about your goals? What do you want in this product? That answer will help you move in the right direction! I have oily, frizzy hair...
I’ve become interested in date palm extract lately – I’ve seen quite a few references to it lately as an anti-wrinkle ingredient, and I was given a sample of it from the Formulator Sample Shop*. I’m already using it in the form of their Volumizing Complex PF (Water & Rice Amino Acids & Lactobacillus/Date Fruit Ferment...
As you probably know, I’m a big fan of using coconut oil in my rinse off hair conditioners because it offers so many great qualities, including moisturization and a reduction in frizz, but I find this one with 5% is making my hair feel oily around the middle of the second day after washing, so...
I love leave in conditioners! You can fill leave in conditioners full of ingredients to moisturize, hydrate, smooth, tame, and protect your hair, and you don’t need a ton of each ingredient to do it! Think of a leave in conditioner as being very much like a rinse off conditioner, but thinner. You can use...