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.
Almost 18 months ago, I wrote this post on substituting things for other things, and I find it weird that I didn’t return to this idea. Considering we’re in crunch time for making products, and a lot of us have to wait for mail ordered items, I thought it was time to re-visit this idea!...
No. If your lotion has separated, it’s bound for the garbage. Please don’t bottle it and tell your friends or customers to shake it before using! Why not try to save it? Because it’s already failed. Emulsions are unstable creatures and every single emulsion will fail eventually; our goal is to make that date way...
A little bit more chemistry for a lovely December morning! The iodine value of an oil or butter is a measure of the saturation of the fatty acids. As we go up on the iodine value scale, we’ll see more double bonds or more unsaturation in the oils. Something like coconut oil, which has a high degree...
The recent cold snap we’ve been enjoying in southwestern B.C. had me thinking a lot about the effects of cold on our products, especially given that most of the ingredients in my workshop have either frozen or become so cold they won’t pour out of the bottles. I got to thinking about why oils cloud...
As you know by now, I don’t sell my products. It’s not that I lack faith in what I make – I know my products are well formulated, well preserved, and contain ingredients that offer great skin feel – but I simply don’t have time, I suck at sales, I hate being on a deadline,...