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.
In this post, Dawn asks: Susan, I noticed you are using glycerin and not hydrovance in the dry skin formulations. Is glycerin a better product for extremely dry skin? I love hydrovance but if there is an advantage to using glycerin with the dry skin issue, I’d like to formulate the most effective lotion. I...
Humectants aren’t just about drawing water from the atmosphere to our skin: Many of them have other effects that can benefit our skin. (Humectants are for hydrating; lipids are for moisturizing. See this post for more information!) For more about panthenol, click here. For more about glycerin, click here. USING HUMECTANTS TO REDUCE TRANSEPIDERMAL WATER...
While researching the post on the possibility that glycerin might draw water from your skin in low humidity environments, I learned more than I could have possibly imagined about this plentiful and inexpensive humectant. I’d like to share a few of those findings with you. I know many of us avoid glycerin due it its...
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know I’m a fan of panthenol and use it in many different products. We see it a lot in hair care products, but I think it has a place in skin care products, especially those for dry or wounded skin. Allow me to share…...
In this post about humectants, there have been quite a few comments I thought I would share with you, my wonderful readers! And since I’m currently planning a series on creating products for dry skin that relies heavily on the usage of humectants, this seems like a great way to start a series on those...