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.
We asked the question the other day, is it cheaper to make your own products? and I think we’re all feeling like it is. (Although the shipping is crazy…more on that tomorrow!) It might not be cheaper to make our own conditioner compared to buying Suave at the drug store, but it’s certainly cheaper than...
Last year, Patrick and Will posed this question – what is the cheapest lotion you could make? We took a look at various ingredients we would use in a lotion and tried to figure out how to reduce costs. This morning, I found this comment from Catherine (click and scroll down to read the entire...
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post on substitutions, I simply can’t make a substitutions list because substituting one ingredient for another is a matter of personal preference and context. There are some ingredients you can’t leave out – for instance, you must have an emulsifier in a lotion and no water containing product should ever...
One of the things I’m regularly asked for is a list of things you can substitute with other things. (Recently from the post what do you want to know?) I’m happy to write something like that up…but every time I try, I’m bogged down by the idea that you can substitute so many things for...
Ellbie writes in this post: Hi Susan. I have a question that is a little off topic but seems to fit into this series of posts. Some ingredients are available in liquid or solid so when you are looking at a recipe how do you know which is listed? AND how do figure out how much to...