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.
Although I find it can get overwhelming trying to choose the perfect oil for your creation, I always think of my end goal for the product, what skin feel I want, and what I can access and afford. (I’ve been looking at cranberry oil at various on-line retailers, even considering order from the States, only...
Carrot tissue oil – INCI Helianthus annus (and) beta-carotene – should not be confused with carrot seed oil, an essential oil. The carrot tissue oil is beta carotene infused into sunflower oil, so we get all the goodness of carrot tissue oil with the awesome power of sunflower oil! Pure carrot tissue oil contains about...
Carotenoids are tetraterpenoids, which are a large and varied class of hydrocarbons produced by plants, particularly conifers (wow, that sounded text-booky, eh?) They are either carotenes (oil soluble) or xanthophylls (more polar, water soluble with oxygen functional groups) with 40 carbon atoms. I’ll be going into more detail about terpenes and terpenoids in the near...
Vitamin A – what is it good for in bath & body products? It’s an oil soluble molecule that can improve skin barrier function, increase cell proliferation, increase thickening of the skin, and increase collagen production. It can also help increase skin’s water retention, and it may be effective in preventing, retarding, or restoring changes...
Pumpkin seed oil – INCI Curcubita pepo (pumpkin) seed oil – is a high linoleic acid oil with 12 to 18% palmitic acid (C16), 5 to 8% stearic acid (C18), 24 to 41% oleic acid (C18:1), and 18 to 62% linoleic acid (C18:2), with an average of 50% or so.Pumpkin seed oil contains tocopherols, but...