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.
I notice there’s been some controversy about whether we need to heat and hold our lotions, and here’s my position on it: It works for me. I have been making lotions for 9 years – I can’t believe it’s been that long! – and in that time I have only had a few lotions fail...
Just a reminder that if you’re interested in taking a class with me, I’m teaching at Voyageur Soap & Candle over the next four weeks. We had a great time with anhydrous products yesterday, and we have hair care, lotion making, and facial products still to come. I’m taking a break in April to go...
In this post on bath melts, PsaltyDawg asks: I have been hesitant to make/sell any bath bomb truffle type products because I am concerned about what happens to so much unsaponified hard butters when they get into the drain. They will harden up and coat the pipes eventually causing blockages or slowdowns. Do you have...
I always take the first week of February off because I’m either sick or everyone around me is sick, and to get done what I couldn’t get done over the Christmas break. (I’m not saying anything about my cold/flu status because I could jinx it, but so far, so good!) I did an inventory and...
It’s recently come up that NDA is calling a version of cetearyl alcohol “emulsifying wax O”, with the disclaimer that it’s not an all in one emulsifier and would require another ingredient to make it work. If you look at this document, you’ll see that cetearyl alcohol is an emollient ingredient on par with an...