Swiftcraftymonkey

Join me this Sunday as we make a gorgeous conditioner, leave-in conditioner, and liquid shampoo and answer your questions about hair care!

Please RSVP if you think you might watch the replay to get the massive handout with formulas. Thanks.

Join me for the advanced posts of this series in which we’re making a gorgeous, hydrating, moisturizing summertime tropical melting butter in less than 10 minutes.

In this post, we’re looking at the altering the humectant and emollients with a greater understanding of what they offer to the formula so you can customize it for your favourite ingredients!

What do you think of the new way I’m offering formulas - beginner, intermediate, and advanced posts? Let me know what you think!

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/lets-make-a-summertime-tropical-melting-body-butter-part-three-advanced-level-with-formulas-post-one-humectants-emulsifiers/

Woo hoo! Let’s have a two hour hair care product Zoom workshop for all my Formulation and Innovation subscribers* on Sunday, June 14, 2026 at noon PDT (Vancouver, Canada) time.

We’ll be making all kinds of hair care products, including a quick detangler, rinse-off conditioner, leave-in conditioner, and liquid shampoo. We’ll talk about how to modify the formulas for your hair type too.

We will post the video for the workshop on the Monday or Tuesday after if you can’t make it for Sunday. We’ll share answers to the questions to posed here or in the chat, and revised formulas too.

Click here to get the massive 27 page handout along with the meeting link and password!

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/join-me-for-a-zoom-workshop-sunday-june-14-2026-on-hair-care-products-formulation-and-innovation-subscribers/

*It’s never too late to become a monthly subscriber at the $8 or $15 USD levels! You’ll get immediate access to more than 5,200 formulas and posts along with this Zoom workshop and the previous ones. ($15 subscribers also get a free copy of my monthly e-book.) We’re completely ad-free with no affiliate links, sponsored posts, pop ups, or AI!

This is an absolutely excellent post by Natalie Skiller of This Formulating Life and Sweet Little Crumb about why you can’t make a safe or stable magnesium “oil” lotion.

This was a contentious post in the lotion making group last week because some people don’t want to be told, and the mean girls showed up, teeth bared, personal insults at the ready. Don’t be a mean girl. Discuss this without resorting personal attacks.

I know you know someone who says you can do this. Ask them to show you that lotion six months later.

I have some formulas for stable magnesium chloride gels on the site that are gorgeous and stable. I can show you a bottle that’s stable over five years on, but for the love of all that is good and holy, don’t smell it. Rancidity is still a thing.

Why I Won't Help You Make Magnesium Lotion

I swear this question comes through groups I moderate almost weekly now, usually some version of

"how much Emulsifying Wax NF do I need for my magnesium lotion?"

I thought it would be a good idea to answer this on Patreon, so I can point people back to it because I feel like the answer keeps getting buried under the next twelve identical posts.

The short honest answer is none. Don't make the lotion.

That's not me waving anyone off the bench or to say you cannot formulate. Home formulators make genuinely good products all the time (you absolutely can, and I'd never tell you otherwise).

It's just magnesium lotion stacks every hard formulation problem on top of every other hard formulation problem, and then hands you the single riskiest format to solve them all in. So, before you attack me for this post and before you even measure out a gram of anything, let’s talk about what magnesium chloride actually is, why a lotion fights you on three fronts, and why I'm not even convinced it does what the label says it does.

What Magnesium Chloride Actually Is

Magnesium chloride (INCI: Magnesium Chloride) is an inorganic salt, MgCl₂. In water it splits into one magnesium ion (Mg²⁺) and two chloride ions, and that little superscript 2 is the whole story for us as formulators. Mg²⁺ is a divalent cation (it carries two positive charges rather than one), and divalent ions are the bit that wrecks emulsions. Hold that thought because we'll come back to it in a moment.

The salt is also very hygroscopic (it grabs water out of the air with enthusiasm, which is why it's usually sold as the hexahydrate, MgCl₂·6H₂O, or as "flakes"). Most of it is pulled from sea water or ancient brine deposits, and it dissolves in water at frankly silly concentrations.

Full Article: https://www.patreon.com/posts/159433163

As we move into summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought I'd share some tips & techniques about temperature and formulating.

What are the most important temperatures for formulators?

🌡️ 72.5˚C (162.5˚F) - our heated oil or water phase, the temperature at which almost all of our triglycerides and fatty acids have melted.

🌡️ 40˚C to 45˚C (104˚F to 114˚F) - our cool down phase, the phase into which we add fragrance/essential oils, some preservatives, heat sensitive ingredients, and those added after the emulsion has formed

🌡️ 37˚C (98.6˚F) - body temperature, important when applying products to our skin

🌡️ 18˚C to 24˚C (64.4˚F to 76˚F) - room temperature, important when storing or transporting products

Join me on the site at swiftcraftymonkey.blog to learn more about each of these temperatures and why they’re important for avoiding grains, stabilizing lotions, storing oils and butters, and more so you can create more awesome products!

* Plus you’ll learn how easy it is to melt BTMS in a double boiler as a bonus!

My new e-book is here, Waterless beauty: Using oil soluble actives!

Let’s create a variety of softening, moisturizing, damage repairing, irritated and reddened skin soothing, hair conditioning, lip plumping face, body, and hair products using oil soluble actives and cosmeceuticals like bakuchiol, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, bisabolol, and more.

Create 41 formulas for facial serums, body oils, whipped body and face butters (including one with tallow), presses serums, solid pre-wash hair oils, lip balms, and vegan lip balms, all customizable for your skin type and favourite ingredients with a brand new actives & cosmeceutical comparison chart.

Plus a never before seen formulas for a pre-wash solid hair oil and conditioning hair oil! I’ve included a brand new active & cosmeceutical comparison chart too.

💧 35,494 words

💧 133 pages

💧 41 formulas, including ones for making a gorgeous whipped facial butter with tallow.

If you were an Innovation level subscriber in May 2026, this would have been included in your monthly subscription along with access to almost 5,200 formulas and posts on the site and our facial products Zoom workshop. Click here to learn more about subscribing for the site!

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/membership-account/membership-levels/

Click here if you are an May 2026 Innovation subscriber

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/hey-innovation-subscribers-the-new-e-book-waterless-beauty-using-oil-soluble-actives-part-5-is-here/

Click here to see the e-book on the site. It’s $30 CAD (~$22 USD).

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/product/waterless-beauty-using-oil-soluble-actives/

Click here to find the table of contents
https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/toc-Waterless-beauty-Using-oil-soluble-actives.pdf

Let’s make a summertime tropical melting body butter in less than 10 minutes!

I’m sharing 12 variations on our original formula so can customize it how you wish in my intermediate post, the 2nd of the 3 part series.

It’s a rich, thick, and luxurious body butter that melts on contact with your skin, creating the softest, silkiest, smoothest, most elegant, non-greasy experience with a quick break or sploosh of water to make us feel more hydrated.

Join me on the site to learn more!

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/lets-make-a-summertime-tropical-melting-body-butter-part-two-intermediate-level-with-12-formulas/

I’m trying to decide the topic for our next Zoom workshop on Sunday, June 14, 2026, at noon PDT (Vancouver, Canada time), and I need your help!

Here’s what I have in mind…

🧼 Fun with surfactants – body wash and liquid shampoo. Creating gorgeous, clear, thickened surfactant blends!

🧼 Hair care! We’ll look at a couple of these products - shampoo, conditioner, conditioner bar, leave-in conditioner, light leave-in conditioner, detangler, hair masks, and so on. We’ll customize these for a few different hair types.

What do you think? Share your thoughts over the next few days here as a comment or message me at [email protected], and I’ll make a decision by May 30, 2026.

Let’s make a summertime tropical melting body butter in less than 10 minutes!

What’s a melting body butter? That sounds cool!

It’s a rich, thick, and luxurious body butter that melts on contact with your skin, creating the softest, silkiest, smoothest, most elegant, non-greasy experience with a quick break or sploosh of water to make us feel more hydrated.

This is the first of a three part series in which I’m trying something new — each part will increase in complexity, starting with the basics and ending up with a complete post of all the cosmetic chemistry so you can learn how to customize your formulas for your skin and hair.

I’m dying to hear what you think about the new format!

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/lets-make-a-summertime-tropical-melting-body-butter-part-one-beginner-level-with-formulas/

Woo hoo! What an awesome Zoom workshop on hydrolyzed proteins & peptides with Natalie Skiller of This Formulating Life and Sweet Little Crumb!

We made three formulas - Face the Peptides facial serum and mask essence, Peptide Pout Potion for a peptide lip gloss, and a silky, lightweight, cold process facial moisturizer with proteins & actives that you can make in less than 10 minutes.

Check out today’s post in which we shared the replay video, modified formulas and workbooks, and questions from the chat with resources for learning more!

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/zoom-workshop-on-hydrolyzed-proteins-peptides-video-replay-modified-formulas-and-all-the-other-good-stuff/

Don’t forget, if you’re a Formulation or Innovation level subscriber to the site, you can attend these Zoom workshops live or get the replay. So far we have workshops with formulas for shampoo bars, cold process emulsifiers, pH meters, and this new one that you can watch any time.

These subscriptions also include access to more than 5,200 awesome, safe, stable formulas and posts on the site. All of that for $8 to $15 US with no ads, affiliate links, sponsored posts, pop ups, or AI? What? That’s incredible!