Point of Interest!: Humectants!

Welcome to the blog!

Thanks for stopping by Point of Interest! Pull up a chair, grab your favourite hot beverage, and hang out for a bit. Feel free to add your comments to posts of any age to share your thoughts! It's no fun writing this blog if I don't get to hear from you, my amazing readers!

Please note - I have a new website and blog, which you can find by clicking this link!

Do you want to get in touch with me? Click here for the contact me section of the new blog!

If you're asking for help with a formula, I need the complete formula in percentages and your exact process. I can't help without these, and I won't be able to do a back-and-forth with you to get the information.

Please take a tour of the blog to learn where you might find some answers to your questions.

As for comments, please find a relevant post and write your comment there. There's no point asking for help with your lotion bar on a post about conditioners as no one will see it but you. Please find something that relates by doing a search or looking at sections like hair care, newbie links, or extracts, for example, post your comments there. It'll make it easier for other people to help you if I can't find time, too. If you post something that is very clearly not related to the post in which you're asking for help, it will go unanswered by me.

Learn more about the idea of unlocking posts with your comments in this post. In a series of posts, you won't see the next installment until there's been some interaction on it.

I'm not allowing anonymous comments for the time being thanks to some particularly relentless spammers. I am also moderating any comments on posts over 2 weeks old.

I think putting your name on a comment gives us a better sense of community and reduces the incidence of mean-ness! Plus, you can't win e-books if I don't know who you are! (Click here for an interesting article about this phenomenon on The Guardian!)

There are no old posts! Write your comments anywhere and I will see them, although they will be moderated before posting due to the aforementioned spammers.

Unfortunately I'm not able to offer business consultations at this time as I'm simply too busy. Thank you so much for thinking of me when you need assistance with your formulations. (I may be able to offer this in the future.) To clarify, if you sell products you're a business. It doesn't matter how large or small you may be, if you make money with your products, you're a business.

As a note, I am not affiliated with any suppliers or manufacturers of any craft supplies of any type. If I rave about something, it's because I love the ingredient, fabric, beads, etc. not because I've been paid to say something nice! I do get free things from time to time from manufacturers and suppliers, but I make them aware that I will be brutally honest about those ingredients on the blog!

My e-books

To raise money for our youth groups, I've put together these e-books! If you want to learn more about the books or donate, click on the bolded links!

Or click here for a short description of all the e-books!
The new e-book is here! Formulating Facial Products! This 399 page e-book is filled with recipes for facial products, including moisturizers, sera, cleansers (oil and surfactant based), scrubs, gels, and more, as well as entries for ingredients like botanical extracts, cosmeceuticals, emulsifiers, thickeners, essential oil, and more, as well as a large appendix about our oils.

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $28 donation to our youth programs, we'll send you a copy of this e-book along with the preservatives, oils, butters, and surfactant charts as a thank you for your kind generosity!

Formulating & Creating Lotions! This 224 page e-book is perfect for those of you familiar with lotion making and ready to start creating your own recipes! I've included all the information I know about the HLB system, as well as my base recipes for lotions, creams, body butters, and moisturizers!

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $26 donation to my youth programs, I'll send you a copy of this e-book, an HLB calculator in Excel format, and the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts.

Lotion Making 101. This 305 page book includes everything you wanted to know about the basics of making lotions, including the chemistry of our lotions, ingredients we use, keeping your lotions safe, equipment you might need, and more recipes than I could count! For those of you who don't have the Back to Basics book, I've included all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles.

Click here to see the table of contents. If you make a $29 donation to my youth groups, I'll send you along a copy of this e-book as a thank you. I'll also send you a copy of the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts!

Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products. This 122 page e-book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath melts, bath oils, oil based sprays, solid scrubs, and facial sera, as well as all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles and everything I've gathered about the chemistry of our oils including fatty acids, mechanisms of rancidity, phytosterols, and polyphenols.

Click here to see the table of contents. If you make a $20 donation to the groups, I'll send you a copy by e-mail as a thank you!

Hair Care Products: Shampoos & Conditioners. This 194 page e-book has more recipes than I can count on making shampoo and conditioner products, including a huge section on surfactants.

Click to take peek at the Table of Contents. If you make a $25 donation to the groups, I'll send you a copy by e-mail as a thank you!

Click on the links above to learn more about the books. If you already know what you want or want to make a general donation, click the button below! (I'll know which e-book you want by the amount you've donated!) Thank you so much for supporting our youth groups. You have made it possible for us to continue offering our programs and we finally got that sewing machine!
If you click on this link to my new website, you'll see all the e-books there! From now on, when you buy an e-book, it'll get sent automatically to you and you can always find the link to download it again.

What's coming up next!

Our classes are held at the Neighbourhood Learning Centre at Chilliwack Senior Secondary. All programs are FREE, and we welcome youth grades 7 to 12. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at swiftcraftymonkey@gmail.com or call for more information!

Click here for the schedule for April to the end of June, which includes board game night, video game club, and tons of crafts like bath bombs and candles & wax tarts.

I've had to remove my cell phone number and - as of October 10th, 2017 - my work number due to a number of calls from people wanting to learn how to make products. If you're attending the groups, please use the contact information on the pamphlet to get in touch. If you want to know more about them - until we get a new email address created, I'm afraid there isn't a way to get in touch.

DO NOT CALL OR TEXT ME AT ANY PHONE NUMBER TO HELP YOU WITH A FORMULA. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE FOR ANYONE. NONE. PLEASE RESPECT MY BOUNDARIES.