What's in this stuff?

‘What’s in this stuff?’ An innocent question from my mother and one I couldn’t easily answer. She was helping me bath the children and was peering at what I naively thought was a quality children’s bath product.

I use the word ‘thought’ because when I studied the ingredients and looked past the ‘formulated in nature’ (what does that actually mean?) and ‘includes essential oils’ I realised that only the tiniest part of the product was actually properly natural. I was horrified.

As someone who makes her living from making and selling natural skincare there really was no excuse. So Sandra and I embarked on developing a range especially formulated for babies and children.

We had three main criteria, as it were.

Quality not quantity.

We wanted ingredients that each serve a beneficial purpose with nothing included to simply ‘bulk up’ a product.

Unfortunately caution is needed when buying skincare for little people as clever marketing can fool us all. I certainly fell for many an artistic label containing soft focus and baby bottoms. Now educated in skincare, I see that companies can still fill their product with below par ingredients and include only a tiny percentage of what they promise on the front.

There are now only 2 big companies I trust with buying products for my children. Sorry no I can’t name them – I want you to buy ours instead.

Bubbles. Or lack thereof!

Oh how our children love them. They blow them at Mummy, turn themselves into Santa Claus, squidge them into little sister’s eyes and create Mohawks. They do add a certain magic to baths and goodness knows that is needed at that desperate point in the evening.

Sadly that is about all they do. High levels of Sodium Lauryl Suphate or equivalent foaming agents are needed to create the magic. Many people will not have a reaction to SLS but the problem lies in the drying effect they have on the skin (for more see my blog on what this SLS can potentially do to your hair here). 

Children’s skin is particularly sensitive so they are likely to suffer more. SLS doesn’t necessarily cause real harm, they just certainly don’t do any good.

That is why I have decided to avoid bubble bath altogether, not being able to provide a natural alternative that competes with the bubble big boys.

So magic is going to have to come from elsewhere now in our household – probably by me getting soaked which always provides endless hilarity from the kids.

Oat oil. Our hero ingredient of choice.

Oat oil will be present through our whole children’s range. It provides deep moisturisation due to the high level of fatty acids it contains, making it a perfect oil for little people. Baby’s skin especially is very sensitive as it starts to adjust to the outside world. This can result in flakiness or eczema and oat oil is known for its nourishing, soothing properties.

Now Sandra and I have established this oil as our main stay throughout the range we will continue our development and research to build on this strong foundation.

I will very shortly have a new model to conduct my research on – definitely no animal testing here, just one little newborn baby doing his or her (life’s ultimate surprise!) bit in the name of scientific research.