Is it really 'kid safe' natural skincare?
Upon my entry into motherhood I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of skincare products that were marketed for kids and families but did not contain ingredients that were safe for our children's skin or pregnant women.
On top of that I was purchasing, packing and using an obscene amount of different skincare for the family. Constant google searches were leading me on a wild goose chase that made me question what I was even using on my own skin. This got me thinking.. Did everyone do this? Do we really need 6 different products for the same purpose? And when we run out of baby-safe moisturiser do we just get complacent and use out fluro-green coconut and lime whipped body butter because surely it can't be that bad?
We absorb 60-80% of what we put on our skin so don't let the the gorgeous pastel colours, the smells and the promises blindsight you from whats really on the inside. I threw myself down a rabbit hole of intense research and wanted to educate and formulate back to basics skincare that takes all the worry away from what already is such a chaotic time in our lives.
The sad truth is that many everyday family skincare products have chemicals that are harmful for us and the environment and we just don't have time to look at every little detail because we are trusting the pretty bottle with the baby on the front. Why wouldn't we? We are consumed with an infinitely long mumma checklist involving packing nappies, wipes, puree, rushing to doctors appointments, asking ourselves did I wash my hair today? Oh no is my left boob leaking? is that really the time?!
As a protective mumma bear its just crazy to think it’s okay to drip a bit of natural ingredient in with a cocktail of highly toxic chemicals and sell it as natural skincare for children. It is so easy to fall for the marketing push or the gorgeous packaging (I know i did), but the 'kid safe' products that contain artificial colours and fragrances, parabens, silicones, petrochemicals and sulfates are not safe for any skin. The harsh reality is that the synthetic fragrance that makes the bath smell like a strawberry sundae is toxic to humans and has he ability to pass into your blood causing endocrine disruption, respiratory problems and cancer. How is it on our shelves and why are we using it unknowingly?
Well, manufacturers are not required to list the hundreds of harsh chemicals that makes up their 'fragrance' as they can hide behind the loophole that it composes their trade secret. Alternatively, using essential oils and fruit extracts are such a great way to replace these fragrances as they still smell delicious but are favourable on our skin.
This newfound shock and obsession forced me to contact an amazing chemist who worked with me to formulate natural, everyday skincare products for my family that that were beneficial, practical and contained no nasty ingredients. I wanted to get back to the basic products but improve and reinvent them with the benefits of natural ingredients. Near enough was not good enough and I made sure every drop that went into my skincare had positive health affects for us all. I named it 'Happy Hours' after the idea of us all enjoying the happy and precious memories we are all creating in the hours of our days and the products we are supposed to be using within them, keeping our skin safe and comfy.
Then COVID-19 happened. In 2019 I had formulated and produced a sanitiser but did not have the budget nor the audience to share it with, so I sat back and watched people smear sticky isopropyl alcohol and other harsh chemicals on their children's skin at the playground. I was handing out sanitiser just to get people to use the right product, and not just for the kids but for us as adults too. Yes we were all terrified of picking up a virus, but did we need to get our hands cracked and flare up our little ones eczema in the process?
If this was now a daily essential product then why did no one care about what was in it? Sadly, the more toxic chemicals that are added to skincare the cheaper it is for the consumer and the manufacturer. These lower prices masked by a pandemic where the only goal is to stay uninfected the care for a 'natural' sanitiser goes straight out the window.
But we CAN have it all! And I wish someone had told me to double check the truthfulness behind natural skincare before I became pregnant, so if I can reach a few parents out there to check ingredients and ditch some nasty product then my job here is done! Let’s be honest, our days are beautiful but also chaotic and demanding, and enjoying these precious family moments without the worry of negative health affects of skincare is something I know you all want for yourselves and your families.
Kristi from Cronulla beach, Sydney is the mum of one-year-old Ruby with a passion for Australian made natural skincare. Owner of the recently launched Happy Hours Skincare, her goal is to educate us on products and ingredients truly safe for our little ones skin. You can follow Kristi here and here.