Kids’ skincare has always been a minefield of confusion to me. There is always a plethora of skincare advice on social media for adults and none for kids. We are all moms, and I don’t know about you, but I struggled to navigate this. Skincare is an essential part of my routine, and including my child in it felt natural. But I was always so scared to do something wrong, constantly wondering if I could use a product, how to use it, and when. Of course, we all know the basics of bathing and moisturizing, but there must be more.
Without making kids’ skincare unnecessarily complicated (I don’t even employ a complex skincare regime), I wanted to understand how to best look after her skin. I also wanted to explore how to instill good skincare values at a young age so she felt like it was a natural part of the day. The skin remains our largest organ, and this does not change based on your age.
After starting FIGGI and being in a position to learn more about the skin and the chemistry of skincare, I’ve created a skincare routine for my little girl. Granted, there really is not much to do since she doesn’t wear makeup, isn’t in an aging or breakout phase yet, and is generally blessed with the baby skin we all seek to possess once more. That being said, here are my few tips on caring for your child’s skin.
[DISCLAIMER] When discussing a child in this post, I refer to those 12 and under.
BATH TIME
Kids tend to have problems with dry skin. This is mainly because their skin is still so thin and vulnerable, and they are tough on it. They run, sweat, play in sand pits, and fall down. It’s a lot for the skin to handle, so I make bath time an indulgent experience for her skin. This is my routine:
- We use bar soap because I find this a more effortless experience for her. She needs help with pump bottles, always taking too much or too little products, applying them only to one area, etc. The issue for me was the unbelievable amount of harsh cleansing ingredients in children’s skincare. Add to this the inordinate amount of fragrance in children’s skincare, and it made for a terrible combination for my little girl’s sensitive skin. I like to use the Dove sensitive bar soap or the Cerave fragrance-free bar soap. The cleansing ingredients are gentle, and there is no fragrance!
- We use lukewarm water so we don’t dry out the skin even more or strip it of its natural oils. She doesn’t mind this because she is used to it.
- Moisturizing while her skin is damp is really important. I want the skin to have all this beautiful hydration when I seal it in with a moisturizer. Drying the skin and removing all that lovely water, and then trying to physically press it back in with a moisturizer, is just not practical.
FACIAL SKINCARE
Many people look at me strangely when I say my little girl has a skincare routine, especially a facial skincare routine. There’s this idea that their skin is so sensitive, pure, and new, so why would you throw a host of products at it? But the thing that we forget is, yes, their skin is vulnerable, a lot more sensitive than ours, but they are also in many ways a lot tougher on their skin than we are.
It’s essential to have a skincare routine for your little ones, not just for the health of their skin but also for the psychological development of understanding and preparing them for this journey and helping them learn that it’s essential to look after your skin and how to look after your skin, making it part of their regular daily routine. So it isn’t something extra that they feel forced to do. But it just comes along with the daily routine, like brushing teeth.
I love using the FIGGI beauty products because I formulated them. I know exactly what’s in them and the percentages. I know there’s no fragrance. I know it’s Gluten free. I know it’s free of colors. I know it’s free of essential oils. I know it has the softest surfactants available on the market. I do make an exception. It depends on what she’s been doing that day. If she’s just gone to school and I’ve just put the average amount of sunscreen in the morning, I just do the gel cleanse. I won’t do a double cleanse with her. Her skin is too sensitive, she doesn’t wear makeup, and she’s not working in the city daily. Yeah, she gets exposed to sand and dirt, but a gentle cleanse is all she needs to get that grime off her face.
Suppose she had a beach day or was out in the sun by the pool with me all day. In that case, we’ve been reapplying sunscreen all day, or we’ve been hiking, and it’s just mud and dust and sand everywhere; I will go in with the Balm Cleanser just to help attract that oily grime from within her skin. But you only sometimes need to do a double cleanse for them. So I usually use the FIGGI Refresh the Goddess gentle gel cleanser on her face in the evenings. And it’s so lovely because it’s really like a tonic almost. It forms into this tonic, and she loves rubbing it on her face. It doesn’t burn her eyes. So she’s not scared to use it. She’s not afraid to put it over her eyes. And when we do use the Purify the Goddess Cleansing Balm or Makeup Dissolving Cleansing Balm to oil, it’s usually on pool days or when she has come home from the party with the inevitable painted face. And again, it’s so soft; it glides so nicely.
Two great things about it are that it doesn’t burn your eyes. So I don’t have a crying hysterical toddler on my hands that won’t sit still because I’m trying to get the deep-set inner blue paint of the mystical, magical unicorn out of her eyelids. The second thing that helps a lot is it comes off really quickly. So she doesn’t have time to get frustrated with me and start moaning and begging for it to stop because, in two wipes, everything is off. What I also love about the FIGGI Balm is if you don’t remove it with a cloth, it’s a beautiful moisturizer to stay on your skin. So if she’s had a really tough day and it’s just one of those days, all moms know, when everything is an issue and a struggle, and you just don’t have time for the battle of trying to put cream after bath time; you’re good to go.
After a cleanse, I give her some of the FIGGI Evening Rescue Cream. I love that cream because it’s deeply nourishing and hydrating. It’s got a lot of healing ingredients in it. It has Provitamin B5, an essential ingredient in every baby or child’s skincare routine. That’s why so many creams for nappy rational of that contain it. And again, she loves it. It’s silky. You use so little of it.
EXTRA TLC
I will give her a little bit of extra TLC twice a week. My little girl tends to get really dry on her shins and her calves, and she also tends to get really dry on the tops of her feet by her toes. I’ll give her a massage, and I’ll make sure that it’s after bath time when the skin is nice and damp, and I’ll massage the moisturizer into her skin and lock it in there. I essentially slug over her skin with Vaseline to ensure that that moisture stays inside all night. This really helps and is such a great skin rescue. It’s mainly for dry, cracked, irritated skin, especially when they’ve had a scrape or a bruise that’s healed, that’s already healed, or if they’ve just been outside a lot more than usual.
I will also give her a bath with baby oil on pool days. The pool tends to have a lot of chlorine. And it really dries out the skin. I try to get her used to the idea of swimming and having fun, getting out and rinsing under a clean stream of water, just to get that chlorine off. At night, we will put some oil into the bath water. And while she’s in the bath, I’ll massage her or massage this into the skin. It’s such a wonderful way to just lock in that hydration, to add that extra moisture, and to protect the skin, and give it that extra oomph, that extra boost, that extra foam of protection that you need, especially when the little ones have been tough on their skin.
SUNCARE
Yes, the boring bit about sunscreen, sun protection, and sun care. What works the best for me is to have three or four different types of sunscreen in my arsenal, which I can rotate between, judging on her willingness to be “sunscreened” at that moment. Once they’re out there and they’re playing or when they’re super excited to get out there and play, the last thing they want to do is stand still so you can put sunscreen on them.
From a young age, I have done my best to teach her that part of our morning routine is getting ready for school, brushing our teeth, brushing our hair, and putting on our sunscreen. So she would come to me in the mornings and say, “Oh, Mommy, I don’t have sunscreen yet.” So the first one is free :-). And that’s usually when I use the thick cream spray because this is the last time that day that I will have enough time to sunscreen her like this.
Then I have an air gel type of mousse. It looks like hair mousse on your skin, and you can rub it in, but it rubs in really dry and nonsticky. I love it! And she loves it because putting it on her skin is fun! It bursts out in a bubble. And she just thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world. While I’m still in her good books with application two, that works well.
The third is a sunscreen stick for the face. This also works well. Later in the day, she’s slightly more prone to wanting to play. She’s getting a little bit more tired. She doesn’t want me to fuss around her. And this is a great one she can put on alone with my supervision. She loves doing it because it feels like she’s putting on makeup.
The last one I have is an invisible sunscreen spray. This is the best thing that has ever been invented. Just make sure that when you get an invisible sunscreen spray, you know the brand and understand the research they’ve done into sunscreen efficacy. They have solid results and backup. This is when she’s playing in the sand or pool, and you don’t even call her to come to you. Just sneak up on her and just spray it all over her body. And it’s so quick and fast, and nothing needs to be rubbed in. And it’s just the least amount of hassle.
I hope you found value in this. And if you have any other questions about children’s skincare that I can help you with or answer, or if you have any tips for me, I am excited to heart them! Comment below!
Love and Light
Jeanne
