Mums and dads: Deluxe skincare is the new thing to pamper your children with

Any business to do with babies and children is big business – no surprise there, as more and more parents these days are willing and better able to pay for the best for their children. Luxury brands have of course been capitalising on this fact and are making every product a baby or child could possibly need.

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We aren’t just talking about what junior sits in and wears – it’s also what he or she eats, learns and uses on a daily basis. Along with Gucci rompers, Moschino blankets and Aston Martin prams, luxury skincare products for babies and children have become a recent trend that has caught the attention of parents with deep pockets.

Spending S$50 on a tube of baby body cream may seem much more acceptable than splurging over S$5,000 on a luxury stroller, but consider that expenditure next to a S$10 bottle of Johnson’s Baby Lotion and you’ll see how wide the price disparity is between regular and premium.

Beyond their chic, beautifully designed packaging, surely there must be something about  these lavish lotions that separate them from those sold in the pharmacy. These luxury skincare products boast formulations made with the finest ingredients from nature that promise to treat young skin in the gentlest way possible. They also do not contain chemical additives that contribute to a problem that’s increasingly common among young children today – eczema and other forms of skin irritation.

Some parents think that there’s something about clean skincare from the luxury category that just doesn’t exist in lower-priced alternatives. “The feel and texture of the products indicate a higher quality, plus the organic certification gives me the assurance that I’m putting the best possible things on my baby’s skin,” said Annabelle Wong, 36, who has a nine-month-old baby girl. “I’d usually buy the items that ‘go a longer way’ or are multifunctional, such as a moisturising balm, which can used head-to-toe on my baby and that I can even use on myself too.”

Others, however, feel differently. Susan Lee, 33, a mother of a two-year-old girl and five-year-old boy, believes that natural and organic skincare is better for her children, who both have sensitive skin. “While I would love to try these luxury children’s toiletries, the prices are a little steep for daily use – and kids, especially babies, go through a lot of such products on a daily basis. Instead, I would look for organic products that are more pocket-friendly – you can easily find these at mid-tier price ranges in the drugstore,” she said.

Branding, admittedly, is everything in luxury, and it’s no different in skincare territory. It definitely helps that most of these names here already have established adult skincare lines. Children’s skincare is simply a natural extension – the majority of them were started when their founders became mothers and wanted to create the best products for their own little ones, as well as for the benefit of kids and children around the world.

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CHANTECAILLE BEBE