Children have thinner skin than adults, which means their bodies absorb personal care products you apply. This is troubling considering a lot of toxic chemicals are added to skincare products formulated for children. Natural skincare for children keeps your kids safe from harmful products by using natural and organic ingredients.
Melanin-rich skin has different needs than skin with lower amounts of melanin. Unfortunately, most mainstream skincare brands have neglected melanin-rich skincare.
At Melabebe, we create nourishing, natural skincare products for your melanin-rich child. Melabebe is an all-natural and clean brand that you can trust for all your child’s melanin-rich skin needs, and we are proud to be the 1st clean-positive skincare line for children of color.
Why Children With Melanin-Rich Skin Need Specialized Skincare
Melanin provides pigment for your child’s skin, and the more they have, the larger their melanosomes and the darker their skin. It helps to protect your child’s skin from UV light (but don’t skip the sunscreen) and functions as a natural antioxidant in the skin.
Melanin-rich skin is often sensitive, so pay attention to how your child reacts when applying new products. To avoid painful and itchy skin reactions, it’s best to treat melanin-rich skin with skincare brands that have hypoallergenic natural ingredients suitable for sensitive skin types. Then, if you notice a rash, stop using it and make a note of the ingredients, so you know what to avoid in the future.
Melanin-rich skin is prone to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. This occurs when melanin settles in damaged areas around bug bites, acne, or cuts, leading to darker areas of skin. Since bug bites, acne, and cuts are all part of growing up, you want to make sure your skincare for melanin-rich children routine includes anti-inflammatory ingredients to prevent inflammation that may lead to scarring and hyperpigmentation later.
Melanin-rich skin naturally produces more sebum, which can make it more oily. As a result, melanin-rich children often have acne-prone skin as teens. So, when choosing skincare products for your children as they enter their teen years, make sure you continue to select high-quality products that won’t dry out their skin, causing excess sebum production.
Reduced skin hydration is a common concern for melanin-rich skin since it lacks many naturally-occurring ceramides - waxy lipids that form a protective barrier on the skin. So, melanin-rich skin nourishment must include a daily moisturizer with ceramides to lock in moisture.
Ingredients to Avoid
In general, stick to skincare products that are natural and organic. A good rule is to check the ingredient list, and if you’d feel comfortable eating the product, it’s safe to be absorbed into your child’s skin. You can also look for products labeled as certified organic.
Avoid these toxic ingredients:
- Synthetic Fragrances: While it seems like all children’s skincare products are loaded with exciting fragrances to make bath time more appealing, those synthetic fragrances are potential skin irritants that should be avoided. If you are looking for pleasing scents, stick to those provided by natural essential oils.
- Parabens: These preservatives are added to products that create suds or bubbles, but paraben cells have been found in breast cancer tissue, suggesting they are absorbed into the body and stored. While there’s no direct link that parabens cause cancer, it’s best to be safe and just avoid them.
- Formaldehyde: A known carcinogen, formaldehyde may be added to beauty products such as lotions, shampoos, shower gels, and nail polishes as a preservative to prolong its shelf-life. The amount within the products is considered non-harmful, but it’s best to avoid it with a child’s thin skin.
- Sulfates: Added to increase lather in soaps, shampoos, and bubble baths, sulfates tend to strip skin of its moisture, so you should avoid them for children with melanin-rich skin, which is already prone to dryness.
- Artificial Colors: To make their products look more appealing to children, companies often add artificial colors in the form of dyes. These dyes can cause skin irritation for sensitive skin.
- Sunscreen Chemicals: Many sunscreens are filled with nano chemicals to block UV rays, but it’s better to use to clean beauty sunscreens for melanin-rich skin. Many of those harsh chemicals sit on the surface of melanin-rich skin, leaving a white or gray cast.
Shop Melabebe
Many concerned parents resort to making skincare products at home to ensure they put only clean and natural products on their children’s skin. Melabebe’s founder did, but it was too time-consuming when she had to return to work. She was disappointed that she had to mix and match multiple products to care for her daughter’s skin.
Deciding that skincare for melanin-rich skin didn’t need to be complicated, she established Melabebe to provide clean products to melanin-rich children. Protect: All-in-One Moisture and Hydration Crème from Melabebe is the clean beauty product your child’s skin has been waiting for.
