The concept of “baby soft skin” – a naturally plump, hydrated and radiant face – has been the beauty industry’s gold standard for decades. So why is the industry now trying to sell these bundles of bliss bottles of moisturizer, cleanser, and perfume?
This month, Baby Dior introduced what it calls “the complete skin care line for little ones.” Don’t you think babies who enter the world with that delicious milky, soapy newborn smell don’t need perfume? You might be wrong, because the one percent can now mist their kids with Bonne Étoile, Dior’s $230 “scented water” that smells of pear, wild rose, and white musk. Pear is also featured in the full-body moisturizer Le Lait Très Tendre, which retails for $115. Dior is offering a $95 bottle of face, body and hair mousse for those who want to “turn baby’s bath ritual into a cherished moment.” For the same price, you can also purchase a “cleaning water” that “consists of 98% ingredients of natural origin and contains hibiscus flower extract.”
The $430 billion beauty industry’s target demo gets younger each season, with Sephora selling “teen skincare” products and twenty-somethings lining up for “preventive” Botox. However, although the three-figure designer baby lotion may seem like a manifestation of late-stage capitalism, it is actually a revival of the Dior children’s perfume line from the 1970s. Francis Kurkdjian is the creative director of Parfum Dior and the man who created Jean Paul Gaultier’s perfume. Le Male is generally considered one of the best-selling fragrances of all time. Kurkdjian told WWD that he was a fan of the past series and attended the concert at Dior in hopes of repeating it.
Not everyone shares this excitement. “Good luck finding a baby with $250 spare,” one tweet about Baby Dior skincare read. D., a board-certified dermatologist and assistant professor at Brown University. Hayley Goldbach went even further.
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“I agree that baby perfume seems like a scam, but it’s also potentially harmful,” she said. “Your baby’s scent helps you bond with him or her, and even ‘natural’ perfumes like essential oils have the potential to disrupt the baby’s endocrine system. Avoid at all costs!”
This isn’t just Baby Dior’s play for a space in the nursery. Dr. created the “vampire facial care” trend with his work with celebrities. Barbara Sturm sells a $210 set of “essentials” for babies — including “bath milk”; face cream with jojoba and sweet almond oil; and “bum cream” to relieve diaper rash. Baby and toddler products brand Lalo is selling a $170 bath time gift box that promises “the ultimate spa experience” for kids under 12 months. Estheticians are showcasing their work on newborn babies on TikTok and giving them “baby facials” that are garnering millions of views. “Pampered little princess,” reads the caption of a video of gloved hands applying gentle pressure to a lucky baby’s forehead at a Milwaukee-based spa. “How did he stay so still?” One of the undisturbed boy’s commenters wondered about this.
Testing skin care products as an adult can be a long and perhaps emotional process of trial and error. Will this serum break me? Does this eye cream really work? It’s even riskier for babies.
Scottsdale, Arizona-based pediatric dermatologist Dr. Karan Lal says he’s noticed an increase in the number of well-intentioned parents looking to spice up their babies’ skin care routines, only to accidentally harm them in the process.
Sharing about dermatological problems in the application, Lal said, “I recently prepared a TikTok video about a mother who used Ax body spray on her baby.” “When people are knowledgeable about skin care, they want to give things to their babies, but in reality this is not good, because when we give too much to the baby’s skin, we increase the risk of him or her developing irritation or allergic contact dermatitis.”
Jessica Ourisman is a beauty writer based in Los Angeles; There’s no shortage of parents looking for “natural” alternatives to staple products here; especially when Johnson & Johnson is facing thousands of lawsuits alleging its talcum powder causes cancer. That’s why Ourisman has seen “‘clean living’ parents moving to invest in stand-alone care products marketed as non-toxic to babies.”
Ourisman has friends who use Pipette, a “clean science” brand that offers baby lotion for just $9. Those with money to spend can opt for organic skin-care company Skincando, which sells a $70 moisturizer with the rather intimidating name of Combat Ready Baby Balm.
Jeniece Trizzino works in product and packaging development for a luxury perfume subscription service. She is also the mother of a one-year-old boy. Even though the company she works for doesn’t sell baby perfume, the launch of Baby Dior didn’t surprise her.
Trizzino compared designer baby beauty products to designer baby clothes, which appeal to a very niche and moneyed audience. “When I got pregnant, my husband and I said, ‘We’re going to dress our baby from head to toe in Ralph Lauren the moment he comes out of the womb,'” she said. “But then he grew so fast that we had to buy him new clothes every two weeks. At this point he’s wearing everything I can find on Amazon because I can’t spend $600 on clothes for him to poop. “I think there is a market for baby beauty products, but only as a status symbol.”
At the same time, Trizzino says finding products that will soothe your baby’s hypersensitive skin can be a pain, and stressed parents may be motivated to cough up moisturizers or serums that seem effective. “I tried everything under the sun and found a $50 jar of moisturizer that worked for my son throughout the night,” she said. “This might seem expensive to a lot of people, but I’d pay three times that amount as long as it works.”