Sensitive skin or not, dry or oily complexion, teaching your daughter to follow a skin care regimen can help her look and feel her best. However, many drugstore products contain ingredients that could prove harmful to her skin's delicate balance. Ottilie & Lulu provides all natural skin care products with none of the harmful ingredients commonly found in drugstore products. Here's a bit of information about the ingredients we do and don't include to keep our products, and your daughter, healthy and gorgeous!

The Good Stuff

Botanicals provide an all-natural way to help your tween smell heavenly. We use botanicals instead of perfumes or synthetic fragrances to create all natural skin care products just for your daughter. Botanicals don't need harmful pthalates for application. They also provide an aromatherapy benefit. Our Body Glow Lotion is scented with lavender – a calming, soft scent. We use mint in our shampoo for its clean fresh scent, as well as its cleansing properties. These herbal scents allow your daughter to smell natural and keep her skin and hair healthy.

Jojoba oils provide moisturizers your daughter's skin can really use. We use these oils in both our body wash and lotions to leave your daughter feeling silky smooth and keep her skin healthy. Oats, citrus, and chamomile, also known for their cleansing properties, are included in our all natural skin care products as well.

The Bad Stuff

Parabens and pthalates are found in many lotions and cleansers. Parabens function as an anti-fungal agent and a preservative, giving lotions and cleansers a long shelf life. Phthalates are oily compounds used to help fragrances stick around a while after application. They are most commonly found in perfumes and lotions.

Both of these chemicals possess the ability to mimic the hormones in a person's body and can be very harmful for tweens. Your tween is already undergoing hormonal changes. Parabens and phthalates can upset her natural estrogen levels. Our all natural skin care products never contain parabens for increased shelf life. We also use only all natural, plant derived scents, not a plastic compound.

Acids are commonly found features in beauty products. Two specific acids to look out for include sodium lauryl sulfates and salicylic acid. Sodium lauryl sulfates give cleansers and shampoo their foamy element. Salicylic acids are used in acne treatments. Both of these acids strip the skin of its much-needed natural moisturizers. Higher levels and frequent application of these acids can cause lasting damage to your daughter's delicate skin. Furthermore, they may cause an allergic reaction in girls with more sensitive skin.

Mineral oils and petroleum are often used as moisturizers. However, they do not actually do any real moisturizing! They coat the skin with a layer of oily grease, preventing it from breathing. They can trap bacteria between the grease and the skin, leading to breakouts. Even worse: prolonged use damages the skin's ability to absorb real moisturizers. Skin becomes chapped unless more greasy oil is slathered on. This often leads people to continue using the same damaging substances to make their skin feel right again. Avoid this vicious cycle by seeking all natural skin care products!

Ottilie & Lulu provides all natural skin care products that are specifically formulated to help your daughter avoid harmful ingredients as she learns to care for herself. For now, during her tween years, you are the one reading ingredient lists and deciphering the good products from the damaging. Share a list of the damaging ingredients with your daughter if you can. Knowing the names of the ingredients she should avoid can help her choose healthy products later in life and keep her looking and feeling vibrant well into adulthood.