Baby and children’s sunscreens are one of the fastest growing sectors within the sun protection market with more and more launches targeted at this age group. In the second half of 2010, 9% of sun care launches were targeted at children (similar to the previous period), and 5% at babies and toddlers (a 2% increase on the previous period) Mintel GNPD.
As people become more aware of the harmful effects of the sun, including premature ageing and even skin cancer, mothers naturally want to protect their babies as well as themselves against its damaging rays. A baby’s skin is in greater need of UV protection as it is thinner and more delicate than an adult’s, so when formulating baby sun care products, ensuring that the ingredients used are non-irritant and safe for a baby’s sensitive skin is of equal importance to achieving high UV protection. It is no longer enough to only offer sun protection products with a high sun protection factor (SPF). When it comes to baby sun protection, a mother expects a high SPF, and products below SPF 30 are simply not considered. Increasing global focus on the attenuation of UVA radiation has highlighted the requirement for products which offer broad spectrum protection.The European Recommendation of 2006 states that the UVA protection factor (UVAPF) should be at least one third of the labelled SPF with the critical wavelength measuring at least 370 nm.1 In the US, the FDA has not yet finalised the sunscreen monograph but UVA protection will be a key requirement.2 Mothers are also looking for products that are safe, mild and gentle for a baby’s skin. Furthermore, many mothers are becoming more “green” in their everyday outlook including cosmetics, therefore formulations that are as natural as possible are also important, so a large majority of formulations for the baby sun care market contain only inorganic active ingredients. As with all cosmetics, aesthetics are becoming ever more important, and the baby sun care market is no exception. While a mother is keen to apply sun cream to her children, her toddler of two may not be as enthusiastic! Sun care products for children must be easy to apply and visible on the skin to make application as hasslefree as possible. Achieving broad spectrum protection using only inorganic ingredients while considering product aesthetics is a particularly challenging problem. A new sun filter from Croda fulfils all these criteria from just one active ingredient. Offering broad spectrum protection without a cocktail of filters, Solaveil SpeXtra is an ideal candidate for baby sun care products.
Sunscreens for the baby sun care market
The criteria for producing sunscreens for the baby sun care market differ from those used when formulating products for other markets. The most important considerations are that the formulations must be:
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