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Baby lotion

How does baby lotion work?

Baby lotions are essentially a blend of oil and water with other ingredients added to give them their pleasant feel, colour and light fragrance. They are designed to cleanse, moisturise and protect your baby's skin and can be used as an alternative to baby wipes.

Baby lotions can be used with cotton wool as a cleanser at nappy changing time or used to give baby a relaxing massage to help rehydrate the skin. Thanks to their gentle nature and cleansing properties, baby lotions are often used by adults as a make-up remover on their own skin.

Baby lotions are specially formulated to be kind to very young skin. However, if you suffer from sensitive skin, there are a number of fragrance-free options on the market. If your baby's skin is irritated, you should seek the advice of your doctor, health visitor or other healthcare professional.

Are baby lotions safe?

As with all cosmetics intended for use on children under three years old, baby lotions have to pass their own special safety assessment, so parents can feel reassured that they are safe to use on young children's skin. You should, however, avoid using baby lotion on newborns and very young infants as the skin is still developing; it is initially better to use cotton wool and water as advised by healthcare professionals.

Where can I find out more?

If you want to find out about different types of ingredients in your products, visit what's in my cosmetic?

The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CTPA) is an association of manufacturers of cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery products, founded in 1945 to promote the interests of members, primarily with government. That remit has now extended to include the European Commission and many other regulatory bodies, national and international groups.

Members are manufacturers (full members), raw material suppliers and suppliers of services (associate members). Our Council is made up of senior industry representatives from small, medium, large and multi-national companies. Activities are funded through membership subscriptions.

The focus of our work centres on scientific, regulatory and legislative issues. We have a constant dialogue with the UK Government and this process is repeated at European level through COLIPA, the European trade body and internationally through an extensive network of national association contacts.

Visit the CTPA main website »

The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CTPA) is the voice of the cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery industry in the UK. Our members vary from small and medium-sized companies to large multi-nationals and include manufacturers, raw material suppliers and service providers.

Our primary goal is to promote good working practice to ensure that consumers are provided with the very best products. To this end, we co-ordinate the industry's viewpoint on key issues such as science, innovation and safety and maintain an open dialogue with government, both at UK and European level, as well as with international regulatory authorities and key opinion formers.

CTPA recognises that the consumer has a right to understand the processes that industry and the regulatory bodies go through to ensure the safety and efficacy of cosmetic and toiletry products. Over the years we have steadily increased our focus on providing the public with direct access to the industry's perspective and progress on safety, science and innovation.

In April 2008 we launched our consumer information website, www.thefactsabout.co.uk, which provides scientific facts about common ingredients used in cosmetics and the industry's perspective on common safety questions as well as information on how products are regulated to ensure safety and efficacy.

Further information on the work of the CTPA is available from our main website www.ctpa.org.uk which also houses the full set of legislation under 'Cosmetic regulations'.