The other day while doing some grocery shopping with my eldest daughter, she asked me if I could get her some moisturizer from the store. In my head, I started screaming, but then as calmly as I could, I said to her... "Sophie, you know what I do for a living, right?"
Sophie and I, having a lovely mother/teenage daughter moment
In typical teen fashion, I got the big ol' eyeroll, and 'Mama you don't understand!!', so we had a bit of a conversation about skincare, ingredients, fillers, fragrance, etc.
I told her why I started Sola, and about the ingredients in Sola, lack of fillers, fragrance, questionable ingredients etc. She had already been using Sola products since she asked for skincare about a year or so ago, but I think just the experience of wandering the drug store aisles with her friends, being curious about products her friends may be using, it sparked a question in her which I totally get.
Sophie's toiletries
I remember using all sorts of products when I was a teen, a young adult, and even an older adult before I created Sola. I never gave a second thought to ingredients in the products I was using, until I got curious 10 years ago after our second daughter was born. I dove deep down into all sorts of rabbit holes, did so much research, tested so many ingredients, product ideas and started making products for our family. All I wanted to do was replace the products we were using as a family, with super high quality products and ingredients, that were effective and filler free.
Sola Skincare was born when friends and family started asking about what I was up to. They also were curious about natural skincare, and wanted to try what I was making. It slowly grew from there.
Soph uses a few Sola products on the regular: Renew Face Oil and Rose Hydrosol, Lemongrass Deodorant for sensitive skin, and an oil I made for her that she can use to remove her eye makeup.
Sophie's Sola products
I'm going to let certain things slide with her, as I remember how fun experimenting with make-up was, so she is free to play with that to her hearts content, but I'm going to be more firm with her skincare for now. I'm thankful she's so easy going (for the most part), and understands what I do and why I'm so passionate about skincare. I think it's important to get teens started on clean skincare, before they need to learn the hard way and waste a lot of $$ on products that don't have beneficial ingredients, or only a tiny amount (hello greenwashing!).
If you have a teen or tween (our youngest also started using our deodorant lately as well), think about the products they are using when they start needing deodorant or moisturizer. I think it's really important to teach kids about products in the market, and how to critically read ingredient lists, do a bit of research on the companies they want to support, and have conversations about how things are made, big business vs small business, as well as ingredients or sourcing practices. It's not too early to have those conversations, I promise they are interested and they get it and they appreciate when you give them information so they can make informed choices.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
