Kate Solomon on soft mineral care for sensitive family skin

Paraguay is where the touch memory starts. Kate Solomon stood by hives with local growers, folding beeswax and honey into small batches of soap and lotion. That hand level care later became Babo Botanicals, a line built for family skin that reacts easily.

The earliest image she keeps is herself at seven, beside her father on their beekeeping farm, learning to move slowly around bees. The rule stayed simple. Take what nature offers and handle it gently. Candles were her first make, then honey and beeswax care, then two and a half years in Paraguay where she showed women farmers how to keep bees and blended soaps and lotions from nearby supplies.

When she came home, Solomon gave more than a decade to product development at Avon, LVMH and Loreal. In 2007, while expecting her first child, she started to work toward plant and mineral formulas. Her son gave his beloved plush bunny the name Babo. She borrowed that word for the company she opened in 2010 with ten products in four ranges. Safety, comfort and security set the brief.

Reading the shelf with fingertips, we kept returning to that brief. Babo Botanicals looks after babies through adults with sensitive skin, turns away from sulfates, parabens, phthalates, petrolatum and chemical UV filters such as oxybenzone, and centers sun care on zinc oxide only. The project is household care grounded in plants, judged by tolerance more than novelty.

You spent more than a decade in product development at Avon, LVMH and Loreal, and the texture fluency shows. How did those years shape the way you build slip and weight into Babo Botanicals now?

My work is woven through my family life. I grew up beside our beekeeping farm and I kept bees with my father since I was seven. A hive teaches patience. You observe, you pause, you hold your hands calm. Later I applied and was placed in Paraguay in South America, where I stayed for two and a half years. I showed women farmers how to bee keep and we prepared soaps and lotions with beeswax and honey. That labor was hands on. We worked with what surrounded us, we prepared it cleanly, and we passed it along. I hoped to join social responsibility with my love of product creation, but simply put it meant producing something helpful that spared the user and the source. I was reaching toward a business grounded in natural ingredients, and that benchmark began there. Beeswax shows measure. Honey shows reserve. A little goes far when the foundation feels right. I still build formulas that way, with certified organic botanicals and a brief list of materials we decline.

Plant and mineral work pulled you in 2007 while you were pregnant with your first child, after years of conventional development. What shifted in your sense of texture and formula weight once the user was your own soon to be born baby?

In 2007, I started to chase my goal of creating plant and mineral based products. I had started to consider the concept while I was pregnant in 2007. I recognized a real opening in baby and kids hair, skin and sun care. It felt personal. I also created shampoos and lotions that I might apply to my soon to be born baby. When you build for a newborn, each entry on the ingredient list carries more weight. You question if a foam booster belongs, if a scent belongs, if a preservative system might be pared back. My seasons at Avon, LVMH and Loreal had shown me how to craft refined textures at volume, but they had also revealed how many additions enter for shelf appeal. I began to strip them away. We remain a family label and that keeps us distinct in the market. We carry products for babies through adults with sensitive skin. That span reads wide until you picture one home. One bathroom shelf, one measure of gentleness, no separate standard for a child and a parent.

Ten products across four ranges was your 2010 start, and the names still sound like a day. Why did you organize around comfort and security, your son’s word Babo for his stuffed security bunny, instead of one hero problem?

My son named his stuffed security bunny Babo, and I held onto the word because it stood for safety, comfort and security. That seemed truer than placing my own name or an ingredient on the label. From the beginning I sought plant based care the whole household could rely on, and that required more than a single concern. We opened in 2010 with ten products across four ranges, including moisturizing baby, swim and sport, lavender calming and lice repel. A family day passes through each of those moments. A morning rinse, a playground, a swim class, then sleep. If the label fixed only sun, or only bath, parents would still need to blend standards. I chose to define one standard and carry it through routines. Family Comes First is how we phrase it inside the company. Rooted in Nature, Growing with Purpose is the other sentence we revisit. Both describe one habit. Select certified organic botanicals where they count, retain zinc where defense counts, and omit sulfates, parabens, phthalates and petrolatum without exception.

Zinc oxide only, in the majority of your products, is a firm texture choice when chemical UV filters such as oxybenzone give a clearer film. Why keep that heavier mineral feel for sensitive skin?

Zinc is such a safe and effective ingredient, and I truly hoped to work with it. In most of our products, we use only zinc oxide. The decision is intentional. Zinc sits soft on skin and screens UVA and UVB rays, and it suits the reactive skin we care for, from babies to grown ups. Chemical filters may deliver a more sheer appearance and a lighter glide, and I see why many labels select them. But we prefer to design for sensitive and eczema prone skin over perfume or sheerness. We prefer certified organic and natural ingredients over less costly chemicals. A parent ought to spread sun protection on a child and then on her own face with the same logic. A texture compromise exists. Zinc may read thicker and show a cast unless it is milled well with plant oils and butters. So we place our labor there, in the mixture, in the way sunflower oil and shea butter support the mineral, in the manner a lotion glides and settles. The rule endures because the buyer sustains it. They seek gentle care they can repeat daily.

The Nutri-Soothe complex runs through many formulas with five certified organic botanicals. How do calendula, chamomile, kudzu, watercress and meadowsweet change the cushion and afterfeel of a wash or lotion?

The complex gathers calendula, chamomile, kudzu, watercress and meadowsweet, all certified organic. I picture them as a meadow inside a bottle, each carrying a task. Calendula and chamomile soften the touch and encourage ease on dry or sensitive skin. They lend a wash or lotion that quiet glide instead of a squeaky close. Kudzu and watercress add a fresher, greener quality to the base and help the formula feel poised, not weighty. Meadowsweet tones the mix and prevents it from tasting flat on skin. Steeped as one they soak the base so zinc or cleanser never stands apart. You sense it during application. A baby lotion travels without tug. A sunscreen presses without drag. We take that idea from simple herbal brews. Soak the plants, allow them to shape the oil and water sides, then construct around them. It is not ornament. It is how we hold a mineral formula pleasant enough for a child to accept reapplication, and for a parent to place beneath makeup.

We used what we had, we made it purely, and we shared it.

Kate Solomon

A fragrance free line for eczema prone skin arrived on the baby side in 2017, before the 2018 move to 450 Whole Foods stores with growth in high double digits led by mineral sunscreens. What did that reactive skin teach your nose and hands about scent, foam and sealing moisture?

We carry products for babies through adults with sensitive skin, and the fragrance free project clarified that pledge. Eczema prone skin rejects added scent or aggressive foam. So we omitted fragrance in that line and held cleansing gentle. Foam is where many baby washes fail this group. A tall, airy lather may strip. We favored softer cleansing that leaves skin settled, then added moisture at once. A fragrance free baby lotion with plant oils, a face cream for dry cheeks, a salve for cracked or chapped spots. The ritual matters just as much as the recipe. Brief bath in lukewarm water, pat dry, lock in lotion while skin stays damp. In 2018, when we entered 450 Whole Foods stores, growth in high double digits was led by mineral sunscreens. That showed us households studied labels in the sun aisle as they already did at bath. Sensitive skin asks for the same even standard in sun, wash and moisture. No separate rules.

Your Sensitive Baby Mineral Sunscreen Lotion SPF50 and your Super Shield Sunscreen Lotion SPF50 both sell best at 19 dollars, one framed for babies and one for sensitive skin at large. How do you want a household to feel the difference on face, body and reapplication?

Picture them as two beds in one garden. Sensitive Baby Mineral Sunscreen Lotion SPF50 is our gentle baby sunscreen you can trust, crafted with natural origin mineral zinc oxide and water resistant for sensitive skin. Spread lotion across face and body for sun protection, in a full, even coat before heading outside. Linger on ears, neck and tops of feet. Renew after swimming or sweating and across the day. Super Shield Sunscreen Lotion SPF50 is our mild sun care you can rely on for sensitive skin at large, made with 24 plant based ingredients including sunflower oil and shea butter. Spread lotion on skin for sun protection with the same attention, and appreciate that it serves the whole household. I tell parents to keep one tube in the beach bag and one by the front door. The ritual stays simple. Shake when needed, warm between palms, press and smooth until the film looks even. Zinc performs when it creates that uniform veil. A thin, hurried coat is the most frequent cause of burn, even at SPF50.

In 2018 you also grew nationally and added products for adults with sensitive and eczema prone skin. How do you lift a baby softness to an adult face so it still looks finished?

We began with baby and kids hair, skin and sun care, but a mother samples what she purchases for her child. She tests the lotion on her hands. She borrows the sunscreen. So reaching adults with sensitive and eczema prone skin felt organic. The benchmark remains. No sulfates, no parabens, no phthalates, no petrolatum, no chemical UV filters like oxybenzone. Texture and finish shift. An adult face seeks a fluid that stacks beneath makeup, a tint that mutes the look of zinc, a milk that hydrates without gloss. We keep the Nutri Soothe base and the zinc, then adjust the carrier oils and the finish. Sunflower oil and shea butter in the body lotion offer deeper cushion. Lighter fluids for the face sweep thin and settle clean. The soil stays constant, the harvest is styled another way. A baby requires comfort. A grown up with reactivity wants comfort that still looks refined. Both require a formula they can reach for each morning without friction.

Daily Sheer Tinted Mineral Sunscreen Fluid SPF50 at 24 dollars moves zinc from beach bag to vanity. What did tint, slip and layering teach you about making a mineral fluid people will actually wear daily?

The face demands extra. It wants glide, a tint that softens the pale cast of zinc, a fluid that rests neatly under makeup or alone. Daily Sheer Tinted Mineral Sunscreen Fluid SPF50 is our tinted mineral face sunscreen you will love wearing daily, built for sensitive skin as a featherlight zinc oxide formula with broad spectrum SPF50. Place daily on face for sun protection as the closing step of morning care. Layering taught the lesson. Cleanse, add light moisture when needed, then sweep a coin sized amount across face and neck and allow it to set before makeup. If you sheer it too thin to dodge color, defense drops. So the tint must suit enough tones that people spread a full measure. Steep the base with plants so it slides, hold the mineral film even, and let the tint quietly turn zinc into ritual instead of task. That is how zinc moves from the beach bag to the vanity shelf.

Closing note from the desk

What lingers is the feel of steady hands. Solomon tended hives, then guided tending, then poured tending into bottles. The hives, the Paraguay seasons, the long stretch inside large beauty houses, the pregnancy in 2007, the bunny called Babo, the ten products in 2010, the arrival in 450 Whole Foods stores in 2018. One texture of care throughout.

Babo Botanicals sought to offer families with sensitive and eczema prone skin health and beauty answers that spare family health and the environment. Felt slowly, that vow becomes zinc handled with patience, plants steeped with purpose, and an even layer smoothed across small shoulders and adult cheeks in the morning light.

Product spotlight

Sensitive Baby Mineral Sunscreen Lotion SPF50 feels smooth for 19 dollars. A water resistant mineral lotion crafted with natural origin zinc oxide for tender baby skin. Press evenly over face and body ahead of sun, attending to ears, neck and feet, and renew after swimming, sweating or during the day.

Super Shield Sunscreen Lotion SPF50 feels light for 19 dollars. A mineral lotion for reactive skin built with 24 plant based ingredients including sunflower oil and shea butter. Warm in palms and smooth across bare skin as the household daily sun coat, renewed as time outside extends.