Every year, right about the first week of October, the same conversation starts at our counter. Red cheeks. Rough patches on the backs of the hands. A dry ring around the mouth that appeared overnight and that nobody can account for.
It happens at the same time every year because two things change at once. The wind picks up, and the furnace comes on. Outdoor air pulls moisture off skin, and indoor heated air does the same thing for the other sixteen hours of the day. There is no break in it.
The good news is that most of what helps costs nothing, and it is about when rather than what.
1. Moisturise on damp skin, not dry skin
This is the one that changes the most for the least effort. Straight out of the bath, pat them down so they are not dripping, then put the cream on while the skin is still slightly wet — within about two minutes.
Cream on damp skin traps the water that is already there. Cream on skin that dried off twenty minutes ago has very little to hold onto. Same cream, same amount, completely different result.
Practically, this means having the tub already open and sitting on the counter before you start the bath, because a wet toddler will not wait while you go and find it.
2. Balm before you go out, not after you come back
We say this one several times a week on the floor and it is still the thing nobody has been told. Ten seconds in the hallway, while you are wrestling the second mitten on.
Something that sits on the surface — a balm rather than a thin lotion — gives the wind something to work on other than their face. Afterwards is a repair job. Beforehand is just a walk.
3. The ring around the mouth needs its own answer
This is the spot parents ask about most, and the one where an everyday face cream does the least, because the area keeps getting wet and then going out into cold air. A thicker barrier balm before meals and before going outside is doing a different job from a moisturiser, and it is worth having both rather than asking one product to cover it.
4. Check the room, not just the child
Forced-air heat through an Edmonton winter will take a bedroom to the kind of dry you can feel in your throat when you wake up. A cool-mist humidifier in the room they sleep in makes a difference you will notice in about three nights, and it is one of the very few things here that works while you are asleep.
If you do not have one, a damp towel over the radiator or a bowl of water near the vent is not nothing.
5. Two products is plenty
It is tempting in October to buy five new things. In our experience two covers it: one everyday cream you can be generous with over the whole body, and one small balm that lives in a coat pocket for the bits that get weather on them.
Anything past that is for a specific problem, and it is worth asking before you buy rather than after.
What we have on the shelf for it
We brought in Mongdies this week, a Korean baby skincare range built around ceramides — which are what skin's own barrier is already made of, so you are topping back up what the wind took rather than coating it in something new.
The Baby Ato Cream (240ml, $36.99) is the everyday all-over tub and the one to start with. It goes on thick and sinks in rather than sitting on top, so there is no greasy film left on cheeks or hands. The Baby Ato Balm (30g, $29.99) is the richer little jar for the cheeks-and-knuckles end of the job, with a shea butter base that stays on the surface.
The Baby Stick Balm (17g, $29.99) is that same balm in a twist-up stick, which matters more than it sounds. A four-year-old can do their own face on the way to the car, and a stick in a coat pocket actually gets used.
The Foaming Bath & Shampoo (400g, $36.99) comes out already foamed, which sounds like a small thing until you are holding a baby with one arm. Hair and body, same bottle, pH 5.5.
There is also a Baby Cica Cream (50g, $29.99) for faces, a Soothing Essence (200ml, $34.99) for the watery step in between, and a Travel Kit ($49.99) with five minis in a zip pouch, which is the easiest way to try the range before committing to the big tub. All of it is a 20-FREE formula, vegan certified, and made in Korea.
Come in and squeeze a bit onto the back of your hand. It is the only way to tell whether a cream is one you will actually keep using — and we are just as happy to tell you which ones you do not need.
Princess & the Pea, 5112 Mullen Road, Edmonton. Mon–Fri 10–6, Sat–Sun 10–4:30. Online any time at princesspea.ca.
