A Quick Summary
Baby Safety Month is a national observance every September, and most of the official messaging focuses on cribs, car seats, and safe sleep [8]. That conversation matters, but it leaves out something parents put directly on a baby's skin every day. Under U.S. law, the word "fragrance" on a label can legally hide dozens of undisclosed chemical ingredients [1][2], and a newborn's skin barrier can be as much as 30 percent thinner than adult skin, making it more permeable to whatever is applied to it [4][5]. This guide walks through how to actually read a baby skincare label, including the five things worth checking on any bottle, and is honest about the fact that "natural" ingredients are not automatically risk free either [6].
Every September, baby brands post about safety, and most of it is about cribs and car seats, which is exactly where it should be, since that is where the injury data is concentrated. But nobody is telling parents how to read the label on the bottle actually touching their baby's skin every day. That is the gap this guide is for.
What Baby Safety Month Is, and Where Ingredients Fit In
Baby Safety Month started in 1983 when the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) launched a single day called Expectant Mother's Day, expanded it to a week in 1986, and made it a full month in 1991 [8]. It is coordinated with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and centers almost entirely on nursery equipment: cribs, car seats, and safe sleep environments.
That is not our expertise, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can speak to directly, with real formulation experience behind it, is what actually goes into a bottle and how to tell the difference between a label that is transparent and one that is not.
What Does "Fragrance" Actually Mean on a Label?
Under the U.S. Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, cosmetic companies are allowed to list "fragrance" as a single word on an ingredient panel, without naming the individual components, because fragrance formulas are treated as trade secrets. The Food and Drug Administration confirms this directly [1]: fragrance and flavor ingredients are exempt from the usual requirement to list every ingredient individually, precisely because they are the ones most likely to be proprietary. The 2022 Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act tightened several cosmetic rules, but it specifically preserved this fragrance trade secret exemption [2].
In practice, that one word can stand in for dozens of individual chemical compounds. Because the full formula is not disclosed, "fragrance" can also be a vehicle for other undisclosed additives, including phthalates, which are sometimes used to help scent linger on skin longer [3]. None of this means every fragranced product is harmful. It means a parent reading a label has no real way to know what "fragrance" contains.
Why Baby Skin Needs Extra Caution
This is not just a parenting preference, it is a documented physiological difference. Published research on neonatal and infant skin has found it can be as much as 30 percent thinner than adult skin, with a barrier that is still forming in the first months of life [4][5]. That thinner, more permeable barrier means topical products absorb into a baby's skin more readily than they do into an adult's, which is a large part of why pediatric dermatology sources consistently recommend fragrance-free, minimal-ingredient products for infants [4].
How to Actually Read a Baby Skincare Label
Most "clean baby product" advice stops at "avoid fragrance." That is a start, but it is not enough on its own. Here is what we actually look for, on our own labels and everyone else's.
Look for the word "fragrance" or "parfum." If you see it, the formula behind it is legally undisclosed. This is the single biggest thing to check first [1].
Check whether scent ingredients are named individually. A label that lists specific oils by their Latin name, such as Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, is telling you exactly what is in the bottle. A label that just says "essential oil blend" is not.
Identify the carrier or base ingredient. Most topical baby products are mostly carrier oil, not active ingredient. Knowing what that base actually is, and whether it is prone to irritation, matters as much as the scent.
Look for a stated dilution or an explicit age range. "Formulated for babies and young children" with a gentler dilution than an adult product is a meaningfully different claim than a product simply marketed with a baby on the packaging.
Do not assume "natural" means "tested" or "gentle." Certifications and third-party verification exist for a reason. A long ingredient list of recognizable plant names is a good sign, but it is not a substitute for a patch test.
"Natural" Doesn't Automatically Mean Safe
It is worth being honest about this rather than glossing over it. Some board certified dermatologists caution that a baby's immature skin barrier can react to concentrated botanical ingredients, not only synthetic ones [6]. "Natural" is not automatically "risk free" for a newborn, and we do not pretend otherwise.
This is exactly why dilution matters as much as sourcing. Every roll-on we make, across every collection, uses organic Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil as its base. Jojoba is not actually an oil in the traditional sense. It is a liquid wax ester, and its molecular structure closely resembles human sebum, the natural oil skin already produces, which is why it is widely used in sensitive skin formulations and tends to be well tolerated. Jojoba also has a traditional history that predates the skincare industry entirely: it is native to the Sonoran Desert, and the Tohono O'odham people, whose name for the plant's seeds, "hohowi," is the root of the word "jojoba," traditionally ground the softened seeds into a paste used for skin and hair care [7]. Because botanical ingredients are not automatically risk free for a baby's skin either, everything in our First Days Collection is diluted meaningfully lower than our adult Made Whole Collection, which is formulated for ages 13 and up.
Where This Started
I did not set out to build a skincare line. I set out to solve my own problem. When I became a new mom, I kept running into the same advice: skip your usual perfume around the baby, because synthetic fragrance can irritate newborn skin. That advice made sense, but it also frustrated me. I still wanted to smell like myself.
So I started reading ingredient labels, then researching what was actually inside "fragrance," and that is what led me into essential oils and their long history of traditional use in the first place. We believe plants were given their properties on purpose, and that belief is part of why we started looking at ingredients this closely to begin with.
FAQ
What does the word "fragrance" mean on a baby product label? Under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, U.S. cosmetic companies can list "fragrance" as a single ingredient without disclosing its individual components, because fragrance formulas are legally treated as trade secrets [1][2].
How do I read a baby skincare label? Check for the word "fragrance" or "parfum," look for individually named oils rather than vague blends, identify the carrier or base ingredient, look for a stated dilution or age range, and patch test regardless of what the label claims.
Why is baby skin more sensitive than adult skin? A newborn's skin barrier is still developing and can be as much as 30 percent thinner than adult skin, making it more permeable to whatever is applied topically [4][5].
Are essential oils automatically safer than synthetic fragrance for a baby? Not automatically. Concentrated botanical ingredients can still be irritating to an immature skin barrier if not diluted appropriately [6], which is why our First Days Collection uses a meaningfully gentler dilution than our adult Made Whole Collection.
What carrier oil does How Majesstic Botanicals use? Every roll-on across our collections uses organic Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, a liquid wax ester structurally similar to human sebum, chosen for being non-comedogenic and well tolerated [7].
If reading a label with real confidence is something you want to build into how you shop for your baby, our First Days Collection was made with exactly that kind of transparency in mind.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Written by Jessica Florence
References
[1] "'Trade Secret' Ingredients." U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-labeling/trade-secret-ingredients
[2] "Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA)." U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/modernization-cosmetics-regulation-act-2022
[3] "What are phthalates?" Environmental Working Group (EWG). https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/09/what-are-phthalates
[4] "Skin Barrier Function in Neonates and Infants." PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11791375/
[5] Stamatas, G. N., et al. "Skin maturation from birth to 10 years of age: Structure, function, composition and microbiome." Experimental Dermatology. 2023. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/exd.14843
[6] Gohara, M., as quoted in "Dermatologist Approved Skincare for Babies." Mommybites. https://mommybites.com/col1/baby/dermatologist-approved-skincare-for-babies/
[7] "Jojoba Plants in Arizona." Desert Botanical Garden. https://dbg.org/hello-jojoba/
[8] "Baby Safety Month." Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) / Baby Safety Alliance. https://www.jpma.org/page/about_bsm
