For 70 years, our research teams have developed a unique, world-renowned knowledge of the physiology of babies' skin, from birth.
Is baby skin soft? Yes, but it is fragile and still developing. Our EV.EILS (EValuation of Early Infant Life / focus on Skin) program, a world-first study, has led to three major discoveries concerning baby skin:
Immature skin
Its barrier function is immature, it is more porous, and needs more protection from external aggressions in order to preserve its cellular capital. The cellular capital - unique for a lifetime - with which the baby's skin is provided at birth and which allows the skin to regenerate throughout life, is particularly vulnerable in the first 2 years of life.
Skin that dehydrates more quickly
At birth, it is less able to capture and retain water, so it dehydrates more easily and more quickly than adult skin.
4 types of skin in babies
There are four types of skin with different characteristics: normal, dry, very sensitive and atopic-prone. This discovery has allowed us to guide the design of Mustela products with specific active ingredients perfectly adapted to each skin type.
The different skin types
Normal skin
Normal skin: this is the famous “baby skin” that we often refer to: it is supple, soft and comfortable. And yet… it is permeable to external agents (pollution, bacteria, pollen) and is constantly dehydrated. During these first two years, it is necessary to moisturize and protect it daily.
Dry skin
Atopic-prone skin
Mustela has published 59 international scientific publications on the skin and filed 14 patents.
As a house specialty, we have reconstructed models of baby skin of various ages, patented under the name Stelaskin®.
Thanks to this innovation, we can study different skin types in depth, better understand the impact of certain skin aggressions and evaluate and test our future products on these reconstituted skin models.
