The Childs Farm story

Welcome to Childs Farm!

When I had my daughters, I quickly found them facing the same skin issues I had had as a child – sensitive and eczema-prone skin – and I wanted to help them so they didn’t have to suffer as I had.

Natural and sustainable have been in my DNA since I was a child. My mother Jennie brought me up on homegrown food, organic meat, and natural skin care products, and other than a bout of salmonella from some dodgy Bantam eggs in the 70’s, it is a happy, sustainable and natural way of life that we continue to live.

An NHS Nurse, Midwife and Health Visitor, Jennie embraced the ethos that prevention was better than cure, so when I was diagnosed with Atopic eczema, rather than reach for the steroid cream, Jennie told me to moisturise – a lot!

I was lucky to outgrow my eczema although my sensitive skin remains, so when I had my girls it was no surprise when my youngest, Bella, was diagnosed with eczema.

The Doctor gave me steroids to treat her delicate skin, and I was surprised to discover that there wasn’t a suite of skin and hair care products for children with eczema that could moisturise using natural ingredients without irritation. It was still barrier and petro-chemical based emollient sealants which I was simply not going to use on her skin: prevention not disguise.

It was in 2010 after another chronic flare up on baby Bella’s arms, bottom and scalp that I decided that I’d had enough, and as there wasn’t a readily available solution to care for her poorly skin I would create one myself - which is how the Childs Farm journey began.

I had to assess all the challenges, the first of was that I wasn’t a chemist, and had only my obsessive interest in natural remedies to guide me. This was helped with four years in Hong Kong and visiting every chemist in every city in the world I’d been to whilst working for a bank, but I’d never worked in retail and I didn’t have a clue about the process of selling a product into a shop. So I ‘walked the course’ to identify everything that I wanted to see from a range that I believed would resonate with others.

Fence 1 - British

I wanted everything that we did to be British; supporting our farmers by buying British had been engrained in us, and so we had to be Made in Britain creating rural employment using as many British ingredients, traditions, flavours and elements to celebrate where we came from.

And being conscious of our need to be more sustainable to reduce our Carbon Footprint, we wanted to be all over this one.

Fence 2 - Formulas

I was very clear on the ingredients that I did and did not want to use, avoiding primary petro-chemicals, parabens and other nasties that had no place in children’s skin care. Added into the mixing bowl I wanted an over-load of skin-soothing natural and naturally derived ingredients to moisturise and nourish skin with no irritation.

And I wanted a proper bubble bath. Neither my girls nor I had ever had one for fear of irritation, and we all really, really wanted to have a great big bubble bath and create bubble chaos! I needed – and found – a chemist who would understand everything we were looking to do, and embrace this.

Whilst we have tweaked some of the ingredients since our early days due to innovation, the basis of our formulas and all of the moisturiser formulas have never been changed.

Fence 3 - Fragrance

I wanted my girls to be able to enjoy fragrance and benefit from the joy this gives to our senses. They’d never had it in washing and bathing products before for fear of irritation.

I’ve been a fan of tangerine and orange essential oils because of their calming and relaxing properties.

So our initial fragrances included both orange and tangerine, as well as strawberry and organic mint for our hair care because I wanted to celebrate the fragrance of summer in a bottle with the benefit of the mint as a super-soother on a sensitive scalp. That moment when you bury your nose in your child's hair for a sniff – I wanted it to be wonderful!

Finally, we added grapefruit and tea tree oil in our hand wash and moisturiser; cleansing and refreshing grapefruit to cut through dirt, with the benefit of tea tree oil being one of nature’s own anti-bacterials.

Fence 4 - Trust

When I looked for suitable products my girls, I would robustly interrogate the labels. I wanted Childs Farm labels to give parents absolute clarity on product suitability for their children, knowing there was full product testing behind the words.

UK and EU Cosmetic regulations only allow products for sensitive and eczema-prone skin to be tested on adults over 18 years, so I wanted to support these claims with more rigour, carrying out independent user trials on little ones with medically diagnosed eczema to support the claims we are able to make on bottle.

And back to the British-ness. Being made in Britain gave us excellent quality control, and manufacturers who were just a short car ride away.

Fence 5 - Fun

Bath-time is about having fun with your kids and I didn’t want our labels to be beige and boring, but to inspire children and their parents to tell stories and above all not point out like a neon sign if you had poorly skin. The fragrance, the feel of the bubbles, the detangled hair, the pictures – a sensory experience to be savoured.

But firstly I wanted my girls to enjoy their bath time, so the label imagery became a tribute to them, their cousins, their pets, our farm and our animals telling exciting stories on every label, created with brilliant children’s illustrator Emma McCall.

Look carefully and you will see slugs and snails, Truffles the Kune Kune pig, and all of our old ponies creating the authentic and magical world of Childs Farm on every bottle. Turner Media thought they were wonderful too, and in 2014 they brought the animals to life in the 20 episode Childs Farm Cartoon, which you can still share with your little ones on our YouTube channel.

Finally the colours – well, those were chosen by the girls which is why they are all the colours of the rainbow! The ‘blue for shampoo’ was a total accident (Bella’s favourite with her on the label) and the pink conditioner; part of Mimi’s ‘pink period’ when everything – bedroom walls, duvet, clothes – were a delightful shade of candy pink.

We ended up doing everything you weren’t meant to do in the sensitive skin care or baby and child category – colour, fragrance, fun. And children loved it!

Fence 6 - The Name

Childs Farm was the name given to our old Farm when it was built in 1745 for the Childs Family. It was then called Bunnies Farm after the next owners and by the time we came to live there, called something totally different again.

One day I found the name ‘Richard Childs’ scratched on a window in the house, then at Church I saw the Childs family stained-glass window and it seemed the Universe was giving me a call.

In our branding we don’t have an apostrophe at the end where we should because we thought it would make it difficult when filling in retailer forms. But we are a name and should really be Childs’ Farm. Apologies to every English teacher out there...

So I walked the course, and thought - I can do this! So we made 1,000 bottles of our first 6 products and gave them away to friends and family to try, went to every school fair that I could to sell what I could, and the first Childs Farm website ‘went live’ at the end of 2011 when the girls were 5 and 3. There have been a lot more school fairs, events and shows since, and in 2021, we are now available nationwide.

Bella is now a healthy 12 year old with her skin under control, with glossy and tangle-free hair. And Mimi, now 15, supplements her regime with our new adult sensitive range Farmologie to help her developing skin.

And I continue to shower in the watermelon and pineapple and have the bubbliest baths as often as I can using the raspberry bubbles with a large dollop of Epsom salts for my aching bones!

So thank you for being part of our journey; some of you have been part of our 'club' since the beginning and have done more to spread the word than any ad campaign could do. Please continue to give us your feedback - good, bad, indifferent. We really listen to it all, and develop products that you want to see if enough of you tell us!

Thank you again for your support, and I hope you and your families continue to be happy in your skin.