Using Unpreserved Skincare on Broken Skin
For most people, including children over 3, this means our products are perfectly fine to use on broken, cracked or weeping skin, in fact, this is often exactly when skin needs this kind of simple, gentle support most.
Do not apply to open or broken skin on infants under 3 years old. This isn't just our own caution, it's a requirement based on the safety assessment behind our ingredients.
Newborns under 4 weeks
For the first four weeks, a baby's skin barrier is still forming. We don't recommend using any skincare products on newborns, ours included, unless your midwife, health visitor or GP advises it for a medical reason. Plain water is all most newborn skin needs. From 4 weeks, our baby-suitable products can be used on healthy skin. For broken skin, the under-3 rule above still applies.
Calendula and zinc oxide, used in several of our products, do have some antimicrobial properties of their own, worth knowing if skin looks genuinely infected rather than simply broken. But that's not the same thing as a broad spectrum preservative system, so a little extra judgement is needed in a couple of other situations too.
Check with a doctor first if:
- the skin is a deep open wound, rather than dry, cracked, flaky or weeping
- the person has a compromised immune system
Signs of a genuine infection to watch for: increasing pain rather than just discomfort, yellow crusting or pus, a fever, or red streaking spreading out from the area. These need a doctor's attention promptly, alongside, not instead of, any skincare you're already using.
Always keep the lids on Lyonsleaf products, and use clean fingers or, better, a clean spatula to remove product from the jar.