Woman Sells Skin Care Products For Babies

Do babies need special skin care products to protect them from the elements?

Lynn Rothschild Gagnon thinks so. And she’s betting her career on it.

Growing up, Gagnon suffered all the miseries and inconveniences of sensitive skin and allergies. The tendency then, she recalls, was to think treatment, not prevention.

Years later, while living in France with her businessman husband, Gagnon gave birth to their first daughter, Genevieve, and discovered a new approach to allergies and skin care.

“I was extremely intrigued when the nurses at American Hospital in Paris told me to use Mustela on my baby,” she says. Mustela, she discovered, was a line of hypoallergenic skin, hair and sun products for babies and children, “and since I have had eczemas and allergies all my life … once I started with it, I was addicted to it.”

That was 1978. Thereafter, when she followed her globe-trotting businessman husband around the world, Gagnon carted a supply of the stuff with her.

“It wasn’t until I saw it all over Mexico that I had the idea of importing it into the United States,” she says.

Although she didn’t have a business background - her doctorate was in experimental social-developmental psychology - in 1988 she set out to become the Estee Lauder of the kids’ set, convinced that U.S. parents would be as interested in babies’ skin care as she was.

From her home base in Wisconsin, Gagnon built up distribution until she now sells the line all over the country, although the items could not be considered inexpensive - $9 for a 5-ounce bottle of 2-in-1 hair and body shampoo, for instance, or $10 for 1.4 ounces of environmental protection cream.

(Even some people who may not have babies are getting into the act. Playboy magazine’s May issue suggested men use Mustela’s moisturizing stick to get those “kissable lips.”)

Recently, Gagnon added a new range of products to the lineup: Mustela 9 skin care for pregnant women, including a cream for stretch marks and another for tired legs.

One of Gagnon’s missions is to change people’s attitudes about sunscreens. Too often, she says, consumers only use them in the summertime.

“(Ultraviolet) protection should be used all year round,” she says, railing at the incidence of skin cancer in the United States. (According to the American Academy of Dermatology, one in five Americans will develop skin cancer.) “I am a maniac on UV protection.”

And on bonding. Gagnon is passionate about the positive power of human contact, and with the slightest provocation is likely to hand out cards with tips on basic massage. “Babies who are touched thrive in all areas” of their development, she says.

For more information about Mustela products, call (414) 377-6722.

In brief

Looking for skilled workers? Check out the military, says Inc. magazine. Small business owners who have hired recently discharged service people found their recruits easy to train, goal-oriented and already possessing needed skills, says Inc. Employment firms that specialize in placing ex-service people are a good place to start if you’re looking for someone with a military background, the magazine says.

Here’s some bad news for women in the military: Sexual harassment of women remains a serious problem. The at-least-somewhat-encouraging news: A Pentagon survey indicates it has eased in recent years. The survey of 90,000 active-duty women found 55 percent reporting they were the target of harassment in the previous year, down from 64 percent in a 1988 survey.

Some employees ask for the darnedest things before they agree to relocate. Among the more unusual items relocating execs have asked to have transported with them are pig pens, a collection of antique cars, a stuffed gorilla, a bowling alley and, in the case of one married manager, a girlfriend’s household goods, according to the Runzheimer Reports on Relocation newsletter and National Business Employment Weekly. Companies involved turned thumbs down on all but the gorilla.

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