Baby bottles: Honky Tots sells safe lotions to upscale moms.

When Jessica Iclisoy was pregnant with her first son, Ian, her protective maternal instincts kicked into high gear.

She didn't want her son to ingest unhealthy food, so she became a vegetarian. When Ian was born, she worried that the products she used to wash him were harmful, so she sought out alternatives.

But even at Iclisoy's local natural foods store--Mrs. Gooch's Natural Food Markets at the time--she couldn't find cleansers that weren't loaded with abrasive chemical compounds. Discouraged, Iclisoy set out to develop her own formula by researching which ingredients would be safe for Ian's skin.

"It came out of me not wanting to expose him to anything bad," said Iclisoy, a former manager of a Beverly Hills clothing boutique whose only chemical knowledge came from reading labels. "A lot of people have skin problems, and they don't realize it is coming from their cleanser."

The result was a lot more than one simple formula. Iclisoy started Beverly Hills-based Honky Tots Inc., known for its California Baby line of natural baby personal care items.

As it turns out, Iclisoy wasn't the only one concerned about the contents of children's cleansers. She discovered parents who were willing to pay more for products without synthetic ingredients, sometimes up to eight times the generic stuff for a $15.75 bottle of California Baby shampoo.

California Baby immediately found a following. While declining to state revenue, she says growth has run 50 percent year-over-year, each year, since it began selling products a decade ago. Today, California Baby cleansers, lotions, shampoos, bubble baths and sunscreens line shelves at the successor to Mrs. Gooch's, Whole Foods Market Inc., as well as baby boutiques, pharmacies and beauty supply shops across the country.

Others took note of California Baby's success, and the shelves have now become crowded with baby care products sporting "natural," "organic" and "fragrance-free" tags. Among those companies with items on Whole Foods' kid-centered shelves: Rancho Dominguez-based baby toothpaste maker Laclede Inc.; organic baby food company Earth's Best, owned by Melville, N.Y.-based Hain Celestial Group Inc.; Durham, N.C.-based personal care product manufacturer Burt's Bees Inc., and Santa Ana-based allergen specialist Magick Botanicals.

Sales of baby skin care products in North America have increased by more than 30 percent since 1997, reaching $221.8 million in 2004, according to Euromonitor, a research group. Now the big players want to get in. In January, Johnson & Johnson will introduce baby care line called Soothing Naturals that includes lotions, cleansers and lip balms.

"Baby has been a sleepy category, and we want to wake it up with higher-quality products so morns would want to use it too," Debra Bass, Johnson's group product director, told Women's Wear Daily.

Big competition

The entrance of Johnson & Johnson doesn't intimidate Iclisoy and her husband Arthur, who runs California Baby's operations. If anything, they say that mass-market players will raise consumer awareness about natural baby care.

"Johnson & Johnson puts a seal of acceptance. It is just great for us," said Arthur Iclisoy. "They are doing the advertising for us. They are getting the consumer ready."

To date, the presence of natural baby care products in the mass market has been limited. One problem is that supermarkets favor the big players, according to Mary Lou Long, owner of Magick Botanicals, which sells baby shampoo and powder at Whole Foods.

"I have never had any success in mass marketing. I have discovered that the (personal care product) companies that are in there don't want little companies in there," she said.

Another problem is retailers' concern that customers aren't willing to pay for expensive baby products. That concern is unfounded, she said. "Once they understand the product, they would see the difference. I had the belief that parents would pay more for their kids."

Still, California Baby's consumers are a select group--largely well-educated and high-income. Iclisoy said parents in this group are label readers--like her--who want to be keenly aware of what they put in and on their bodies, as well as their children's.

The couple sees the market growing as more people become interested in learning about healthy childcare. Katie David, manager at Maba Beyond Breast Feeding, a baby boutique in Beverly Hills that sells California Baby products, agrees that education is the key.

"Everybody wants what is best for their baby. Because people are starting to educate themselves, they are understanding that putting unnecessary chemicals on their babies is not good for them," she said.

But Michael Pellico, president of Laclede, said that most natural baby care products aren't ever going to do huge business. Although he buys organic products and shops at health-food stores, he said that kind of lifestyle is just not for everybody.

"You got people at stores who are going to buy the lowest-cost toothpaste. Those who read labels and do the background research, these people will always be the minority," he said.