A great question
Is my daughter too young for a pamper party?
It's the question we're asked most, so here's our honest, friendly answer.
Most children love a pamper party from about five upwards. When parents ask this, what they're usually wondering is whether it might encourage a young girl to worry about how she looks. A pamper party that's all about dressing up and playing won't. One that's all about beauty treatments might. For us, it's always the first one!
We totally understand the worry
There's a lot of conversation among parents at the moment about beauty culture reaching children too early, from grown-up skincare marketed at nine year olds to make-up routines picked up online. It's completely natural to want to protect your little one from all of that, and we feel exactly the same way.
Two very different kinds of party
A pamper party can mean two very different things.
One kind treats children like mini grown-ups, talks about fixing and improving, and applies make-up properly. That's not what we do, and it's not a party we'd want our own children at either.
The other kind is pure dressing up and fun, and that's ours! The robes are silly and matching. The face masks are made from yogurt and cucumber right in front of them. The nail varnish is bright and cheerful, and the make-up is glittery and washes off before tea. It's a group of friends being wonderfully silly together with cucumber on their eyes, and it has about as much to do with beauty as a dressing-up box has to do with fashion.
What happens at our parties
No grown-up skincare, at any age. Nothing called a treatment, and nothing that promises to fix, improve or perfect anything. The girls do most of it themselves, with lots of giggles and us helping along the way, and the only thing we say about how anyone looks is that they look absolutely brilliant!
For our younger group, ages four to eight, it's glitter tattoos, fun hair and foot spas. For the tweens, nine to twelve, there's more making: perfume, a make-up bag to personalise and a polaroid wall. Still all about creating, never about changing.
So what age is best?
Four year olds have a lovely time as long as the party keeps moving. Five to eight is the easiest age of all, and nine to twelve works brilliantly when it's pitched a little older, which is exactly why we run it as its own separate party.
And if your daughter would honestly rather be upside down on a climbing frame, that's absolutely fine! Soft play might be her perfect party, and we'd always rather tell you that than book a party she won't love.
Still not sure?
Just ask us! Tell us her age and a little about what she's like, and we'll give you an honest answer about whether she'd love it.
Still deciding?
Send us her age and what she's into, and we'll give you an honest answer about whether this is her kind of party!