Tiny Faces Big Beauty Budgets TikTok's Skincare Craze Fuels Concerns
A growing trend sees children, some as young as three, engaging with beauty face masks and elaborate skincare routines, a phenomenon largely fueled by TikTok and YouTube influencers. This shift has led to the emergence of "Sephora Kids," a term for youngsters, particularly from Gen Alpha, who emulate the beauty regimens of older teenagers or adults, seeking out popular products from major retailers. The cosmetics industry has quickly responded, with new companies specifically targeting this impressionable demographic.
Recent market activity highlights this trend, with the launch of Rini, a beauty company co-founded by actress Shay Mitchell, aimed at children as young as three. Rini offers hydrating face masks in playful "Puppy," "Panda," and "Unicorn" varieties, bundled for around $35. Another significant player, the US-based brand Evereden, caters to pre-teens with face mists, toners, and moisturizers, boasting annual sales exceeding $100 million. Even young influencers are joining in, with 15-year-old YouTuber Salish Matter debuting her brand, Sincerely Yours, to thousands of attendees at a mall event.
Despite this commercial boom, dermatological experts firmly advise against children using such products. Laurence Coiffard, a researcher at the University of Nantes, emphasizes that a child's skin requires only daily hygiene products like toothpaste and shower gel, alongside sun cream when exposed to the sun. Coiffard's research indicates that children who use adult cosmetics and creams face a higher risk of developing skin allergies later in life, and are also exposed to endocrine disruptors and phytoestrogens, which can interfere with hormone development.
To understand the scope of this trend, American dermatologist Molly Hales of Northwestern University conducted an extensive study, posing as a 13-year-old on TikTok. Alongside researcher Sarah Rigali, Hales observed how the algorithm "saturated" their profiles with beauty routine videos made by minors. Their analysis of 100 videos revealed concerning practices, such as a child applying 14 different products before developing a rash, and another reportedly waking at 4:30 AM for her skincare and makeup routine. The popular "Get Ready with Me" videos showcased routines involving an average of six products, often including adult anti-aging creams, with a combined average cost of $168.
Hales expressed shock at the sheer volume of products children were using. Her research, published in the journal Pediatrics, also highlighted that several "disproportionately represented" brands, like Glow, Drunk Elephant, and The Ordinary, market themselves as "healthy" or "natural" alternatives. However, Hales' analysis of the top 25 most-viewed videos showed that products often contained an average of 11, and up to 21, potentially irritating active ingredients unsuitable for pediatric skin.
New child-focused brands such as Rini, Evereden, and Saint Crewe claim their role is to guide tweens and teens towards more suitable alternatives. Shay Mitchell, Rini co-founder, told her 35 million Instagram followers, "Kids are naturally curious and instead of ignoring that, we can embrace it. With safe, gentle products parents can trust." While Hales acknowledges a potential benefit in providing less harmful products, she holds "mixed feelings." She maintains these products are "really not necessary" and ultimately "perpetuate a certain standard of beauty, or an expectation around how one needs to care for the health and beauty of the skin by using a very costly and time-intensive daily routine." She further warns that these products risk "steering girls away from better uses of their time, money, and effort."
Beyond the physical and financial implications, Pierre Vabres, a member of the French Society of Dermatology, points to a significant psychological risk. He believes exposing children to beauty routines and then selling them products can create a "pernicious psychological effect." Vabres warns of "giving the child a false image of themselves, even eroticised, in which they are 'an adult in miniature' who needs to think about their appearance in order to feel good."
