Children have more access to chemical products like makeup, skincare, and hair care. Lots of kids have been going to beauty stores. These stores have products not made for kids, or as TikTok would call them, “Sephora ten-year-olds.”
Social media influences children, as many kids have easy access to the internet, using platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Lots of what appears on their feed ends up influencing them to want to purchase the product. Many of the products influencers advertise are not age-appropriate.
Drunk Elephant went viral on TikTok for its aesthetic packaging and from its influencer praise. Many Drunk Elephant products contain retinol, generally used for adults and older teens. Retinol contains harsh chemicals that may harm kids’ skin. Retinol contains vitamin A, which helps skin and mucous membranes. The kid’s skin cells are still developing. If excessive amounts of vitamins are added it could cause damage to their skin barrier. Not only retinol can damage their skin barrier but it also exfoliates. Their skin is already healthy and new so there is no need to exfoliate. The reason why kids end up applying harmful products is because they are heavily influenced.
Makeup is also a big problem with kids. Many kids want to wear makeup even though their faces look youthful. Many concealers and foundations are made for a certain skin type. Kids have youthful skin, and makeup can cause them to break out, which could permanently damage their skin.
While companies are partially responsible for these problems, parents also add to this problem. Parents are not telling their kids what is right and wrong to use on their faces. Parents are buying these products for their kids, companies cannot take the full blame.
Coming back to social media, countless social media platforms can’t control kid’s usage of the apps. Therefore it comes down to the content creators themself. They should try to make big announcements that the products they are sponsoring are not meant for kids.
A lot of stores have seen the problems too. An innumerable amount of stories have been trying to add some rules. At Sephora, they announced that only those 14 and up could come in with identification such as an ID. This rule is slowly getting put into many of the Sephora’s. Regardless of the stores creating rules, the companies have to say something about the problem. The skincare brand Drunk Elephant also released the problems of their skincare. So they decided to send a message to the kids, stating, “Stay away from our…..products.” This is not to prevent people from using their products it is more so for kids not to hurt themselves by using these products.
As a result of kids using these products, many companies and stores made it their responsibility to take action to help the children not use the harmful products.
