When you think about childhood, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it’s the thought of going to the park, buying books at the school book fair, or playing with Play-Doh. But it seems that to some members of the recent generation, Gen Alpha, childhood is all about growing up too fast. Recently a common thing amongst girls as young as 5 is loading up on expensive makeup and skincare products, especially in stores like Sephora. 

Skincare has grown in mass popularity throughout the last couple of years and it’s no surprise that Gen Alpha has also picked up the consumers’ desire for skin care with the rise of social media platforms where beauty tutorials, reviews, and trends are easily accessible. As these younger girls navigate social media they encounter a plethora of content that introduces them to the colorful world of makeup and skincare, especially brands like Drunk Elephant, Glow Recipe, Sol de Janeiro, and many more. Sephora with its vibrant array of popular products becomes a focal point for these young kids seeking to hop on the trends. 

But you may wonder, what’s the big problem with this? It’s just kids buying harmless beauty products, right? Well, recently, many workers and adult customers have shared on social media that these kids are starting to destroy the stores. At a large number of Sephora stores, applicator stations have been completely emptied and taped up due to the fact these kids were taking them in bulk amounts. Tester stations for products have also been limited because children have been destroying and leaving these stations a mess, some even going to the lengths of stealing these testers and other products costing Sephora an estimated (insert money amount). 

Another problem is the ingredients in the products that these young kids are using, dermatologists say they are seeing more and more kids as patients with multi-step skincare routines, more often filled with multiple products they don’t need and are harming their skin.

 In the article “Sephora Kids Are Mobbing Retinol, Anti-Aging Products” a dermatologist by the name of Dr. Brooke Jeffery shared one experience he had with a patient around the age of 11 who developed a severe rash all because of using products containing the ingredient retinol, “This rash had been going on for so long and it was so intense” he states, “All for trying to use an anti-aging product she doesn’t need.”

So we have seen the viewpoints from Dr. Jeffrey and what he believes these products are doing to these kids but how are Sephora employees viewing these young kids in their stores?

I decided to go to one of the local Sephora stores in our area to get a general idea of what these kids are like and what they are doing to the store. I talked to some of the employees in a casual conversation and they said that they have had a lot of kids coming in and buying viral products like Drunk Elephant, most likely because of social media. The employees said that the Sephora kids were especially popular in the stores during this last Christmas season. 

They also said that the tester stations have been destroyed from time to time but when I got to the store I noticed these stations were very well kept so I think the employees do a very good job of keeping them clean.

 I then asked about the number of stolen products or if anything had been stolen and they said many products had been taken a majority being testers but it wasn’t just the kids stealing, several adults have been stealing as well and that’s always kinda been an issue so I think the stealing of products isn’t directly linked to the Sephora kids. 

So overall in this Sephora store, there haven’t been a lot of issues with the kids disrespecting the employees and the store.

In my opinion, I don’t think the Sephora kids are as big an issue as everyone says they are when it comes to the actual stores but that obviously can vary per store. But I do think that it is an issue that these young girls are buying expensive products that they don’t need and I blame social media and their parents for that. They aren’t buying these products to make their skin look better, they are buying them because they are popular and their parents are buying these products for them, it’s as simple as that.