02/12/2025

LYFE TUESDAY | DEC 2, 2025

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

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Beauty products for younger market

S HOULD kids be using beauty face masks? Dermatologists say no, but a growing number of companies are targeting a new generation of kids who have grown up with TikTok skincare a n d make-up routines. The cosmetics industry and parts of the internet have been abuzz since the launch of Rini, a beauty company pitched at children as young as three and backed by Shay Mitchell, a Canadian actress. It is a bundle of five hydrating face masks for kids, including everyday varieties named Puppy, Panda and Unicorn, selling for around US$35 (RM144.69) on its website. Another growing American brand, Evereden, sells products for pre-teens such as face-mists, toners and moisturisers and claims annual sales of over US$100 million. Fifteen-year-old YouTuber Salish Matter, unveiled her brand Sincerely Yours in October drawing tens of thousands of people – and police reinforcements – to a launch event at a New Jersey mall. “Kids’ skin does not need cosmetics, apart from daily hygiene products – toothpaste, shower gel – and sun cream when there is UV exposure,” said Laurence Coiffard, a researcher at the University of Nantes in France who co-runs the o Driven by TikTok, trends by new beauty brands target kids

Cosmetics Watch website. Beauty products that target kids are part of a broad society wide trend. Many young girls in Gen Alpha – a marketing term for people born between 2010 and 2024 – are adopting make-up, skincare and hair routines more typical of older teenagers or their mothers. The most precocious have become known as “Sephora Kids” – a reference to the popular French beauty retailer – as they seek to copy popular TikTok or YouTube influencers, some of whom are as young as seven. Coiffard cited research showing underage users of adult cosmetics and creams had a higher risk of being exposed to endocrine disruptors and phytoestrogens which can disrupt hormone development and contribute to developing skin allergies in later life. American dermatologist at Northwestern University in Chicago has spent several months posing on TikTok, as a girl of 13 who was interested in beauty routines. After creating a profile and liking several videos made by minors, the algorithm of the Chinese-owned site “saturated” her and fellow researcher Sarah Rigali. The duo went on to watch 100 videos in total from 82 different profiles. In one, a kid developed a burning rash after smearing 14 different products on their face. Another showed a girl supposedly rising at 4.30am to ‘Get ready with me’ Molly Hales, an

Generation Alpha sees many young girls adopting make-up, skincare and hair routines more typical of older teenagers or their mothers. – ALL PICS FROM 123RF

certain standard of beauty, or an expectation around how one needs to care for the health and beauty of the skin by sticking to a very costly and time-intensive daily routine,” she said. The products risked “steering girls away from better uses of their money, time and effort”, she added. Pierre Vabres, a member of the French Society of Dermatology, believes there is also a pernicious psychological effect to introducing children to beauty products and encouraging them to stick to beauty routines. “There’s a risk of giving the child a false image of themelves, even eroticised, in which they are ‘an adult in miniature’ who needs to think about their appearance in order to feel good,” he told journalists in Paris this month.

videos Hales contained products with an average of 11 and a maximum of 21 potentially irritating active ingredients for pediatric skin. Not necessary The pitch from new child brands such as Rini, Evereden or Saint Crewe is that they are orienting tweens and teens to more suitable alternatives. “Kids are naturally curious and instead of ignoring that, we can embrace it. With safe, gentle products parents can trust,” Rini co-founder Mitchell told her 35 million followers on Instagram. Hales said she had “mixed feelings” about the emergence of the trend, saying there is a potential benefit of providing less harmful products to young girls. But they are “really not necessary” and “perpetuate a analysed by

complete her skincare and make-up routine before school. The most popular videos were titled “Get Ready with Me”, with the routines featuring on average six different products, often including adult anti ageing creams, with an average combined cost of US$168. “I was shocked by the scope of what I was seeing in these videos, especially the sheer number of products that these girls were using,” Hales told AFP. Her research was published in American journal, Pediatrics in June. Several “disproportionately represented” brands, such as Glow, Drunk Elephant or The Ordinary, market themselves as healthy, supposedly natural alternatives to chemical-laden competitors. The top 25 most-viewed

Beuaty products that target kids are part of a broad society-wide trend.