Samika Karode

Tweens cause a mess at displays, demanding age-inappropriate products in beauty stores.

Workers at popular beauty companies such as Sephora and Ulta are taking to social media to vent their feelings about children ages nine to 12 wreaking havoc in their stores.
Since these stores don’t have an age limit, children freely mess with testers and sealed products. Their reckless actions are influenced by social media. Dubbed the “Sephora kids” trend, these children buy popular products used by their favorite artists and influencers.
But like a lot of social media trends, this one needs to stop now.
These Gen Alpha children have been surrounded by cell phones and social media from a young age. This gives them immense access to watch influencers in “Get Ready with Me” videos on various platforms, including TikTok and Instagram.
Such videos convince them that they need products such as retinol products, which is meant for anti-aging. These products can damage children’s skin barriers by disrupting the adhesion of skin cells, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Nonetheless, children have been demanding retinol from Sephora and Ulta workers, according to customers on the Sephora Customer Services website and stories published in USA Today and The National Post, a Canadian newspaper.
Many Sephora workers have expressed how these children also push other customers out of the way to reach a product first and open and contaminate sealed products without buying them.
Sequoia Cothran, a Sephora employee, talked to The New York Post about her experiences with such beauty-obsessed girls.
Cothran said in the article that she witnessed “Sephora kids” shoving other customers to reach products, opening sealed products, and interrupting her when she was helping other customers.
In particular, these “Sephora kids” have honed in on the viral brand Drunk Elephant, which focuses on skincare and gained fame through TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At first, the brand only targeted teenagers, but with social media right under the noses of even younger kids, Drunk Elephant’s target audience has expanded to them.
But these children equate products with playthings. They contaminate store testers by mixing them with Drunk Elephant products and prevent other Sephora and Ulta customers from trying products. This has been apparent in multiple TikTok videos posted by customers and Ulta and Sephora workers.
The last time I went to Sephora was quite an experience.
The Drunk Elephant section was filled with contaminated testers, and not one was clean for use. The Rare Beauty section had blush painted all over the panels and packages half opened with products used. Sephora employees looked helpless, not knowing what to do with girls half their age and younger ransacking their stores.
Workers and customers of Ulta and Sephora are advocating for age restrictions that require children under the age of 14 to be accompanied by an adult.
Customers expressed on TikTok that these companies should have someone at the door to verify the ages of young girls.
But age restrictions will not stop 10-year-olds from ransacking stores because they will still enter beauty stores if they have a negligent parent or older sibling accompanying them.
Rather, the “Sephora kid” behavior must be managed by parents. While a worker can only impersonally chastise a child, a parent can take time to teach their child a valuable lesson.
If parents see their children messing with testers, disrespecting workers or asking for products not meant for them, they should be the first to explain to their child what they are doing is incorrect.
Age restrictions and security will only work to an extent. Parents are the ones needed for “Sephora kids” to mature.