Experts Concerned: Skincare is Now Being Sold to Preschool Children

Actress Shay Mitchell, best known for her role in the series ‘Pretty Little Liars’, has decided to take advantage of her five minutes of fame and start a business. That’s what celebrities do, right? The first option is, of course, the cosmetics industry, but she chose to be different, bolder, and select a lucrative niche that is not yet overly saturated with brands.

For good reason, but Mitchell seems to have overlooked this. Namely, this actress and mother (which is important in this story) has launched Rini, a skincare line aimed at children aged two and up. Yes, you read that right – from the age of two.

The line includes hydrogel face masks, a moisturizer, and an after-sun skincare product, shaped like unicorns, pandas, and puppies. All of it is ‘dermatologically tested’, contains about 90% natural ingredients, and is produced in collaboration with South Korean laboratories, which is why Rini is labeled as K-beauty.

On her social media profile, the brand’s founder explained that she developed the idea with friends, parents who realized that skincare products for their children ‘simply do not exist’, and that skincare (including putting on face masks) is a great way for mothers and children to connect in a shared ritual.

The internet is not at all thrilled with her revolutionary entrepreneurial idea, as one Instagram user wrote: – Call me crazy, but we should only be putting sunscreen on children’s faces – and another added:

– Children do not need face masks. If you are afraid they will touch mom’s products, just learn to say – no!

Although Rini emphasizes in its communication that it promotes self-confidence and curiosity, critics (rightly) see something entirely different – selling children something they do not need at all.

This is particularly controversial in a time of a scandalous trend that originated from social media, Sephora kids, which has revealed the habits of kids buying retinol serums and skin exfoliating acids at an age when they should be using soap and, at most, sunscreen. In short, skincare products are no longer reserved for adults, nor even for teenagers, but also for preschool children. And yes, this is an extremely lucrative business, but brands that care about their reputation should intervene in this trend rather than amplify it.

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Regarding what is wrong with this trend, Jessica DeFino, an expert from the beauty industry with experience in popular cosmetic applications like Kardashian-Jenner, explained to the Vox portal, today one of the biggest critics of the dangerous beauty-narrative.

She pointed out that American households with children aged six to twelve spent 27% more on skincare products in 2023 than the year before, and among teenagers, spending jumped by 23%. Although these are figures that any industry would desire, DeFino claims that players in this market are not stopping but are grabbing younger customers, expanding their offerings to teenagers and pre-teens, as well as toddlers and newborns. At the same time, on TikTok and Instagram, parents are posting videos where children aged two or three ‘instinctively’ know how to apply serum or blush, which the internet loves, and the industry monetizes.

The main reason we have reached an era where even two-year-olds are putting on sheet-masks and ten-year-olds are using anti-aging serums is the disappearance of age-appropriate media and the complete collapse of the media space.

When she was growing up, DeFino says, there were magazines and TV programs aimed at teenagers, and today everyone, children, teenagers, and adults, lives on the same platforms; everyone sees exactly the same content. Given that there is no children’s corner on the internet, kids watch adult influencers who start their mornings with a fifty-step skincare routine and, of course, want the same.

Another reason, no less important, is, of course, capitalism and consumerism as its consequence. Brands think that women in their thirties, forties, and even teenagers with acne-prone skin are already saturated with creams, serums, masks, and peels, so they need to find a new target group ASAP. Today, that is children, and who knows, maybe tomorrow it will be pets.

Severe Consequences

To all of this, we must add the filtering of the world – smooth, flawless skin without wrinkles and pores has become the standard, so girls (and women) do not think about wanting to look younger, but rather like a filtered face, and that filter is programmed according to standards of perfection. As DeFino continues, this is not just a social and cultural problem but also a medical one.

A study by Northwestern Medicine analyzed the routines of children and teenagers on TikTok (aged seven to 18) and found an average of 11 potentially irritating active ingredients per routine. The consequences include increased skin sensitivity to the sun (and an increased risk of skin cancer), dermatitis, allergies, rosacea, and chronic eczema. Excessive layering of products disrupts the skin microbiome, which can have lasting effects on children.

Of course, there are also mental health issues because girls and boys at a very young age accept the message that they must use these and those products to be beautiful, and do not recognize that this beauty is not real but industrially shaped. Fortunately, there are brands that still have a conscience and, although they want to make a profit, are trying to reverse the trend.

Exemplary Examples

The Ordinary, known for its minimal aesthetic and transparency, recently launched the campaign ‘The Periodic Fable’, a satirical lesson on the language of the beauty industry. In the video, students in a surreal classroom robotically repeat viral skincare rituals while a chart with ‘elements’ such as miracle, glow, rejuvenate appears on the wall, terms that the industry uses instead of real science.

The campaign does not sell a product but educates about the wrong and harmful narratives in the cosmetics industry, algorithmization, and, in fact, the robotization of a reality in which we repeat the same actions in a few steps, expecting surreal results (glowing skin without pores and wrinkles).

And while The Ordinary aims to awaken customers hypnotized by the cosmetics industry regardless of age, the Brazilian Grupo Boticário has introduced the initiative ‘Pacto Skincare Responsável’, inspired by data showing that 95% of Brazilian girls aged eight to fourteen already have some skincare routine, and 60% either use or want to use anti-age products (!). As part of the initiative, a platform has been introduced to educate about ingredients and a label recommended for adult skin on products with active substances, and they have committed to removing internal disruptors from their entire portfolio.

Instead of profiting from children’s insecurities, Boticário invests in education and prevention. Thus, these brands are not withdrawing from the world of cosmetics, but they place values ahead of the pursuit of profit. Rini, however, no matter how well-intentioned its founder may be, is one of the brands or, better said, market symptoms that no longer know where need ends and marketing begins.

Behind the unicorn masks lies a serious topic – an obsession with beauty that begins at an age when a child should be learning to stack blocks, not reading the ingredients on a bottle. And, of course, the responsibility is not only on the brands but also on the parents. Children copy what they see, and parents should, instead of turning the application of peels into a shared ritual, learn to say – no.