Sephora is a popular store that includes high-end makeup from a variety of brands. While likely not the intended audience, pre-teen girls shop at Sephora frequently. On social media, these pre-teens are known as “Sephora kids.”
The new popular activity can be seen as unnecessary as young girls do not need to spend time or money on makeup or skincare products at their age. According to CNN, Tweens are obsessed with skincare. Their curiosity for all kinds of creams, gels, face masks and facial peels has even earned them a viral moniker: ‘Sephora Kids.’”
Xochitl Mercado, a Sephora employee at the Sephora in Marina Del Rey, has witnessed many “Sephora kids” coming to her location. Most of the kids that Mercado has seen have been accompanied by a parent, and don’t commonly shop for real makeup products.
“I feel like kids are scared to try on real makeup because it’s a scary concept to change their appearance,” said Mercado, “they’ll only come in for the Summer Fridays lip balms or Drunk Elephant products.” The main appeal to Sephora for these young girls is that
CNN found, “[pre-teens] see people using products from Sephora on social media. So it’s almost like a status symbol to buy products from there even if they don’t even know how to use them properly, but they can show their friends that they have them.”
The debate around Sephora kids is not only are they flooding Sephora stores, but the products they consume are expensive. “I have seen elementary and middle school girls in [school] uniforms, who purchased maybe 500 dollars worth of products,” Mercado said.
“They want to be a big girl and have a makeup product,” Mercado said.
Sephora is also a store that includes testers for the customer to try any of their products. This can lead to attracting more young girls to come into the store more frequently: try on makeup, and make a mess. “It’s unhygienic and we just ask them if they need anything or give them makeup wipes because we don’t want them to get an infection,” Mercado said. Mercado has never witnessed any kids doing any other offensive activity while shopping but knows that Sephora kids are known for having a bad reputation. Leslie Pat, an employee at the Culver City mall also found kids coming in all looking for the same skincare products that are trending on social media.
“Yeah all the kids make a mess… I’ve had kids come in and put the facial masks and smear it on their faces and throw stuff,” said Pat. ““They’re really bad here, but I think it’s just because we’re a mall. This mall is different.”Pat almost rarely sees kids testing actual makeup products because of their age.
All kids are different in how they act as customers but all come with the same incentive to get the product, said Pat. “It’s kind of funny because sometimes I’ll be helping out some kids at the cash register and they are just so excited say ‘imagine working at Sephora.’”
The Sephora kids epidemic may never end with the influence of social media to consume popular products that are age-appropriate stores and children are different but all come with the same idea: to shop at Sephora.
