photo or infographic by Jackie Diaz

HOW YOUNG IS TOO YOUNG? The increasing trend of young girls using skincare is creating concerns on how young is too young to shop at Sephora.

Sephora and Ulta serve as one of the top makeup companies in the world and for a good reason. Both franchises offer an abundance of makeup, hair, and skincare products targeted towards teenagers up to late adulthood. However, recently a new audience has decided to target these stores. Generation Alpha includes children born from the years of 2010 – 2025 and instead of playing with toys, they’ve decided to play with makeup testers and completely trash the cosmetic stores while ruining the shopping experience for others. It has gotten so bad to the point where many testers and samples are now being locked up, ultimately ruining the experience.

Based on the damage Generation Alpha has done to cosmetic stores, these children should be banned or limited from entering these stores.

To start with, they’re children. Sephora and Ulta mainly sell makeup and skincare which tweens do not necessarily need. Most of the skincare products that have gained popularity include Drunk Elephant, Glow Recipe and Sol de Janeiro. Drunk Elephant and Glow Recipe both have products that contain retinol, an anti-aging agent. Glow Recipe contains fragrance which is dangerous to any skin regardless of how old someone is. Using these products as a tween only harms the children’s faces and will lead to irritation and dryness rather than fixing the skincare issues.

Besides the products not being suitable for their ages, Generation Alpha is not respectful of civil shopping. These children go into Sephora or Ulta and immediately rush to the sections of their favorite brands, not considering that other people are also in the store. When the 10-year-olds do get to their favorite sections, half the time they won’t care enough to clean up the mess they’ve made and will make “skincare smoothies” which is a short word for mixing a bunch of skincare products and forming one big mixture of stuff. Not only is this wasteful to the people who wanted to test out the products but it’s also rude to the employees who have to clean the mess up.

Another issue is the prices of these products. It’s a known fact that Sephora and Ulta aren’t the cheapest brands and products start from a couple of dollars to the triple digits. Rare Beauty is a popular brand that Generation Alpha tends to go for and a single product is an average of $30. No child needs to be putting $30 lip gloss or mascara on their face despite wanting to experiment with makeup. A couple of these items and the costs add up to well over $100 which can make a dent in their parents’ pockets.

While many will argue that banning children from Sephora and Ulta is discriminatory and wrong, it serves as the best solution for everyone. Teenagers and adults need to shop in peace and in an environment where they can comfortably find the products that they are looking for. Having children mess up the testers and being rude and inconsiderate damages more people who want to shop.

Society needs to take a look at this situation and ban or limit Generation Alpha from entering makeup stores. These stores are not suitable for children of their age and are only damaging the store for others and themselves. While tween years are the age of self-discovery, we shouldn’t limit that option to them. Instead, society needs to open a new store with skincare that’s suitable for their sensitive skin and beginner makeup that’s budget-friendly and allows them to experiment without damaging their face.