“Strawberry smoothie!, I found it!” shrieks a high-pitched 10-year-old voice.
“I need the Baby Face serum,” says another 5th-grade girl.
“It’s right here,” says a third. “Oh, it’s actually kind of cute,” she adds, referring to the baby pink packaging.
That’s just some of the audio recorded when CBS News California Investigates Correspondent Julie Watts sent her 5th-grade daughter and some classmates (with parents’ permission) undercover shopping for skincare products to see what would happen when the kids tried to buy products that, according to dermatologists, contain anti-aging ingredients that could harm their young skin.
From bubblegum cleansers to Sephora Barbie to kid-fluencers promoting viral brands, the skincare industry is cashing in on the so-called “Sephora kids” trend, named after one of the trendy cosmetic stores that sells the viral skincare brands, though Sephora didn’t create the trend.
Nielsen data show Gen Alpha (kids under 12) households spend billions of dollars a year on skincare and makeup. However, dermatologists warn that many viral products, which are sold in brightly-colored packaging and appear to be marketed to kids, often contain hidden anti-aging ingredients that can harm young skin.
The industry says it doesn’t market adult skincare to kids, but most shoppers wouldn’t know that by looking at the shelf or even the fine print on the fruit-shaped and brightly colored packaging with product names like “strawberry smooth” and “baby facial.”
“Do you think it smells like blackberries?” one girl asked when selecting a retinol product in a blackberry-shaped bottle that comes in a fruit-covered box. “Probably,” another girl responded.
In a recent interview with Fortune Magazine, Sephora’s CEO insisted that the company does not market to kids. “It is incumbent on us, it is incumbent on our over 250, 300 brands, that we’re talking to the right audience at the right time about the right thing.”
Meanwhile, we found Sephora sale promotions on Instagram featuring Sephora Barbie, Sephora stickers, and cartoons.
In response to criticism, popular brand Drunk Elephant posted this list on social media with products that it says are safe for kids. We found another list of products that kids should avoid in their online FAQs under the “Younger Fans” section.
Take a look at the shelf. Can you tell the difference?
Our undercover shoppers couldn’t, and no one at Sephora or competitor Ulta Beauty seemed concerned when the undercover tweens bought only products intended for older skin.
(And this is what can happen when you accidentally put adult anti-aging ingredients on young skin.)
The “Sephora kids” bill
Enter the so-called Sephora kids bill, which, according to the author, Democratic Assemblymember Alex Lee, was intended to target the industry that some say is cashing in on the “Sephora kids” craze.
Assembly Bill 728 would trigger an age verification flag at the register when clerks scan “anti-aging” products with certain ingredients like retinol and harsh acids. Kids would need to be with someone over 18 in order to buy those products in-store, and there’d be a pop-up similar to this one for vapes when purchasing the products online.
Opponents, including the retail industry, the skincare industry and dermatologists, called the bill misguided. They blame social media, not the skincare industry, and argue that the age restrictions would be too difficult to implement.
As it turns out, social media marketing is so effective that the skincare industry also used it to try to kill the bill.
CBS News Confirmed found that the Personal Care Product Council, which represents the skincare industry, spent thousands of dollars targeting lawmakers with misleading Facebook and Instagram ads claiming the bill would require an ID “to buy cosmetics.”
But who better to investigate the proposed solution than the kids it aims to protect? So, Watts teamed up with her daughter’s fifth-grade class.
Watts took the kids to the California State Capitol, where they interviewed lawmakers and lobbyists and attended the bill’s first hearing, where they heard from supporters and opponents.
“A lot of doctors prescribe or just recommend retinoids and retinols for kids and teens. So what do you think about that?” one of the children asked Asm. Lee, who happens to be California’s youngest legislator.
“That’s a good question,” Lee responded. “So in a prescription setting, it makes a lot more sense, right? But the products that we’re talking about, you buy Sephora or Ulta, you don’t have to ever see a doctor about these things.”
He explained that a warning at the register, rather than fine print on the box, would be harder to miss and it would ensure that an adult is aware that the product is not intended for young skin.
When asked by a student why this bill was so important to him, Lee answered:
“Lots and lots of big companies, corporations that profit, that make a lot of money off things we don’t feel good about… and I think it’s really bad that companies make money off of children.”
The first time Lee introduced this bill, it only restricted products for kids under 13, which the industry said it could not enforce. So he told the kids he raised the age limit when reintroducing it to simplify the age-verification process.
After interviewing Lee, the fifth-grade class attended the bill’s first committee hearing and heard from both supporters and opponents of the bill.
“One of the worst things I used was a face mask that looked like a kitty cat,” said an 11-year-old girl named Scarlett who testified in support of the bill. “I didn’t know it had retinol in it. I didn’t even know what retinol was. She explained, “for about two weeks… it was really painful and I had a hard time sleeping. Years later, I still have bumps on my cheeks.“
Then, committee members, including Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, shared their thoughts.
“I don’t know that I’ve seen, living in the world of teen girls, this to be a huge problem,” Bauer-Kahan said.
Notably, she was one of at least two committee members who missed the first half of the bill hearing, including the arguments in support.
“She didn’t get to experience Scarlet’s story and her testimony and how it affected her, said one student.
“I don’t think that it’s fair for people to be late,” another student added, “because then they might only hear one side of it.”
“I’m just a bill.”
As previously reported by CBS News California Investigates, it is not uncommon for California lawmakers to miss significant portions of committee hearings. In some cases, they may be assigned to two committees that meet at the same time, or they may have to leave to testify on behalf of one of their own bills in another committee.
Bauer-Kahan ultimately declined to vote on the bill, which is also a common practice in California’s legislature. Not voting has the same impact as voting no, but without leaving a record of a vote against the bill.
Bauer-Kahan’s staff said she did not have time to meet with the 5th graders to answer questions.
The students thought Bauer-Kahan made a good point later in the hearing when she suggested that Lee should clarify, “what is anti-aging and what is not, because the ingredients are often overlapping.”
“I think Assemblyman Lee would need to define what an anti-aging product is,” one student said, agreeing with Bauer-Kahan. “Because the company can just be like, ‘OK, that’s not an anti-aging product.’”
The bill passed the committee with a 4/2 vote, but was quietly killed by Democratic leadership before Lee got the chance to propose amendments.
Assembly Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks ultimately decided to hold the bill in the so-called suspense file, meaning it can’t move forward, and other lawmakers will never get the chance to vote.
Generally speaking, the suspense file is reserved for bills that are anticipated to cost the state a lot of money.
“A lot of good but expensive bills will not move out of committee today,” Asm. Wicks explained before killing 231 bills on Friday by holding them in the suspense file.
Except that AB 728 is not projected to cost the state a lot of money. In fact, the “Sephora kids” bill was never supposed to be sent to appropriations to begin with.
Capitol sources told CBS News California that the Appropriations Committee specifically requested this bill even though the nonpartisan legislative council designated AB 728 as “Non-Fiscal” and “Non-Appropriations.” It was the only bill to die in the suspense file that had both those designations, indicating that it was not a costly bill.
The 5th graders were scheduled to meet with Asm. Wicks the day of the hearing, but she canceled due to a conflicting meeting. Since that day, staff for Wicks and the Appropriations Committee have failed to respond to several emails from CBS News California.
We’ve repeatedly asked:
- Why did Asm. Wicks and her staff request that this bill be sent to appropriations?
- Why did they refer it to the suspense file if it is not a fiscal bill and is not expected to impact the budget?
We’re still waiting for a response.
Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
In its defense, the industry says it has its own solution. The Personal Care Products Council, the lobby for the skincare industry, says brands are using social media to combat the Sephora kids trend. It cites examples like Dove’s The Face of 10 campaign, which encourages kids to be kids.
“I’m not sure that this advertising campaign is going to have the intended effect,” said Drew Cingel, Ph.D. The U.C. Davis professor studies the intersection of adolescents, psychology, and social media marketing.
He notes that telling kids to act their age is more likely to have the opposite effect. When Watts showed some of the ads to the 5th graders, several agreed.
“They’re probably going to make me want to go buy (the products),” one of the fifth-graders said, looking at these ads, because, like, that girl definitely doesn’t look like 10. She looks like six or seven.”
“A 10-year-old certainly doesn’t want to be any younger than they already are,” Cingel noted. “These are not the people that they look up to. It’s the people older than them and what they are doing.”
And when we asked the kids about influencer marketing, many had no idea the influencers got free products or were paid for their posts.
“We know that developmentally, they don’t recognize ads at the same level that adults do,” Cingel said. “And it becomes much more blurred in a social media environment.”
Critics and fans alike point to social media kid-fluencer marketing for the rise of the so-called Sephora kids craze. Get-ready-with-me videos saturate social media feeds, targeting young girls with multi-step skincare routines where popular brands partner with kid-fluencers to create viral skincare products.
Popular brands often ship boxes of free products to young influencers and create fun skincare games, skincare-inspired slimes and even cleansers that resemble bubble gum, while claiming the industry does not market to kids.
CBS News Confirmed analyzed more than a dozen top kid-fluencers who partner with skincare brands and found that post after post appeared to target kids, advertising skin care products with ingredients intended for older skin.
Despite FTC requirements, CBS News Confirmed found that only 6% of recent skincare posts from a dozen top kid-fluencers were clearly tagged as promotional content.
Where are the parents?
Dr. Smita Awasthi, the director of pediatric dermatology at UC Davis Health, said younger kids appear to be the target audience for many of the viral skincare products. She’s seen the adverse reactions firsthand.
“These sorts of products are meant for peeling the skin, and you know mature skin could use that,” she said.
But Dr. Awasthi says removing the outer layer of a child’s skin can lead to painful rashes and sunburns.
While she does prescribe retinoids for acne treatment, “Retinol is over the counter and typically used in anti-aging products… If a 12-year-old has acne that needs medical treatment, then I would hope they would seek out a dermatologist rather than getting it on their own,” she said.
Over-the-counter retinoids for acne come with clear warnings on packaging that is more strictly regulated than cosmetic retinols.
Before you put all the blame on the parents, you might want to try researching some of these products yourself.
“Even myself, as a dermatologist, if I’m not paying very close attention, I might miss an ingredient just because there are different names for things,” Dr. Awashti said.
