There's something going on at Sephora: Messy testers leak lotion, product displays are picked over, 10-year-olds swarm the Drunk Elephant section, loading their baskets with D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops, as the scent of mingled Sol de Janeiro body sprays wafts through the air. The tweens have taken over, and Sephora employees and shoppers are not exactly thrilled about the invasion.
If social media is to be believed, it appears there's been an influx of younger shoppers at Sephora in recent months. These mini beauty devotees are all about internet-beloved brands like Drunk Elephant, Sol de Janeiro, Glow Recipe, and Summer Fridays. Meanwhile, Sephora employees and shoppers have taken to TikTok and Reddit to vent about the related mess and alleged bratty, entitled behavior from these youthful shoppers. Whatever happened to the peaceful days of LipSmackers and shopping at Claire's?
Search “Sephora” and “10-year-olds” on TikTok or Reddit and you'll find a bevy of videos about this recent phenomenon that depict wiped-out products, crowds of young customers blocking the Rare Beauty section, and kids demanding that employees “Go to the back” to find a sold-out product. There are also videos of testers covered in product, stories about rude young customers pushing in line — and dropping major dollars with their parents' credit cards. You name it, it (possibly) happened.
“Over the weekend we had a group of little girls go up to some foundations and continually pump out product and then just leave it," a Sephora employee recounted on Reddit. "They also drew on displays with lipstick. Sephora is not a playground. I am not a babysitter. And I’m tired of seeing spoiled-ass 12-year-olds wearing lulu lemon [sic] be absolute assholes to everyone around them.”
A Sephora employee who works at a midsize-mall location tells Allure that frequent use of testers is to be expected — after all, that's what they're there for; however, they have seen an increase in “cocktailing” certain products during sampling. “A big thing right now is making product ‘smoothies,’ especially with Drunk Elephant,” they explain. “The brand must have done some marketing at one point that their products can be mixed together to apply.” (In fact, Drunk Elephant has done just that; they have an entire page on their website that features recommended product-smoothie pairings.)
The Sephora employee attributes some of Drunk Elephant's popularity to the brand's unique, colorful packaging: “Their moisturizers dispense differently than typical products, so the packaging itself has that surface area to mix products. Those testers are usually a disaster!”
Though the employee hasn't personally dealt with the less-than-pretty behavior getting shared online, they have noted crowding and pushing to get to a favored brand area, and their coworkers have experienced the “demanding” and “entitled” behavior. (Allure has reached out to Sephora for comment but has not received a response.)
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Of course, much of this demand is rooted in — you guessed it! — capitalism. Tweens see their peers using these products and want them too. It's an age-old story that anyone who coveted an Herbal Essences shampoo or Clinique lip gloss because their BFF had one can relate to.
Now everyone is online 24/7, and they're bombarded with YouTube tutorials and TikTok hauls about this new body cream and that new blush. Many tweens have become creators in their own right, with followers hanging on their every skin-care step.
“A lot of our traffic and sales for the demographic surround what’s big on TikTok or who they saw using what,” the anonymous Sephora employee explains. “I’ve chatted about this with coworkers who noticed the same thing…. The group is much more likely to try something they saw online rather than shopping around for themselves or off of employee recommendations.”
Getting product recommendations from people you admire is nothing new no matter your age. But the price point for many brands is now significantly higher than it was for the trendy products of the '90s, 2000s, and early 2010s, and many have also expressed concerns about tweens using the highly active ingredients in Drunk Elephant products on their youthful skin.
The brand responded to the controversy on Instagram, saying that yes, Drunk Elephant is okay for kids and tweens, but to “stay away from our more potent products that include acids and retinols — their skin does not need these ingredients quite yet.”
Some skin-care brands, like Bubble and BTWN, are designed for a younger customer, with gentle formulas at a more accessible price point, reminiscent of Clean & Clear and Neutrogena of the past.
But it's worth noting that, in recent years, many of the stores geared to older kids and tweens have closed or moved online, including Justice, formerly known as Limited Too. There aren't many designated spaces for this age group to shop, thus they're moving into more traditionally “grown-up” spaces like Lululemon and Sephora.
It's also worth noting that this has become a TikTok trend in its own right, and there's no telling whether these stories are all true or just bait for engagement.
Teen Vogue spoke to an actual 10-year-old about the uptick in Sephora visits and Gen Alpha's fascination with all things skin care and makeup: “It’s just a thing we do,” she said. “I get it, Bratz dolls were probably popular when you were 10 years old. But I’m a kid [now], and this is what’s popular. This is the new toy that we have. This is a new generation, we’re Generation Alpha. And I’m proud of that.”
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Now, watch TikTok star Alix Earle's skin care routine:
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