Did beauty tutorials really turn my daughter into a dreaded ‘Sephora kid’?

My 11-year-old tweenager already follows a daily facial ‘regime’ and adores make-up… but I worry that soon she’ll want to try ‘anti-ageing’ products. Is it time the government listened to campaigners and put age restrictions on skincare, asks Georgina Fuller

When my 11-year-old daughter, Jemima, recently set about decorating her French school book, I wistfully asked what she had enjoyed most about our trip to Paris last summer. I was thinking perhaps the spectacular view from the Eiffel Tower, or the hallowed hallways around the Louvre.

But no: it was our trip to the beauty behemoth, Sephora.

I am sorry to say my girl has recently, against my better intentions, become a ‘Sephora kid‘ – along with the rest of her Gen Alpha (those born between 2010 and 2025) peers.

They save up their pocket money to spend on pastel-coloured skincare products like “creamy jelly cleanser” and “slam dunk hydrating cream”, and swap notes about their elaborate, multi-step “regimes”. When the beauty chain store opens a branch in our local city of Oxford next month, it’s only going to get worse.

A recent study by scientists at Northwestern University found that (admittedly American) children as young as seven are now using more than a dozen products on their skin every day. Girls aged between seven and 18 used on average six different beauty products – at a vast cost to their piggy banks.

Skincare routines are one of the biggest trends on TikTok, which is home to more than 20 million “get ready with me” (GRWM) tutorials, some clocking up millions of views.

But my daughter is not even on social media, so I’m not sure where she learned about these products. But head to your local shopping centre at weekends and you can witness the tweenage invasion of the beauty outlet first-hand – jostling to sample the trendiest (and often priciest) skincare brands. More than just a tween rite of passage, for some young girls it’s a way of life.

When I was my daughter’s age, a Dewberry Body Shop lip balm and maybe some E45 if I had a dry skin patch was about the extent of my aspirations. I don’t think I even owned a mirror until my mid-teens.

Yet just the other morning, she came in to ask how many products I used and lined up hers, which include a cleanser, hydration spray and moisturiser. She wasn’t impressed with my two humble pots of trusty No 7. Now, I worry that, despite her tender age, she’ll soon be wanting to try “anti-ageing” products.

There are currently no official age restrictions on beauty goods. This is despite the fact that specialists, including the British Association for Dermatologists, have warned that some products may include retinoids – which helps with the appearance of fine lines in older skin and breakouts, but which is no use to pre-teens – and alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), which act as chemical exfoliants to remove dead skin cells but can be harmful to young skin and cause allergic reactions.

Which is why I was glad to hear that cosmetic safety register Save Face has called on the government to introduce age restrictions for skincare products. They want greater transparency, as well as education for parents, about the risks of some of the products that are, ultimately, made for adults – even if the packaging appeals to pre-teens like my daughter.

Could labelling the ingredients more clearly and holding those who promote them, including influencers, to greater account for their promotion help parents navigate this beauty minefield? Save Face believes so – and as a parent, I think we need all the help we can get.

For kids today, it feels as though it’s just one thing after another. Having navigated the harmful content put out by social media influencers like Andrew Tate, and vape shops attracting young users with bright colours and sweet flavours, now we have to worry about skincare.

As a Gen X-er, I find it increasingly difficult to navigate it all: the pester power, and the pressure for them to keep up with their peers, is immense. My daughter, meanwhile, is counting down the days until the beauty store opens nearby. Me, I just miss the days when all it took was a Flake ice cream to keep her happy.