The tween skincare market is exploding, but what products are safe for them to use?

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -The market for tween skin care is exploding as fresh young faces flock to stores like Sephora and Ulta, scooping up expensive, trending products sold to them by social media influencers.

Girls as young as eight years old are applying pricey moisturizers, serums and tonics to their pre-pubescent skin.

“We are rapidly seeing younger and younger patients coming in asking what skincare products they should be using,” said Jess Larkin, a medical aesthetic nurse with Apex Dermatology.

She says this time last year, they were seeing next to nothing when it came to an interest or demand for skin care among tweens. But she says these young girls are seeing skin care routines shared on social media, influencers spreading recommendations like wildfire. They’re adding products to their vanities, like status symbols.

“I’m interested because my friends have a lot of it and it’s kind just fun to use skin care,” said fifth grader, Kayla Claxton.

“You feel so cool doing it,” said 12-year-old Alyssa Claxton.

“They want to go to shopping at Sephora or Ulta or whatever it may be to check out new products all the time,” said their mom, Laura Claxton.

“They really do want to be using as many products as they possibly can without even knowing what ingredients are in each one of them,” said Larkin.

“They’re going after the brand name. They’re not approaching it the way an adult would, where they’re saying, here’s my skin care concern and so here’s then the products I need. They’re like, this one’s cool. This one’s cool. This one’s a pretty bottle. And so they’re kind of, you know, backwards, maybe making their choices a little bit,” said Ruth Barnum, mother of an 8 year old girl.

Barnum and Claxton are overwhelmed at the price of these new ‘must haves’ and the time it takes to investigate them.

“When you learn about the new brands that I’ve never heard of before and then it’s like a whole Google project to see is it safe? Is it like how much does it cost? Where do I get it, you know, should we be using it in the first place,” said Barnum.

“Less is more sometimes. You don’t need a lot of products on your skin. You have young skin that’s beautiful. Let’s keep it that way as long as you can,” said Claxton.

“Me and my mom were talking last night and I was like, hey there’s this bubble toner that I want and she’s like oh gosh you don’t need that at your age,” said her daughter Alyssa.

“I’m like, we’re not spending more on your skin than mine right now,” Claxton said.

Larkin says a lot of these trendy products have aggressive acids in them. They’re intended for more mature skin, to increase cell turnover and exfoliation, something young skin doesn’t need.

“It could be very damaging. It could cause skin barrier disruption which can lead to rashes irritation acne blemishes and it really could lead to long term signs of aging from this over exfoliation that a lot of tweens are doing without even knowing,” she said.

When you examine the labels of these skin care products here’s what parents need to look out for: tweens should avoid retinols, anything anti-aging, antioxidants, salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide and ingredients like lactic acid. Anything that says exfoliating should be avoided unless a skin specialist deems it necessary.

Larkin says what she’d like to see pushed on social media videos is the basics for tweens, a cleanser and a simple moisturizer, if necessary. But most importantly, a sunscreen to prevent damage.

“So a lot of the products that are on the market are created to correct damage from the sun or from aging and if these kids are doing things now to protect that, the goal should be they don’t need all of these expensive products that they might consider in the future,” she said.

Barnum and Claxton agree there is a silver lining to this new tween skincare craze.

“It’s teaching them to get on a regimen which, you know, some adults, you still have to put on a regimen because they don’t know how to take care of their skin. Things like wearing sunscreen is great. And then maybe she can not deal with some of the stuff that I deal with at this age,” said Barnum.