Young Kids and Makeup

I remember back in the early 80's which I like to think were more
innocent days of children growing up, it was a rare and memorable occasion when my Mum allowed me to play with the last ml of her favourite lipstick with a cotton ear bud. When I put it on, I remember Mum telling me that I was hiding from the world my real beauty behind paint and when I grew up I would come to get tired of wearing it. I never knew what she meant back then.......BUT I do NOW!

A while ago I was walking down the kids toy isle at the well known retail store at the shopping centre and I was horrified to see a particular item, stacked proudly beside the Barbie dolls. It was a makeup pallet. There wasn’t just one make up pallet but a few different types. In them were various eye shadow colours, lipstick, blush, nail polish, mirror and a couple of different application accessories. On the top of the box was a label which read from ages 3 to 12. Now if this doesn’t make you raise your eye brows and say "What THE?".... When I flipped over the box I noticed some very familiar ingredients that are on the toxic list of chemical ingredients to avoid in personal care products. There were dyes in the make up in particular which mothers are being cautioned to avoid in food products.

6 Years old

I did purchase a couple of these pallets purely to research the ingredients more in depth and then later took them back to the shops. WHAT I FOUND was so disturbing... The ingredients list for the makeup was soooo long that they had to use a tiny font to fit it all in. Would you believe, there was MORE toxic ingredients in the kids make up than what there is in regular chemical based woman’s make up. There were more hormone disrupting and carcinogenic ingredients in kids make up and just when I thought that nothing else will shock me more, I was horrified to find that around 90% of the ingredients on the list of "toxic ingredients to avoid in personal care products" were IN THE KIDS MAKE UP.

As a mother of 4 children, and 3 of my kids happen to be girls, this worried me. I am confident that I won’t have this make up given to my kids and I won’t allow them to wear makeup full stop, BUT It raises the question of what message manufacturers, retailers and society are giving CHILDREN. Now this box was labelled to suite children from the ages of 3 years old (yes you read that right.....) to 12 years of age. This range of age sets the danger ball rolling into the world of very venerable children whom may be given this as a gift from Grandma, Nana, the neighbour, Dad (whom are well known to be easily wrapped around their little daughters fingers), Mum (who thinks it is just fun to play with and pretend that they are older) or from a friend in the event of the child’s birthday.

There are some very strong and negative messages being sent out to a child in the event of giving them makeup. Children whom seek make up should be told "they look more beautiful without it" they shouldn’t be encouraged to use it even if Mum or the big teenage sister is using it. There is enough media exposure of false looking youths and woman out there that are giving young kids an unrealistic view of how they should look when they are in their teens and young adults.

Then there are dangers of what side effects these chemicals have on the skin. Short term side effects range from skin irritations, eye irritations, allergic reactions and long term side effects can include premature aging, dryness of the skin and early break outs due to acid imbalances in the skin.

Children are well known to be like sponges. They absorb and take in everything they see and process it in their innocent minds and everything to them is taken literally. That is where parents, corporations and society need to take responsibility for what is OUT there for the eyes of children.

Makeup in the kids isle is targeting impressionable young minds for the sake of retail spending and profits without a second thought given to what the behind the scenes dangers these colourful, fun and innocent looking pallets carry. Successful sales of products are the ones that meet supply and demand. Even though there is a supply of children’s make up readily available, it is sad to think that there is a demand for it.

Am I being over protective and over cautious?

It might pay in the long run to think twice before allowing young children below the age of 12 to use make up. After all we are extremely careful and educate ourselves on what we put in the mouths of our children..... the same should apply with what we openly allow them to put topically on their skins too.... especially something as toxic as chemicaly based make up on their soft and delicate skin.

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