The so-called skincare fashion, popular on social networks, has fully entered adolescence and has fueled a new controversy. Because of the risks that premature use of creams poses for the skin, but especially because of the risk that it damages the already fragile mental health of young people, experts warn. The obsession with a sought-after and non-existent perfection that is sold through screens and that results in cosmeticorexia is worrying. In Sweden they have begun to take action on the matter and one of the country's large pharmacy chains has already announced that it will not sell skin care products to children under 15 years of age.
Instagram (which has already privately admitted that it damages the body self-esteem of one in three teenagers according to information revealed by The Wall Street Journal) and TikTok are two of the social networks flooded with skin care and makeup content. Retinol, serums and creams with vitamin C share the screen with contours, blushes and fixatives. Influencers promote all types of products, sometimes indicating that it is advertising and, on other occasions, appearing with a supposedly spontaneous beauty routine. In these publications, the faces of these content creators also show off perfect skin thanks to the filters that are applied. All this huge amount of advertising focused on skin without wrinkles or blemishes is getting worse and the so-called skincare has already affected many teenagers - a type of very vulnerable and impressionable profile - who are becoming big consumers of these products and who It already has a name: cosmeticoerxia.
To combat this obsession with face creams, one of the large pharmacy chains in Sweden (Apotek Hjärt) has announced that it will not sell facial cosmetic products to children under 15 years of age. Its intention is to stop the premature use (and abuse) of these products in increasingly younger girls. Serums and anti-aging creams are two of the products banned in these establishments. To purchase them, minors will need parental permission or a medical certificate.
The youngest patient that Dr. Eulàlia Baselga, head of the pediatric dermatology service at the Sant Joan de Déu hospital in Barcelona, has had in her office, was 10 years old, although the most common thing is that the girls who come to her office are between 14 and 15 years. Some come for acne problems, but sometimes their parents bring them worried about their use of creams they have seen on the internet, she explains. “They make everything that is fashionable,” she advises. Some even use retinol. They come to the consultation with “whole bags” and sometimes “they don't believe you when you tell them that at most they need a moisturizing cream and that the only thing necessary for the face is a protection factor.” And the evidence that they follow the instructions of social networks is that “they come in batches to consult about the same product,” she says. “There is a clear influence of Instagram and TikTok,” says the dermatologist.
The blind belief in what they see on the phone leaves anecdotes like that of a 14-year-old patient who told Baselga that every morning she put an ice cube on her eyes for 30 minutes to reduce inflammation. The expert says that it is the girls themselves who say that they have seen what they do on the networks and warns that many influencers make “recommendations based on pseudoscience.” The dermatologist explains that this cosmeticorexia has begun to be detected since the pandemic, when adolescents began to be more present on social networks. And she is already beginning to see cases in boys as well.
This premature use of cosmetic products can cause damage to the skin, but what worries Baselga most is the damage to “mental health” that this obsession with perfection and the time they dedicate to all these routines can cause. For psychologist Andrea Arroyo, it is a “great advance” that dermatologists like Baselga put emphasis on this aspect and warns that networks create “needs that do not exist” due to economic interests. She regrets that with the skincare fashion and on social networks in general, “the importance of the physical” is highlighted, which, in addition, should be “the closest thing to perfectionism.”
For the expert, the most worrying thing is that this message is sold to “vulnerable” people whose personalities are still being formed, as is the case of adolescents. She warns that their “emotional immaturity” makes them more sensitive to social media messages that are taken “at face value.” The psychologist also regrets that networks and advertising play with the “emotional part” that if you do not accept this need “you will not belong to the group of equals.”
“Before, external validation began to worry at 12 or 13 years old and now it starts at 10,” warns psychologist expert in eating disorders and body self-esteem, Noemí Conde. The expert explains that adolescence is a very “vulnerable” stage at the brain level because they are being built at an identity level and that the problem of access to information provided by networks makes this process come forward.
Rita is 17 years old and every morning and night she follows the same routine that includes a mattifying cleanser, an anti-blemish cream, a serum with vitamin C, moisturizing cream and sunscreen. This first-year high school student started skin routines at the age of 14 after breaking out with some pimples and visiting a dermatologist. Despite the significant number of products that she uses, she assures that she has never purchased any product that has been promoted by an influencer and that on Instagram she only follows advice from pharmacists. But she laments that many 13- and 14-year-old girls are putting “harmful” things on their skin just because they see them on social media.
Because the shelves of cosmetics stores are full of products that are already specifically dressed to attract younger women with packaging that includes more childish drawings or glitter, says dermatologist Eulàlia Baselga.
“My mother doesn't understand that I use so many creams and I tell her that she should buy an anti-wrinkle cream,” explains Rita. This young woman from Barcelona assures that she would like to study pharmacy or medicine and dedicate herself to the world of cosmetics. She acknowledges that she sees more and more cosmetic products on her feed, but assures that she pays attention to her skin. To go out she usually puts on concealer and mascara, although it is not something she is obsessed with. On the other hand, she explains that some friends consider themselves "insecure" if they do not apply this product to their eyelashes to go to school. "It is important for young people to learn to build critical thinking." For psychologist Andrea Arroyo, this is one of the antidotes that can protect adolescents from the bombardment of messages they receive on the networks. She believes that we must work from the educational environment doing prevention campaigns and also from home so as not to believe the advertising they see on the networks.
For her part, the advice that dermatologist Eulàlia Baselga always gives to patients is to “question” what influencers recommend, to follow “natural routines” and that “healthy skin does not need cosmetics.”
