TBH Kids wants focus on fun as summer camps clamp down on children packing pricey skin care products

18 Jul 2024 --- Summer camps are trying to counteract the “Sephora kids” phenomenon — whereby some children are obsessed with expensive skin care products that are designed for adults — by barring expensive skin care, discouraging children from using more mature products.

Personal Care Insights speaks to Risa Barash, CEO of skin care brand TBH Kids about the issue and how the company is creating products designed to make it to summer camp this year. Gen Alpha has become prolifically known for their interest in skin solutions. 

To prevent kids from using skin care for adults, kid skin care companies are rolling out “camp-approved” products such as the Fairy Tales Hair Care Sun & Swim Travel Kit designed for dry hair while the Fairy Tales Hair Care Curly-Q Travel Kit is for curly hair. 

What sets your products (and kits) apart from other skin care solutions? Why are they allowed for campers but not other options?
Barash: TBH Kids is a line of hair, skin and body products made with good-for-you ingredients just for kids and tweens. I started TBH Kids when my own children were going through puberty and needed new products to support these changes, and I couldn’t find anything on the market that was made for them and affordable.

As for products suitable for camp, ease of use and efficiency are key. Who needs to spend hours on a skin care routine when you can be out having fun? Our safe, effective solutions are fast and powerful, which leaves more time for the fun stuff while still feeling confident and smelling great. For instance, the TBH Kids wipes allow kids to wash up any time of day or night — quickly and effectively.

Why do you think camps are not allowing kids to bring more expensive skin care? What do you think they are trying to achieve??
Barash: Camps are all about kids being kids, having fun, learning and growing in the summer. Bringing expensive products takes away from the core values of summer camp and can create a negative environment of one-upmanship. More importantly, kids do not need expensive skin care, which can be very harmful to their delicate skin. I fully support this ban and believe kids should be allowed to be kids. Parents should focus on functional, kid-friendly products to keep their children safe and clean this summer.  TBH Kids products are allowed even after summer camps are restricting skin care.

Is it important for the youth to participate in skin care?
Barash: Kids need to learn bodily autonomy from a young age, and what better way to do that than through the products they use to keep their bodies healthy and clean. Personal hygiene is an important life skill taught from a young age, and I fully support children being involved in skin and body care decisions. 

However, it’s our job as parents to guide our kids to understand their needs. This can be tough with the increasing pressure of social media and a saturated market for adults, which sometimes bleeds influence into younger demographics.

Our brands are also very active on social media and aim to reach our core audience of tweens — call it fighting fire with fire. In fact, we recently received customer feedback on our packaging from kids across social media platforms who were interacting with the brand. Inspired by this feedback, the TBH Kids team recruited a dozen kids to lead a design panel to develop a new look for the brand. Look out for the new rebrand to start rolling out next week with the bestselling TBH Gentle Wipes & TBH Spot Wipes on our site.

Why do you think younger generations are getting into skin care more and more? What are the implications of this?
Barash: Today’s generation of tweens is far more aware of skin care, personal hygiene and personal care products than in previous years. They have access to more information and more options than ever before. Naturally, this leads to heightened interest and awareness.

The implications of this are both positive and negative. On one hand, we have tweens with a ton of knowledge making informed decisions, which is great! On the other hand, we hear about tweens using inappropriate products after being influenced by older women with different skin care needs. We’ve all seen the stories about young tweens using retinol and other harsh products, which can be severely damaging to their delicate skin barrier. We don’t want tweens to grow up too soon — especially when it comes to using appropriate products on their skin.  

Personal Care Insights reported on the issue of kids using potentially harmful ingredients in skin care at the beginning of this year and investigated how Mantle was restricting young consumers from purchasing its products and Swedish pharmacy Apotek Hjärtat by setting an age limit for its skin care.

By Sabine Waldeck