The Sephora employee attributes some of Drunk Elephant’s popularity to the brand’s unique, colorful packaging: “Their moisturizers dispense differently than typical products, so the packaging itself has that surface area to mix products. Those testers are usually a disaster!”
Though the employee hasn’t personally dealt with the less-than-pretty behavior getting shared online, they have noted crowding and pushing to get to a favored brand area, and their coworkers have experienced the “demanding” and “entitled” behavior. (Allure has reached out to Sephora for comment but has not received a response.)
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Of course, much of this demand is rooted in — you guessed it! — capitalism. Tweens see their peers using these products and want them too. It’s an age-old story that anyone who coveted an Herbal Essences shampoo or Clinique lip gloss because their BFF had one can relate to.
Now everyone is online 24/7, and they’re bombarded with YouTube tutorials and TikTok hauls about this new body cream and that new blush. Many tweens have become creators in their own right, with followers hanging on their every skin-care step.
“A lot of our traffic and sales for the demographic surround what’s big on TikTok or who they saw using what,” the anonymous Sephora employee explains. “I’ve chatted about this with coworkers who noticed the same thing…. The group is much more likely to try something they saw online rather than shopping around for themselves or off of employee recommendations.”
Getting product recommendations from people you admire is nothing new no matter your age. But the price point for many brands is now significantly higher than it was for the trendy products of the ’90s, 2000s, and early 2010s, and many have also expressed concerns about tweens using the highly active ingredients in Drunk Elephant products on their youthful skin.
The brand responded to the controversy on Instagram, saying that yes, Drunk Elephant is okay for kids and tweens, but to “stay away from our more potent products that include acids and retinols — their skin does not need these ingredients quite yet.”
Some skin-care brands, like Bubble and BTWN, are designed for a younger customer, with gentle formulas at a more accessible price point, reminiscent of Clean & Clear and Neutrogena of the past.
