Shopping Like an Adult in a Beauty World Built for Kids

Finding peace, quality, and purpose in a beauty industry obsessed with trends.

At what age did your parents allow you to wear makeup? When did you figure out what an active ingredient was? And when did you feel the urge to start using lip-plumping lip glosses?

Talking to younger people about their relationships with beauty makes me feel strange, because (and perhaps it’s my age), it feels wrong. It’s hard to find a balance between recommending makeup to someone who is, let's say, 12, but also trying to convince them that they don’t need makeup at their age. Meanwhile, the professional in me doesn’t want them to ruin their skin, so at the same time, I’m trying to tell them precisely what to do and give them recommendations on the best quality, affordable products for their already great skin.

As the industry changes, it would be old-fashioned of me to say, “You don’t need it at your age,” when makeup isn’t a “need” anymore. Social media has shown how enjoyable, artistic, and even relaxing applying makeup can be for some. It’s an art form and a hobby. Telling someone of that age that they shouldn’t or can’t be wearing makeup would be like telling me I couldn’t have Pokémon cards when I was that age. I would have felt excluded from what everyone was in love with at that moment. There is a deeper conversation that could be had here. Still, a recent experience made me think about how the popularity of beauty has changed the experience of shopping for beauty products.

I'm not what I’d describe as a “child-friendly person.” Perhaps it's the millennial in me, but I would rather not be around children. I’m not the Cruella de Vil of children, though, wishing the worst for them, like how many parents view people who don’t want children. That goes to say, when I’m trying to buy my retinol eye cream and an 11-year-old is standing in the way trying to buy the same thing, it greatly pisses me off.

This became a pandemic in recent years, with young teens, and whatever the age group is called before that, overcrowding and messing up a particular high-street beauty store, with bad attitudes toward staff, buying products that will ruin their faces over the next few years if they continue to use them. Even today, while I was shopping in a pharmacy in Amsterdam, children huddled in groups, looking at skincare they won’t need for another 20 years.

Some examples of how “Sephora kids” treated the testers in Sephora stores.

While I think it is essential for teens to have a skincare routine, it should suit them, not be an exact match to one they saw a 25-year-old influencer doing on TikTok.

So here is my petty complaint: so many brands cater to this. They aren’t responsible for handing these kids the money and letting them go shopping unsupervised, but they are accountable for their social media marketing. Posting a PSA on who the product is and isn’t for doesn’t take much. But with all this in mind, sometimes shopping for beauty products can have a bit of an icky feeling. I can only compare it to having an office job, taking my laptop, and doing my work in a classroom full of children.

Perhaps I wouldn’t feel this way if I didn’t have something to compare this shopping experience to, but I do.

For full disclosure, I have worked with Space NK many times because I love the shopping experience in their stores. I have loved their stores even when I had no money to spend. Yes … I went to their stores as a child, which is why I can say how annoying those kids are, because I was one. Space NK made me realize, as a child, that there was a different caliber of beauty products from the terrible “for acne” products I was getting from the drugstore. I remember looking at the beauty tools, the face massagers, and brands I wasn’t familiar with, but I had the realization, even back then, that “Oh, this stuff isn’t for me yet.”

Stores like Space NK make me feel like I’m shopping as an adult. If other stores make me feel like an office worker in a classroom, Space NK makes me feel like I’m in an exclusive lounge away from the stress of an airport.

Inside some Space NK stores that I have visited.

So what are the main differences in these shopping experiences? I’m sure you’ve figured it out, but the “Other store” is Sephora. Visually, the stores are both very different. Space NK has always had a luxury vibe, and although they continue to modernize their stores, they haven’t lost that vibe. If anything, they have made their stores a less intimidating, more welcoming version of luxury. The layout of the stores always feels open and spacious, even when the store itself is busy, and the stores are straightforward to navigate.

One thing I used to love about going to a Sephora store was the choice of brands. This was a time when many brands weren’t available worldwide, and being from the UK, we didn’t get many of the brands we saw on social media. Traveling to the US to go to Sephora was something I looked forward to. I can now go to the US, never set foot in a Sephora, and feel content with that choice. The number of brands in Sephora is insane, in a bad way, especially now that most brands are available worldwide. That unique experience no longer exists, and now it’s just a jumble sale of brands that seem to be trying their luck at success in Sephora. Too much choice sounds like a good thing, but in a world with too much choice in beauty, it would be nice to be shown the best of the best, not just anything that can fit in the store.

Space NK is known for its precise and thoughtful choices in the brands it sells in its stores. There is always a reason why a brand is there, and those brands either have some legacy or have made a significant impact in the beauty world in a short time. The brands are sought after and high-quality, and I’m more likely to discover something new.

Some of my favourite brands that are available from Space NK

The choice of brands is a big one for me. Sometimes, walking around beauty stores and seeing all the brands can bring to mind the latest beauty drama caused by the founder’s stupidity or the recent “brand trip” full of problematic influencers. Although not every brand in a Space NK store is a “viral” one (not that going viral equals quality, the opposite is true most of the time), despite having viral brands like Rare Beauty and Charlotte Tilbury, a majority of the brands are well-known and loved by beauty experts and people whose recommendations come from adults, not children online.

I’ll always lean toward the experience Space NK offers. Something is reassuring about walking into a store that feels calm, considered, and curated, where products are intentionally chosen, not just because they’re trending online. It reminds me that beauty can be about quality over quantity, and expertise over hype. While Sephora may appeal to the crowds hungry for the next viral find, Space NK feels like a space where beauty is treated with a little more respect, a place where I’m not just another shopper, but someone who belongs in the conversation. And for me, that makes all the difference.