Tweens are getting rashes from some skin care products popularized on social media, dermatologists say

A few days after she began her new skin care regimen — toner, moisturizer, serum and facial mist — the skin around 13-year-old Leora’s lips became red and dry.

A couple days later, the rash turned yellow and crusty.

“I was touching it because it was really itchy, and then I think it got infected,” said Leora, whose family requested her last name not be published for privacy reasons, given that she is a minor.

A dermatologist prescribed Leora a medication to alleviate irritation and advised her to stop her skin care routine and apply petroleum jelly until the rash cleared.

Then came a discussion that dermatologists say is increasingly common: “We got into a whole conversation about this new fad of preteens interested in using a lot of anti-aging products and things that they are learning about on social media,” said Dr. Alexis Young, Leora’s dermatologist at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

“In general for the preteen population, they’re layering product upon product and not really being told how to use them,” Young said.

Young and six other dermatologists told NBC News that in recent months, tweens and young teenagers have been showing up at their offices in droves with red, dry, bumpy and itchy rashes after using skin care products they don’t need. Some dermatologists said it happens monthly or weekly; others said they see such patients multiple times per day.

Kids ages 7 to 13 are clearing the shelves at makeup stores, spending hundreds on anti-aging creams, moisturizers and acne serums from trendy and colorful brands like Drunk Elephant — which sells one Protini Polypeptide Cream every 40 seconds, according the brand’s website — and Glow Recipe, which surpassed $100 million in revenue in 2021, just