Shay Mitchell's skincare brand for 3-year-old kids gets slammed for telling ‘little girls their skin needs fixing’

Shay Mitchell faces backlash for her children's skincare brand, Rini, targeting kids aged 3 and up. Critics argue marketing it to young children is unethical.

Actor Shay Mitchell has come under fire for creating a skincare brand for kids. Most skincare brands target adult audiences, promising them reversed signs of ageing along with youthful, nourished, and clear skin. However, Shay, with her newly launched skincare brand Rini, is selling products for kids who haven't even reached puberty.

Rini, a Korean beauty-inspired brand with a name inspired by the Korean slang for ‘child’, caters to children aged 3 and up, offering products such as the Hydrating Hydrogel Facial Mask, After Sun Hydrogel Facial Mask, and Everyday Facial Sheet Mask. The products are priced between $5.99 (approximately ₹531) and $6.99 (approximately ₹620).

Shay Mitchell launches skincare for kids

Announcing the launch of Rini on Instagram on November 7, Shay wrote, “Rini isn’t about beauty, it’s about self-care. About teaching our kids that taking care of themselves can be fun, gentle, and safe.”

Talking about the inspiration, in an interview with WWD, Shay and her co-founders, Esther Song and Matte Babel, said their own children inspired the brand when they couldn’t find skincare products to remove birthday party face paint.

How did the internet react?

As you can expect, users on social media were quick to show their outrage in the comments section on Shay and Rini's posts. Internet users, especially mothers of young children, questioned the brand's ethics in marketing skincare products to kids.

One user commented, “I struggle to find the right words to articulate how disappointing and dystopian this is.”

Another angry user wrote, “We’re living in capitalism’s final boss level where a child’s unblemished face is just another ‘untapped market.’ Sell a calming face mask so they can relax from…what, exactly? Snack time? Existing?”

Another user remarked, “I wish this were a Black Mirror episode. It’s not. It’s real life. But children don’t need skincare routines. They need messy play, and adults who protect them from beauty marketing that tells them their skin needs ‘fixing’.”

“It’s not too late to delete this post. Horrified,” someone commented. A user pointed out how the brand was targeting young, impressionable girls and not boys. They wrote, “So yet again we are subjecting little girls (didn’t see a boy in the picture) to adult behaviours. Got it.”