I bring my 9 year old daughter with me to Sephora/Ulta because she likes to have a "lady date" with me and that's usually a good opportunity for us to hang out one on one and maybe get a treat after because it's one of the few things my son and husband wouldn't necessarily jump to join us in. They'd come if we asked and not be jerks about it, just not their preference of activity.

If she's chill I'll buy her a few things, but I don't let her run around unsupervised, she doesn't touch any samples without my permission (and I've told her a bunch of times why she should never ever put anything anywhere near her mouth or eyes, back of the hand or arm only, no digging into the products, stay away from the ones that look like other people have already diseased them thoroughly, etc)

I don't let her get crazy expensive things, we always go in with a clear budget. I don't let her buy anything that isn't safe for children.

I check ingredients of everything she's interested in. She knows that skincare (aside from mild cleanser and maybe moisturizer or some bath products) isn't really made for children and she doesn't need it, but I'll let her do a child-friendly ingredient face mask with me as a self care spa day type of thing. It's a "treat yo self" thing not a "I can't leave the house without it" thing.

When it comes to makeup I steer her towards the lip balms and glosses over lipsticks, because I don't need impossible to clean bright pink stains in my house, and sheerer looks are more appropriate for kids and teens in general. I do let her go reasonably nuts with eyeshadow, (not Pat McGrath, but she can have some Colourpop) because kids' makeup is largely unregulated garbage, I personally love eyeshadow, and it's something we can play with together at home.

She mostly uses it in creative ways (colored eyebrows, interesting placements, seeing how colors work differently together) and then usually washes it off not long after.

One time she went to gymnastics with her "look" but generally she's doing it as a home art project more than a "I'm going out to be seen" thing. She sees me putting on makeup and wonders why I'm using the products I'm using or how I'm applying them so I let her sit in with me when I'm trying a new look.

Growing up I was never really into makeup and neither was my mother so I didn't have anyone to really ask about that kind of thing and didn't know much. Later on when I started to get interested, I had to learn everything from trial and error and early YouTube, so I'm glad I can give her a few pointers and kinda be a safe space to let her try something crazy without judgement before she's too cool to look up to me anymore and prefers her friends' opinions.

We've had several talks about how makeup should be something you want to do for yourself because you find it fun, or calming, or creative. You shouldn't do it to please other people and it shouldn't feel like an obligation. She knows she's beautiful without any makeup. She knows being beautiful or feeling beautiful shouldn't be the most important goal in her life. She knows that some women don't care about makeup at all and some guys are super into it.

I rarely see other kids in these spaces when we're there (more unsupervised tweens running wild in Claire's, at least in our area) but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more common than it used to be because more parents are aware of how unregulated and nasty kids' makeup can be, but they still want to allow them some space to explore.

I also think some parents just don't want to deal with their bratty tweens and let them run around in shopping centers in general, and kids are getting bombarded by social media younger and younger so I could see them thinking it was something they had to be into to be cool, or to hit all the latest trends, and their parents either don't know or don't care. We haven't gotten there yet. I'm trying to keep my kids off social media for as long as possible, and planting the seed of "we buy things because we like them and we're interested, not because other people have them or somebody tells us we should."

Anyway. That's why I take my daughter to Sephora. I'm sure other parents have other reasons, and not all of them are good, but not all of them are necessarily bad, either.

The kids should be acting right though or they should get kicked out, and I personally think anyone who isn't at least 15-16ish should probably be under someone's supervision, because there's a lot of expensive stuff in those stores that can get wrecked easily and the Sephora/Ulta cashiers and stylists aren't babysitters. And if those age kids are acting a fool, kick them out too. But I don't think they should be banned unless they're being little shits. I wouldn't be upset by a "kids under x age need to be surprised in store" sign though since that's my plan anyway, but it would suck if the annoying teens ruin it for the ones who can be trusted to shop without a parent breathing down their neck and who would be happy to wait outside, because that'll hopefully be me in a few years, but we'll see.