Scrolling through TikTok, it’s easy to find videos of teens showing off their daily skin-care routines, often beginning with a cheerful “Get ready with me.”
But new research suggests these popular trends could be doing more harm than good—especially for young girls.
In a first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed study, scientists at Northwestern Medicine looked at how skin-care routines shared on TikTok are influencing girls aged 7 to 18.
They discovered that these routines often include an average of six different skin-care products, with some using over a dozen at once.
Many of these products are marketed toward young people and contain ingredients known to irritate the skin or trigger lifelong allergies.
Published in the journal Pediatrics, the study raises red flags about the risks of these routines. The researchers found that each teen’s set of products costs around $168 per month on average, and in some cases, over $500.
Despite the extensive product use, only about a quarter of the daytime routines included sunscreen—widely recognized as the most essential skin-care item for people of all ages, especially children and teens.
The top-viewed TikTok videos in the study featured an average of 11 potentially irritating active ingredients. These can lead to skin conditions like sun sensitivity and allergic contact dermatitis—a lifelong skin allergy that can restrict the use of many everyday soaps, shampoos, and cosmetics.
Dr. Molly Hales, the study’s lead author and a dermatologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained that part of the problem is that many of the same ingredients are found in multiple products. Teens may unknowingly layer the same active ingredient several times, which increases the risk of irritation. For example, combining multiple products with hydroxy acids can overwhelm the skin.
In one striking example from the study, a teen in a TikTok video applied ten different products in just six minutes. As the video progressed, she showed signs of discomfort and even visible skin reactions—live on camera.
Another concern raised by the researchers was the subtle messaging in some videos. Dr. Tara Lagu, a senior author on the study, noted that many videos used coded language and visuals that promoted lighter, brighter skin. This messaging, tied closely to ideals of beauty and consumerism, can influence how young viewers see themselves.
The researchers found that these routines offer little actual benefit to kids and teens. The pressure to follow beauty trends may push young girls to focus too much on achieving “perfect” skin, often at the expense of their skin’s health. Dr. Hales warned that what’s presented as “self-care” may actually be promoting harmful beauty standards tied to whiteness, thinness, and perfection.
To gather the data, Hales and another researcher created TikTok accounts pretending to be 13-year-olds and collected 100 skin-care videos from the platform’s “For You” page. They documented the demographics of the content creators, the products used, their costs, and the ingredients. The team then cross-checked the ingredients against known allergens that can cause long-term skin reactions.
The study shows how quickly young people can be exposed to harmful skin-care habits online—often without parents or doctors knowing what they’re watching. As fun as these videos may seem, they could leave lasting damage not just on the skin, but on how teens view health, beauty, and themselves.
If you care about skin health, please read studies about eating fish linked to higher risk of skin cancer, and Vitamin B3 could help prevent skin cancers.
For more health information, please see recent studies about vegetable oil linked to spread of cancer, and results showing Vitamin D could help treat skin inflammation.
