(image: E-Land Retail)
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of beauty products for children rose last year, industry data showed Friday, as a growing number of girls are starting to wear makeup at an early age.
The data provided by SK Planet Co., the operator of local e-commerce platform 11st, showed that sales of such products on its website rose 29 percent on-year in 2017. The company declined to provide actual sales figures.
Sales of lipstick for children, for instance, skyrocketed 549 percent during the cited period, it said.
The sales of cosmetics for children on the online platform have been on the rise in recent years, recording 94 percent and 251 percent growth on-year in 2015 and 2016, respectively, the company said.
“The popularity of cosmetics, which have long been regarded as just for women, is expanding to include men and even children now,” a SK Planet official said.
A study posted on the website for the Korea Citation Index shows that 42.4 percent of elementary school students wear makeup and that 43.4 percent of respondents said they first started wearing makeup in the fifth grade.
The survey was conducted on 288 girls in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades at elementary schools in Seoul, Incheon and the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan from Nov. 14 to Dec. 9, 2016.
The South Korean government is reviewing whether to monitor children’s cosmetics by adding a separate category to mandate that manufacturers label ingredients, including those that may cause allergies.
“There have been different views on whether we should make a separate category for children,” a government official said. “We are currently at the stage of gathering more opinions.”
(Yonhap)
