Child Allegedly Wrecks $1,300 of Sephora Makeup, Uses It as Finger Paint

A makeup display at Sephora worth $1,300 was allegedly destroyed by a child. Shutterstock

High-end cosmetics command a hefty price. So it’s no surprise that when the makeup maven behind Extraordinary Life Makeup Artistry–who likely blindfolded can tell eyeliner from eyebrow pencil–walked into a Sephora store and saw the price tag of the devastation, she probably really did cry “atrocity,” where the less aware among us might have muttered “killingly funny.”

When Brittany Nelson strutted into Sephora on Saturday, Nov. 11, she caught sight of a wrecked eyeshadow tester palette worth a whopping $1,300, and appalled began snapping photos. She and her companion were so disturbed by the sight they said that we nearly “passed out when we saw this atrocity.” Certain that what she was witnessing was the handiwork of a child gone wild, she blasted negligent parenting on her Facebook fanpage.

“$1300 of Make Up Forever eye shadow destroyed at Sephora tonight due to a small child. I’m sure he/she thought they were like finger paints and had no idea how naughty they were being. Tons of destroyed product and [expletive] Sephora cast members are a not a happy place to be,” she wrote in a post gone viral.

Nelson went on to say that while she’s brought her own daughter into makeup shops on occasion over the years, she enforces “a strict ‘hands in pockets’ rule” and keeps excursions to less than 10 minutes, lest they degenerate into seek-and-destroy sorties.

“Mammas, please shop for your makeup without your tiny humans. It’s not fun for you … or them … or the expensive product,” she said in her post.

The makeup artist didn’t catch the little culprit red-handed (or whatever hues in fact tinted the child’s hands), but she told Insider that she walked into the store “right as a lady and her kid were hustling out of there. The glittery footprints helped us decipher it was a tiny human,” she inferred from the colorful clues on the floor.

Store staff swiftly cleaned up the mess on the floor, according to Insider. But the chaos continues online, where viral photos of the wrecked palette clearly rubbed some people the wrong way. Over 20,000 reactions, 19,000 comments and 25,000 shares have flooded in, some cheering Nelson on, others complaining the makeup maven missed the mark and is engaging in mom-shaming.

Others criticized Nelson’s post, saying that it’s unrealistic to expect parents to leave their kids behind when shopping.

Whatever the balance of opinions under Nelson’s Facebook may suggest about whether parents ought to take their children into beauty superstores with easy access to makeup displays, there may be another good reason parents should be wary of unfettering their children in these places.

“Using a dirty makeup tester in a store can potentially spread infections if they have been contaminated. Moist environments—like those in lipsticks or liquid makeups—may allow bacteria or viruses to grow, putting a new user at risk,” said Mount Sinai Hospital’s Director for Cosmetic & Clinical Research in Dermatology, Joshua Zeichner, to The Lookbook. “Bacteria can cause skin infections like impetigo while viruses may cause cold sores.”