Shay Mitchell doesn’t back down from the beauty backlash, even if she’s baby-sized.
The “Pretty Little Liars” alum, 38, defended her new children’s skin care line, Rini, after it faced widespread criticism for selling face masks to children as young as 3.
“I was a little surprised, but I think anything that involves kids should be talked about,” Mitchell told Today’s Jenna Bush Hager and guest co-host Olivia Munn on Tuesday.
“Like you, I have a lot of questions when it comes to kids, like what they eat and what they put on their skin, so I didn’t think this would be any different.”
Mitchell launched Rini, which means “child” in Korean, on November 6th with entrepreneur Esther Song. The brand offers cotton and hydrogel sheet masks, including animal-themed masks intended for use by children ages 3 and up.
The products sparked an immediate backlash online, with critics claiming that introducing skin care routines to young children could reinforce harmful beauty standards at an early age.
But Ms Mitchell, who has daughters Atlas, six, and Roma, three, with partner Matt Babel, insisted the masks were not for vanity.
“This came from my experience of being a mother and having two girls myself and seeing that there was nothing in the world and feeling safe enough to wear their skin when they wanted to share that same moment with me,” she explained.
“I think what this boils down to is that it’s not pretty,” she said. “Kids look at the mask and instead of thinking about fixing it, they think of it as a cool feeling and a shared moment.”
But experts warn about both the line’s ingredients and the potential harms of teaching preschoolers skin care habits.
Dr. Sandy Skotnicki, author of “Beyond Soap” and co-host of the podcast “Skin to It,” told the Post that the formula contains too many ingredients for young skin.
“There are more or less 68 different materials, and it was hard to count them all,” Skotnicki said. “You have to take into account that young children have so many chemicals on their thin, still-developing skin, which can be potential irritants and allergens.”
“Do we need another personal care product that we think our kids need to feel good about themselves?” she added. “It’s a disgrace to this entire company.”
Dr. Jeffrey Karasik, a pediatrician at Northwell Health Physician Partners, told the Post, “There’s very little upside.”
“The ingredients are probably harmless, but they don’t have any positive health effects,” Karasik said. “Social and emotional messages are questionable at best.”
On “Today,” Mitchell defended the line as functional rather than cosmetic, explaining that Atlas used the mask to cool himself down after developing a fever.
“I don’t think kids need masks,” Mitchell acknowledged. “But are they great for added comfort and hydration? Yes. That’s it.”
