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For the majority of the past year, questions around kids’ and teens’ relationships with skin care and makeup have dominated the beauty news cycle. Among them: Should kids use skin care? If so, what kind? How much should it cost? Are popular lines like Drunk Elephant and Bubble appropriate options? Does Sephora or Ulta Beauty have better options? And perhaps the most polarizing one: Should stores allow children to shop among adults?
For Maria Dueñas Jacobs, former accessories director at Elle and now founder of Super Smalls, which started as a jewelry brand for kids, the answer is simple. Like accessories, beauty is a vehicle for what she calls “pretend play.” On its website, Super Smalls is marketed as “things to unleash the imagination, ignite a sense of wonder and prompt hours of play.”
In 2019, from her apartment, Dueñas Jacobs launched Super Smalls, partly inspired by her three daughters. Its bestsellers include the $36 Opening Night Play Shoes and the $39 Black Tie Mega Jewelry Set, which wouldn’t look too out of place on trend-forward grown-ups. Dueñas Jacobs’s oldest daughter is now 10 years old and her twin daughters are 8. The brand is sold on its direct-to-consumer site, as well as on Amazon and at Nordstrom, among other retailers.
In 2020, Super Smalls dipped a toe into beauty with the launch of nail stickers. And in 2021, Super Smalls launched its now-sold-out $29 “Night Out Gem Makeup” sticky face gem sets. “Stickers are makeup to us,” Dueñas Jacobs said. The same year brought the brand’s $34 Days of the Week Lip Balm Necklace, which features seven flavored balms on a wearable chain. Next came the $36 Self Care Nail Kit, which features four mini bottles of peel-off polish, two gemstone rings to show off your mani and a functional dryer — it’s also currently sold out. The products are colorful, playful and fun, and they’re also safe, Dueñas Jacobs said.
“[The copy on the box] says safe, non-toxic, vegan, cruelty-free, 10-free — all of those standards are important to us,” she said.
In 2022, Super Smalls expanded its Gem Sticker category. And last year, as the conversation about kids buying makeup and skin care exploded, Dueñas Jacobs was right on time with the April 2023 launch of the $39 Mom’s Makeup Play Kit.
“We want to be part of this conversation … [and we] don’t want to bash anyone else. But we’re not like the other brands that almost accidentally got into it,” Dueñas Jacobs said. The kit includes a mascara, a lipstick, and a blush that all go on clear, save for a few sparkles in the blush. It also includes some of the brand’s now signature gem stickers and a brush. Like Super Smalls’s other products, the kit doubles as a crafts activity — kids can adorn the box the products come in.
“I’m pretty minimal, when it comes to makeup. I do my five-minute routine in the morning, and [my kids are] like, ‘I want to do that, too,'” Dueñas Jacobs said. “So I wanted to make something for them — but I didn’t want it to be an explosion of color on their face. For me, keeping kids young is so important.”
After Super Smalls promoted a video featuring Dueñas Jacobs speaking about the kit, it became a cult favorite for the brand and is now in over 30% of orders received by the brand. “It’s resonated with people [because] they see it’s a mom who created something,” said Dueñas Jacobs. The brand declined to comment on its revenue, but shared that 20% of the business now comes from its beauty category.
The brand’s most recent launch was the April debut of its $39 Hairstyle Hero, inclusive of a mini “hair dryer” that lights up and blows air, a detangling mini brush, a spray bottle, clip-in hair tinsel, 16 sparkly gem flower mini clips and a bunch of rainbow hair elastics. Like everything else, the set is anchored more in play than in some notion of children creating elaborate hairstyles.
“Our approach is not going to be the approach of beauty brands. … It will always be around pretend play and doing things that are giftable and joyful for kids,” Dueñas Jacobs said.
