A Special Treat for Little Ladies - Whatever Happened to Tinkerbell Cosmetics?

One of my most vivid early-childhood memories is browsing the Tinkerbell Cosmetics section at some department store.

I’m speaking, of course, about the play makeup products for girls younger than ten, featuring a logo with bubble letters—not to be confused with any of the many offerings that’ve been emblazoned with the pixie face of Disney’s Tinkerbell. The Fisher Price kitchen of cosmetics.

I must have wandered a short distance away while my mother shopped; I looked up and saw hot pink stretching for feet over my head. But of course, plenty of products were sitting at eye-level for me to grab and turn over in my hands, examining the mascot, a sort of cheeky-but-relatable fairy with a spiffy wand. The peel-off “nail polish” was probably their most popular product, but what I remember best are the little change purses, hot pink and satisfyingly plastic. It must’ve been my first proper shopping experience, scaling the adult world to a child’s level.

Nor was I the lone enthusiast. The brand has gotten the BuzzFeed Rewind Treatment treatment multiple times. There are homespun tributes scattered across the Internet—a Blogspot here, a Blogspot there. My research uncovered a Tinkerbell Caboodle and a set of bath bubbles priced to move at $49.25 on Ebay, as well as a “VTG Tinkerbell Cosmetics Coin Change Purse Adorable RARE” for $20.99. If you’re really dedicated, you might want the “sparkling fairy dust” going for $45. The flame is being kept alive most diligently at—of course—Pinterest.

It is only as a grown woman that I look back and wonder: What the hell was that all about?

The answer is almost too stereotypical to be true! Tinkerbell Cosmetics were the work of Tom Fields Ltd, a company founded in 1952. Ayup—smack in the middle of the baby boom, just as American society had finished hustling all those women who’d gotten jobs during World War II back into the kitchen and plying them with New Look-derived wasp-waisted fashions, somebody debuted a line of play cosmetics for kiddos.

Source: http://pictorial.jezebel.com/a-special-treat-for-little-ladies-whatever-happened-to-1742438555