Blog Fun and Vice for the Contemporary Teeez Girl And Where's the Money?

Teeez Girl in Contemporary Neon and Vampire Teeth
Morphing from sugar and spice to vampire and vice

Photo for a promotional card for Teeez Cosmetics to enter a contest to win make-up
She doesn't look like she's having much fun, and doesn't look like much of a teeez
But she does have her vampire teeth ready.

I wrote yesterday about the regular occurrence of the word "fun" in people's vocabulary.

Fun is everywhere these days. On sitcoms, in commercials, on billboards, and on everybody's lips.

I went yesterday to the cosmetics section of the Bay department store, and noticed promotions being handed out for "complementary make-overs" and a chance to win prizes.

"What should I do?"
"Just take a selfie, and send it to us."

Well not being of the "selfie" generation, I asked her to take a photo of me.

I had intended to send it in but it does not qualify, of course, and when I investigated the prize they were promising, it was a Top Shop gift voucher. Top Shop is Hudson Bay's British import, a boring, dark "goth" place where neon colors do not exist, let alone a pretty yellow or red, with over-priced clothes where prices are actually labeled in pounds and dollars, causing confusion at the cashier. It wasn't worth being associated with one of those self-centered selfie-cover-girl-wannabes.

Here is the Instagram page where I could have posted my photo (had it been a true selfie) and won a prize to Hudson Bay's British import.

Back to more serious matters.

I got a promotional card from the selfie regulator, and reading its message of Teeez giving me the power to "create a killer look you can call your own" prompted me to ask her what I think about the "Teeez" brand (is it three or four "eeeeez"?). She didn't look very powerful to me.

"It's fun," said this twenty-something woman who stood in front of me with pink hair.

That's more like her!

I thought she (or her "team") came up with that word in an attempt at translating the Dutch company's made-up word. Later, I searched online dictionaries and Dutch websites and blogs, but none gave me anything for "teeez" - to tease in Dutch is a completely different word). Perhaps it is the Europeans' propensity to incorporate English words into their languages, sometimes with new spellings and even meanings. Or it could just be a smart business strategy to make the word and product sound (American) English (Europe is fascinated by America), giving it more popularity and therefore business success. Well they've landed on our shores and it is a short cross over from Hudson's Bay to Macy's.

"Oh. I like the pink," I said to the pink-wigged teeez girl.

"Thank you [with a pose - she got my joke]."

This counts for the "beauty revolution" that was advertised on the billboard behind the pink-haired rebel.

I found a make-up lady and asked her what was so great about this new make-up.

"I got 'fun' from the girl in pink hair," I quipped.

She laughed and continued with:

"Well we have a large variety of colors and styles. And we are about fun and bold, with a contemporary edge."

Strangely for someone in the teeeze department, this older woman looked dowdy and bland. But then she is the other end of the (very narrow) spectrum where people either look ridiculously cartoonish or depressingly bland.

What happened to the styled and stylish older woman with her well-fitting suits and tailored dresses? Walmart actually sells such clothes as does Sears and they're not expensive. In fact a pair of Levi jeans (or those "lady" jeans which these women love to wear) cost as much, and add to that the durable sweat shirts with patterns on them (often the only bright color in this get-up) and of course the sneakers, or sneaker-type shoes from Naturalizers, and they're're spending close to $1000 to look dowdy.

And there's that word fun again, and after I joked about it (mocked it really). So "fun" is part of the teeez "meaning," as even this sales lady acknowledges. I suppose she has no choice but to use it on the job, even as she looked adult and serious (and bland), to promote the company's "mission." Either that, or she changes jobs and leaves matters to the pink wigs.

I really didn't hear much else of what she said, looking for "a large variety and styles and colors" in the display counter, unimpressed.

Here is what the back of the promotional card says:

Fashion Vendetta gives you the freedom to overpower any fashion dictate and all the beauty ammunition to invent your own sartorial style. Your partner n crime? A collection loaded with full-on metallics, mattes, enticing neons and edgy pastels, along with provocative transparent and changeants. A powerful palette of prêt-à-porter products to create a killer look you can call your own.

Perhaps it is good that young women are encouraged to look attractive. But they are hardly encouraged to look feminine, where instead they're hit with words like "powerful," "killer," "edgy."

The neon-lit young girl on the postcard above hardly looks bold, or even "edgy." She looks frightened and bewildered. What is she supposed to do? What is she supposed to feel? What is she supposed to wear?

Fashion Vendetta for whom? What does a vendetta and killer looks have to do with looking pretty? What is a young girl to do?

There is a horde of people to give her just that information, and to sell her the make-up.

In the meantime she can cake on that make-up and make some wallets very thick.


Soft as Sin Cream Blush going for CAN$27. Not for your average girl.
L'Oreal and Revlon have perfectly good make-up, which I've used for years, for under $15 (and much less when on sale).

Below is the pink-wigged "teeez girl" who answered my questions and who was much sweeter-looking in person than this. I wouldn't have gone near the monster portrayed below. These "contemporary girls" with an "edge" have to play a role, but the truth is they would rather be sweet, feminine and kind.



The irony is of course lost on these opportunists who call their product "cruelty free," but where they psychically mistreat their young staff and all the other girls who walk by their counters.

Peta describes their "cruelty free" products thus:

Looking for compassionate companies that you can depend on to find quality, cruelty-free products? You’ve come to the right place! These are some of the leading go-to brands that you can be sure do not test their products on animals anywhere in the world. They’re also widely available, which means you don’t have to search too hard to find them!

"We'll just tell young girls to look like, and behave like, monsters, but we will be saving the planet as we do so."

But on further investigation I could find nowhere any written documents from Teeez that their products are "free from animal testing." All the references I could find are either anecdotal or the opinion of an obscure blogger.

This writer from Vancouver Sun's Beauty Bar "informs" us:

Our tester was especially pleased with the fact this brand claims to not be tested on animals. And the majority of the Teeez Cosmetics products appear to be free of parabens and dermatologist tested.

Where is the "claim" of the product's apparent freedom from those alarming chemicals? Where are the dermatologists' statements vouching for the safety of these products? And what about the "minority" Teeez Cosmetics which contain these ominous chemicals, and what do/could they do - cause our skin to fall off?

So who has the back, or more precisely the skin, of these young girls, including the pink-haired promoters?