Something Pretty To Look At While the Grid Is Down

In a way, it's a good thing the grid came down today. I've been so worn out from the sim launch that I haven't had the motivation to post all our new releases. CJ and I opened our new sim, Fleur, on Sunday. I'm am so proud of the work he did and I look forward to discussing the sim at length in a few days when we've had the chance to take some pictures. For those who haven't had the chance to visit and are curious, our main shop is a train station, with a train that you walk through to get to the other side of the sim. For now, it's just a single prefab and an ice skating pond but we hope to have more in the coming months. Now on to the new products.


For the gentlemen, we have Late Shift which has a heavy stubble, Ardent, which is a smooth face skin with liner, and Noir, a black and white skin with 4 facial hair options. I've also created 6 male shapes that are available across from the male skins.



The ladies have 4 new skins in addition to a speciality. My personal favorite is Aurora, based on a look found in the Sephora winter catalogue. Rose is a full body freckle look named after my friend Rose Farina who suggested the color combinations I used Lustrous is simple, shimmery shadow, and Apres Ski is a flushed cheek look with light makeup. The Noir is a black and white version of our Pin-Up makeup. We created it in all black and white and one with just red lips. Some may have missed the ticket hunt we held to win special edition skins. Don't fret, we will have more contests in the future and we have left the suits for men and women as well as the white gloves out.

An Invitation

The sim will open at 1pm PST for group members and then to the public at 3pm. The rules for the ticket hunt are available on a sign placed just inside the main entrance and to the left. The hunt will be on for 24 hours. In addition to free skins for both men and women that can be won in the hunt, we've scattered a few other gifts throughout the sim.

We've created a slew of new skins, shapes, and a new automated gift card system. I'll be posting about them in the coming days.

Thank You

CJ and I just wanted to take a moment to extend our thanks out to all those who voted for us in the Bloggers Choice Awards. We are pleased to announce that in addition to placing as runner-ups for a handful of categories, we won for Best Skins. Thanks also go out to Tanya and Amelia Book for organizing the awards.

I'm sorry to say that we won't have the time to do a release this week but we promise to make it up to everyone next week when we open our new flagship store in our new sim.

Tagged

Ana Lutetia, Callie Cline , and Amelia Book. I'm kind of jealous of all the interesting facts everyone has shared so far. I'm rather boring and I don't think I can share any really interesting facts but I'll try.

My Random Facts
1. The French Connection- My maternal grandfather was born in France but his parents were Russian. My grandfather immigrated to America right after WW2. I still have some family living in France.
2.Until I worked for a French company, L'Occitane, I didn't care for the smell of lavendar. They have the most awesome lavendar products and omg, verbena too. YUM.
3.I'm a bit of a francophile but I suck at languages. I passed my 2 semesters of French required for my degree by the skin of my teeth.
4. I'm an anglophile. Books, films, tv shows...I love the English. When I first started SL, I had more English friends than all other nationalities put together, including American. Now those damn Aussies are gaining ground.
5. I've been with my fiance for 8 years and we've never had a single fight. I credit this to the fact that we don't live together. I might want to keep it this way.
6. My family is almost all holiday babies. Sister was born on Easter, I was born on Thanksgiving, one cousin on Columbus Day, the other on St Patrick's Day. My little brother, pain in the ass that he is, spoiled the streak by being born a day before Veteran's day.
7. I was a perfect angel in high school, not because my parents were strict, just because that was how I was. My first year away at college, I went wild and flunked out. I did go back to school and graduate with a totally useless degree BA in English with a writing concentration. I am trying to decide between finishing up my MA in Media Studies at The New School (if they will take me back) or go for my MLIS.
8. I dropped out of my digital design course in grad school because I was having a hard time picking up photoshop. CJ taught me everything I know.

I'm going to randomly tag people, not sure if they've been tagged yet but cut me a break, I've been sick. Kit Maitland, Grazia Horwitz, Miriel Enfield, Jackal Ennui, CronoCloud Creeggan, Barnesworth Anubis, Cory Edo, Shai Delacroix, Marni Grut.

Here are the rules:
(1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
(2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
(3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
(4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

We Have a Winner

Marni Grut is the lucky gal in our Name That Skin contest. The skin she named, Lustrous, will be available sometime next weekend. CJ and I would like to take this time to thank all of you who have participated in the contest. There were so many great suggestions that I'm going to put my favorite ones on the side in case I need them in the future. But please people, no MORE. I'm drowning in notecards here. We also would like to take the time to say, thank you so much for being such amazing group members. Not only have you all helped us grow as a business, but as creators, your support has been appreciated. I love watching our little community grow. I love that the group chatter is kept to a minimum, that everyone is always friendly and helpful with one another. I love the respect that everyone treats one another with and I hope to see it continue.

Fit For a Queen

The very talented Miriel Enfield and Nicky Ree have worked with us in a collaboration on a Snow Queen look. Miriel did the hair and crown, Nicky, the gown, and of course, we did the skin. I'm really pleased with how ALL of our work turned out. Collaborations can be so much fun, it's really great to get extra feedback on your work and the process causes you to stretch your wings a bit in ways you normally wouldn't.

Now to take care of odds and ends. For those of you wondering, we will be doing a December release, we've just fallen a bit behind so it will be out late. The contest for Name That Skin is closed and we will announce the winner in the next day or so. Thank you everyone for participating, we are overwhelmed by your responses! It's going to take us a day just to sort through all of them. I will announce the winner in both group notices and my blog. Thank you once again, guys.

Hair: Winter Hair-Ice by Miriel Enfield
Eyes: Predawn (Big) by Miriel Enfield
Crown:Snow Queen Crown- Silver by Miriel Enfield
Gown: Snow Queen by Nicky Ree

Name That Skin!

Edit: Thank you so much guys for your overwhelming response to the contest! Let me just add a few things that I neglected to share earlier. You can submit up to 3 names and please drop the notecards on me, Roslin Petion.

CJ and I are stumped for a name for this new skin. It will be available in a bright green and a yet to be decided upon third color. The name should be no more than two words and NOT related to the color since we don't know what the third color is just yet. It should be about the style or spirit of the makeup. It could simply be just a pretty name. If we choose your name, you will win the 3 pack in all six skin tones. To enter, please fill out a notecard with the following in the title: NTS Contest: "Your Name" "Makeup Name"
The Contest is only open to group members and will last for just 24 hours.

Look Mom, My Degree Isn't Wasted Afterall

Get a Cash Advance

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my 30th birthday. It's something I've been dreading for the past year. I know it's not exactly OLD but I am most certainly an official grownup. So to combat my "I'm a big girl now" blues, I've decided to do a little something to make other people happy which should make me feel good as a result. So, look for the sign with the pink ribbon and enjoy 50% off that makeup set. I chose my favorite 10 looks, that's 30 makeups for my 30th birthday. The sale is only good for 24 hours and at our Nouveau shop. The makeup looks set for sale are: Biba, Boudoir, Cercle, Celeste, Chaton, Novembre, Paon, Pin-Up, Sultry, and Terre.

Makeup for Special Occasions: Soirée

The moment I saw Rebel Hope's Gala Formal, I fell in love. Everything about it is spectacular. The dress comes in two colors; the classic black which is a well done black, light enough to show detail but dark enough to look black as opposed to gray and the most amazing shade of PERFECT red. This perfect red, which has just the right amount of saturation, just the right balance in hue to be festive with out being too Christmassy and flattering on most skin tones. The dress also has lots of other lovely details; a sexy slit, lovely back drape, and great texturing on the fabric overall. What I really appreciate most about the gown is not all together apparent at first blush, it's something I discovered while trying to find the perfect hair to go with it. Rebel had matched it with a modern bob by Abyss. It's a smart, polished combo but of course I wanted to inject some of our aesthetic into the look and so something a bit different. While I scoured the grid for the right hair, it dawned on me just how timeless this design was. A woman could have worn this gown just as easily in the 40s, or 80s as she could today.

I didn't approach the makeup with anything other than the outfit in mind. I wanted something appropriate for evening with fabulous red lips. I realized I hadn't used the eyeliner from Pin-Up in any other makeups and I thought it would pair nicely with matte lips. I kept the shadow soft and focused on the lid and just above the crease. Hopefully, we managed to create a makeup worthy of our inspiration.



Hair: Torch Song in Natural Black by Ingenue
Eyes: Dirty Blue (Big) by Miriel
Dress: Gala Red Formal by Rebel Hope Designs

A Makeup for Dakota

As soon as I saw Tuli's Ana outfit, I knew our next makeup would have to be centered around that outfit. It's a richly detailed tweed suit in gorgeous muted hues with lots of lovely layers. Luckily for me, I also had the perfect makeup look to pair with it. A few weeks ago, Dakota Buck dropped a picture of a makeup look from the Fall 07 Versace show. It is a great makeup look and of course I was happy to try to bring it to Second Life. At first glance, just another nude lip and smoky eye but upon closer inspection, all these little extra details come to light; a touch of highlighter on the inner corners of the eye and just above the liner, the way the liner never meets top to bottom, the white liner on the inner lower lid of the eye. These details make for a complex and rich makeup and in some ways, are very representative of Miss Dakota Buck. Since I met her nearly a year ago, I've discovered she is so much more than a stylish and fun girl, she is a fiercely committed friend who continually amazes me with her skills as a content creator.

Hair: The Pasadena Girl IV-Brown Collection by Armidi
Outfit: Ana by Tuli
Gloves: Black Leather Gloves by Tete a Pied

Bad French

In his review of the Vivant Skin for men at SL Men, Ben Vanguard mentioned that Tête à Pied means nothing in French. Well, I have a confession to make, I almost failed French in college and while CJ's French is better, we both tend to have a rather lackadaisical approach to interpretation. It's too late to change our name and I'm sure that in the 1+ years that we've been around, we've made a lot more errors and I know I've done yet another with our latest skin. The newest look is called "vin" as in wine but it lacks the right article and well...I'm sorry but I'm passing on giving it one. I ask the French speakers of SL to forgive us, our French is only skin deep and we never mean for them to translate literally, it's more....literary.

Now on to the makeup. A lot of the ladies out there seem to love a makeup with a pout and it's been a month since our last one, so that was the first priority with this look. I have been reading suggestion card on makeup looks and noticed a good handful of women suggested wine shades so I went in search of the right outfit to inspire me with that in mind. As soon as Nicky Ree's Divine Sisi gown, I fell in love. I especially adore the off the shoulder neckline and well placed prim, puffed sleeves.

Skin: Bronze Vin 3
Hair: ETD- Ashley in Caramel
Eyes: Miriel- in Steel Blue
Jewelry: Miriel- Beatrice in Silver/Amethyst
Gown: Nicky Ree- Divine SiSi Evening Gown in Black

Some Love for the Men

Technically, this skin has been available for a few weeks now in the CSI shopping sim, Fashion Ave, as well as on Onrez. We had wanted to save the official release in our store until we found the time to create a few outfits to go alongside it but it seems like there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do so. So here they are. These skins fall very nicely between photoreal and hand drawn. Like our women's line, they are a hybrid skin. We wanted them to compliment our women's line but gave them a little extra contrast to add strength to the detail. Each skin comes with a version with and without scalp hair and they are available in 6 skin tones. We might consider red haired and blonde versions if we hear there is enough of a demand and as always, we are happy to do customs. In addition to a Clean Cut and Beat (goatee) option, we've created a Mature look, a few extra lines and wrinkles lend the skin a dignified older man look.

November Release

This month's Calendar Girl release was inspired by the release of our men's skin line. We'd been asked months ago to do a tux for women ala Yves St Laurent's Le Smoking. I realized the timing was just perfect. We did end up going back a little further in time to draw our inspiration. The woman in a tux look makes me think of Marlene Dietrich and the 30s. I used this site on swing style as a guide for the 1930's makeup but took some liberties with our version. We recreated what I thought were the two most important aspects of the look, the color palette and the shape of the mouth. o I have included a notecard with the skins and demos to give you my numbers as a starting point to recreating an authentic to the period shape. You don't *have* to do this of course. It's just a guideline. I love how different the shape is, I'm pretty sure I've never seen a skin with this look so those of you that appreciate standing out in a crowd, this might appeal.

As for the men's skin they are out but I feel that they deserve their own post which I plan on doing very soon.

Thank You

CJ and I would like to say thank you to all those who turned out to our custom skin event. It was really wonderful to get to know the faces behind the names of our group members. I was amazed by some of the great looking makeup looks you all created as well as the patience and understanding while I worked. I'd like offer a special thanks to Amelia Abernathy and CronoCloud Creeggan for their offer to lend a hand last minute. Last but certainly not least, special thanks to our DJ, ingo Rosenberg, who kept me going all night long with her amazing selection of music. If you are a group member but did not make it to this event, don't worry, we plan on more in the future. CJ and I would welcome any feedback group members might have about the event, just drop a notecard on me or send an email to roslin.petion@gmail.com.

Custom Skin Event is Today

A week ago, we sent out an invitation for a special custom skin event to the Tête à Pied group. This is to serve as a reminder and to answer any questions that may come up. Please, please, please, in order to ensure this event runs smoothly, make sure you carefully read all the steps and ask questions before you do anything you are unsure of.

1. You have to be a group member to take part

2. Click on the ticket vendor located upstairs. Please do so JUST ONCE. You will receive a ticket with a number. When that number is called in the group chat, it's your turn.

3. Decide what combination of lips, eyes, cheeks you want and/or other custom options that are possible according to the notecard. I will NOT be doing custom colors or any custom option that involves changes other than simple mixing and matching of already created makeups.

4. Listen for your number in the group chat. Do not put busy on or you will miss it being called. When your number is up, go to the makeup seat, let me know you are ready and when I tell you to, sit down on the chair. Give me your order on the notecard with your ticket number. If you have questions, feel free to consult with me at that time.

5. When your order is ready, I will show it to you for approval, when you are satisfied, the item will be placed in the box. I will let you know when you can purchase the item for the box.

6. ENJOY!

50% Off Speciality Skins

To celebrate Halloween, we've decided to mark all speciality skins 50% off from now until 11/01. This discount will not apply to the custom skin event we will hold on 10/30 and includes just the Marie, Drow, and Gothique skins.

Earth Angel

I do love a good play on words. This week's release is Terre, French for earth. Like many of my friends, I was ecstatic when the very talented Julliette Westerburg released new goodies for her Tres Blah line. Right away, I wanted to create a makeup for the mod dress. I messed around a bit and was leaning toward a sort of little lost orphan girl look but it just didn't feel right. It was looking too much like a lazy attempt at doll makeup. Luckily for me, just when I was hitting a wall, Celebrity Trollop had emailed me some makeup pics which were simple and lovely. I kept the eyes the same in all three faces, brown shadow across the lid and blended out just beyond the crease, dark brown liner with a hint of a cats eye and a little bit of highlighter just under the brow bone. The lips were 3 different complimentary colors in a moist lip texture; a nude, pink, and bronze lip.

Skin: Vivant Buff Terre 3
Hair: Lynne II by ETD
Scarf: Scarf and Corsage in brown by BP*
Dress: Black Jumper by Tres Blah
Shirt: Eve of Destruction Shirt by Savvy?

Royal Beauty

Some months ago I saw the lovely Iris Ophelia in a swoon worthy Marie Antoinette inspired gown by Digit Darkes of X3D. Over the course of the next few months I've seen many other content creators draw inspiration from that period and even a sim pop up by the likes of Draconic Kiss, Curl Up and Dye, Nonna Hedges and have been wanting to do our version of an 18th century skin for ages. I assume this influx of Marie inspired fashion all came from the same place it did for me, Sofia Coppola's cream puff of a film, "Marie Antoinette." It was amazingly delicious and when I watched it for a second time a few weeks back, it was the kick in the pants I needed to finally give the skin a try.

We used both images from the film, as well as images of the real Marie. I wanted something almost wearable and authentic for the period. Based on my research, despite it's fresh and almost modern feel, the film did a great job of representing the period authentically. Lightly powdered skin, a little rogue and a pretty pout. The only real artistic licese I took was in the two lipstick variations. I did a pink and red in addition to the traditional almost cerise pink. In addition to creating a totally new mouth shape, we also added a little extra shading to indicate that the lips were drawn in smaller than the natural mouth and there is almost a hint of dimples in the corner of the mouth. I think it lends the face a rather sweet look.

Automne

The inspiration for this week's release came from Tamara Kirshner, a long time customer and friend. When I told her I was stumped for this week's look, she suggested flushed cheeks, the kind you get from a walk outside in the cool air. It didn't take long to stumble upon the outfit to inspire the palette, over at Be Less Stupid, there was a review on a little known gem of a designer. The dresses were done by Anju Enoch of Putit Ange. I wanted the flushed cheeks to take center stage so I kept the lipstick really low key, just a tinted lip balm look and a wash of color on the lids with matching liner. All three looks were based on the different colors from the dresses.

Hair: Amelieish by Hiccup
Dress: Knit Fringe Sweater Navy Blue by Putit Ange

What to Wear in the Boudoir

Our new Boudoir skin, naturally. Shai Delacroix of Casa del Shai has recently made a slew of gorgeous lingerie she's dubbed Boudoir. These lingerie sets run the gamut from innocent, to elegant, to smoldering. With this week's skin we tried to create a makeup that would compliment all of those different moods while still managing to stay consistently sexy. The first thing that came to mind was bedroom eyes and with some brainstorming assistance care of the lovely Grazia Horwitz, I decided to do an amped up version of the eyeshadow in our Sultry look and pair it with 3 very different lipstick colors.

We've also brought back the highlighting and shading we used on the Modele skins to amp up the sex appeal. They not only give the skin a little extra glow but create a slightly more defined cheekbone.

Credits
Outfit: The Marquise Lingerie Set-Plum by Casa del Shai
Hair: Tasha-Strawberry by ETD
Gloves: Long Merlot by Tete a Pied

Proud As a Peacock in Paon

This latest release came from wanting to wear something to go with Kit Maitland's OMG MORBIDLY OBESE fatpack of a release, Amarantine. Lovers of mix n match rejoice, this fall set is cozy, delcious, and full of options. I paired it with adorable knee socks from Shiny Things, tinted to match. Then yesterday Mr Lucas Lameth passed me his fabulous Chakra set. The ensemble just grew in a synchronistic way. I named it paon, French for peacock, because the liners were all peacock colors. I think the overall look is very Love Story, 70s meets 40s collegiate.

Hair: Juliana by ETD
Outfit: Amarantine by CKSD
Necklace: Chakra by Earthtones
Socks: Knit Knee Socks-Medium Colors by Shiny Things

Vivant Gothique Has Arrived

It's October and Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. In a lot of ways, Second Life is like celebrating Halloween every day, sans the candy. You get to stretch your fashion wings a bit and play with different personas and looks like you would never do normally. So hot on the heels of our drow skins, we have yet another fun look. Or rather looks. Gothique is our version of a goth skin. It's as pale as we could go without the skin becoming totally flat and fake looking. The desired effect was undead or made up, not unreal and blank paper white. As for the makeups, I tried to experiment with some looks a bit more avant-garde than my normal comfort zone but still keep it tasteful and aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately, I don't have a full line up of all 18 skins. You will have to go to Tete to see them but I can run through the 6 distinct looks that are available. All the looks come with 3 lip options (with only one exception) that are some combination of red, wine, purple, and black. The Siren was a goth version of one of my absolute favorite makeups, the Biba. Corbeau, which is the makeup in the main ad picture, has a double cat's eye liner that I saw on Dita Von Teese. The Ennui is based on a look we've been recreating with each one of our skin lines, just a pretty little flourish about the eye. Amanda is inspired by Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls which is amazing music by the way, fun punk rock cabaret. I had a lot of fun with Nova, it sort of has a harlequin look but it was a total accident. I was just flipping layers around and having a play, seeing what interesting looks I could come up with. CJ came up with the name because of the distinct star shape. The last makeup of the set is my most wild of the bunch, I call it CyberPunk. It has a definite punk/modern dystopian vibe I think. Enjoy!

Hair: Aveda Short Bob by ETD
Outfit: Nymphaea Suit by Silent Sparrow

Better Late Than Never

This week's release is a little late but worth the wait. First up is the October edition of our calendar girl series. For those that don't know, every month we make an outfit with a limited release skin to compliment it. The octobre release is a fun set for lovers of mixing and matching. We have a black patent leather belt on the jacket and shirt layer and the dress bottom comes in 3 different colors. The turtle neck comes in undershirt to go underneath the dress as well as a shirt layer if you wish to wear it in other ways. The three makeups were my idea of updated mod makeup. All three makeups have pale shadow and lips, which is fitting of the period. I gave each one a little something different and special. The first one has a very defined crease in the lid, another very mod detail. The second makeup has a subtle shimmer and soft, smudged liner, the third look has high gloss lips, cats eye liner, and a beauty mark.

Our other 3 pack this week is part of a collaboration with hyasynth Tiramisu of Silent Sparrow and Calico Ingmann of Calico Creations. We created drow skin with 3 looks, one an homage to the spider goddess Lloth, another based on a picture Caliah Lyon showed me of a look she liked, and the last, a no makeup look.

More Than Tête à Pied

Those who are familiar with the Nouveau sim may have noticed a cozy cottage that was once nestled in at at the end of our little pond. I was happy to call it home for close to a year but I had to give it up to make room for our Vivant line. It didn't take long for me to miss having my own little spot. Unfortunately, we can't spare too many prims and I'm too spoiled by Nouveau to find land somewhere else. After some begging and pleading, I did manage to convince the Renaissance man of SL, Mr. CJ Carnot, to build a smaller, lower prim version of my old cottage so that I could squeeze it onto a little 1024 plot in our sim. This sweet little English cottage is just 67 prims with a 20x20 m footprint that includes the terrace. The cottage also comes with a fireplace with both particle smoke and fire. I think most will agree that CJ's years as a first life architect and SL builder show. His textures are almost entirely hand drawn and have lots of great character. Since we've been receiving a number of requests to purchase some of CJ's builds, we are setting both the cottage (and the tea house should be next) up for sale in the little green house next to our main shop. Even if you aren't in the market for a prefab, I think it's worth a trip to just appreciate his lovely work.

Stars In Your Eyes

The inspiration for this week's skin, Céleste, comes from a few different places. The theme for the jewelry expo auction items is celestial which reminded me that I've been wanting to create a skin with a face tattoo like tattoo artist Kat Von D from LA Ink. I've been seeing a good number of bloggers covering Dutch Touch (not to mention the suggestion of a good friend to check it out) and I found the clothing there to be helpful in shaping the makeup look. It was shortly after that I remembered the Escape necklace that Lucas Lameth of Earthtones had just created and I paired with with my favorite Deviant Kitties hairstyle, Katya. I created Céleste in three different variations but all share the same semi-moist lip paired with softly smudged black liner and a hint of color swept across the crease. Mr. Carnot was kind enough to create the stars that run along the side of the eye.

Unleash Your Inner Sex Kitten

As soon as I saw the Kats Meow coat over at Artilleri, I knew it had to be mine. It conjures up visions of 1960's sex comedies. Depending on how you wear it, the coat could really go either way, coy kitten or naughty kitten, you decide. As soon as I put on the coat, I reached for ETD's Tasha. It's like they were made for one another. Wide part with side swept bangs that almost completely obscures the left eye, a perfect combo of sexy and sweet. All of these elements inspired this week's new release, Chaton a perfect combination of sexy and sweet. The lip has a very sexy high gloss but a natural nude color. The eyes have a cat's eye liner paired with sensually applied shadow available in three different colors.

Just Following the Crowd

I never do this sort of thing but thought it was too cute to pass up. It's official, I'm not a nerd and I'm UBER cool. Yay me.

This Week's Release: Covering You Tête à Pied

When we were planning the Vivant line, CJ and I did some brainstorming about how we could make this range different and special. We wanted to focus on the makeup but this week, the makeup isn't as much the focus as another part of of the skins, the shading. When I read that Ginny Talamasca of Last Call had drawn inspiration from Gautier's Fall 07 couture collection, I decided to go back and take a look. I really liked some of the makeups and this one in particular stood out. It is a unique twist on the cat's eye as it doesn't continue across the lid as is traditional, rather it stops short just shy of half way across the the lid and there is a bit of highlighting that meets it. There is very little other makeup on the face, just what I call in my mind geisha red lips-right red, almost pink. It took CJ some convincing that we could do yet another cat's eye and the two of us are so used to putting a lot into each look, it almost felt too easy. That's when we decided to put in cheekbones. It's not a permanent change to our shading, just something to try on for a change. We in the biz would call it contouring. I think it does add that extra little something to the look and hopefully you all agree. The look is called modèle, french for model of course. It is available in three variations, one with a lip like in the inspiration photo, another a deep wine, and the third makeup has a deep, red-brown, lip that is a bit vampy. The necklace in the ad pic is Chatelaine Shoulder Brooch and Chain by Caliah Lyon of Muse, hair is Alexandra by ETD, and dress of course is from Last Call,Arachne.
We have a few other new releases as well this week. We thought some socks and tights would be a nice addition to all the fall wear that is coming out right now. We have two sets of tights, one opaque and one with ribbing and we also have a set of over the knee socks that come in a ribbed material. One thing that is very neat and might be fun to play around with....pairing the tights with our socks or those of someone else. The tights are two pieces, an underwear layer that goes down to the ankles and a sock layer. If someone were to wear a sock with the underwear layer, it would have a perfectly layered sock over tights look which I think is VERY cute.

The last part of the release are our gloves. We've had customers asking for different colors for the pair in the Janvier outfit for ages but we never seemed to find the time to do it properly. I wanted to make sure we did more than just different colors. We finally have found the time and we've made them in 3 lengths, I'm particularly excited about the long ones which would be considered opera length. Gloves are huge in first life fashion this season. I suggest all of you take a look at the fall shows on style.com or pick up the september issue of the bible, er I mean Vogue. *swoons*

Calendar Girl: Septembre

September has always been one of my favorite months, the warmth of summer lingering and slowly giving way to the crispness of my beloved autumn, the promise of a new school year, and with it, new school clothes. The septembre outfit makes me think of the kind of thing that would be perfect for the first day of school. I personally always liked to dress up just a bit on my first day. This outfit is the kind of thing that would work just right. The short sleeves and skirt cool enough for late summer but with very fall colors that will transition nicely into fall and winter. When you feel like wearing a more cool weather look, the outfit will look adorable paired with knee socks or tights and a sweater.

The shirt has sculptie sleeves with a bit of fullness to them, a square neckline with a ruffle and some ruching on the bust which has an empire seam. The line of the skirt is fitted from the high waist and some soft fullness from below the hips, a definite 40s vibe to it. The buckle around the belt is a nod to nouveau though. The outfit comes in 3 color palettes and as always, a limited release skin. When September is over, the outfit stays and the skin is gone forever. This month I've decided to create 3 makeups to go with the 3 outfits. I didn't intend for it to work this way but while I did create a makeup to go with each specific outfit, I noticed that they all work with more than one of sets so don't worry about wearing it 'right'. I've also been thinking about writing a bit about real life makeup and offering some tips from time to time. Anyone who reads this, please leave a comment and let me know if it might be something you would be interested in. I have been a bit reluctant to post about anything not strictly related to Second Life fashion because of the Fashion Planet aggregator.

Close-Up: Pearly Whites

About a year and a half ago, CJ and I started Tête à Pied for no other reason than my desire for more complex, nuanced makeup, red brows, which at the time were pretty much unheard of, and maybe even earn us enough money to help CJ out with tier and me with my shopping habit. It amazes me how much Second Life and Tête has changed since then. Content creators have come and gone, there is more than one brand that has been born and experienced huge growth in half the time that we've been around.

Normally, I tend to keep my blog posts rather dry, professional, impersonal. It's hard for me to speak from the heart in such a public way but I am so overwhelmed by the experience of this putting out our Vivant line that I'm compelled to bare just a little bit more of myself. I don't want to come across as someone acting the part of of the pretentious artist, but I think we have grown so slowly because we see Tête à Pied as a means of expression and personal creativity first, and a business second.

I can't help but feel it's time to really drive home what we are about: quality, craftsmanship, integrity. I am really proud to say that our skin stands up to the closest scrutiny. While no skin can be to everyone's personal taste nor work perfectly with every avatar shape, we believe that after hours of testing and comparison, Vivant matches up with the best Second Life has to offer. It exhibits hundreds of hours of hard work and years of skill. Vivant is the combination of CJ's years of experience with photo shop and my life-long love affair with makeup. Not so long ago, I worked in cosmetics and I've always been passionate about it. More than any other line we've done in the past, Vivant is about that love. I spent weeks researching & creating makeup looks and still more weeks with CJ discussing and implementing the technical execution of these looks. Each look is unique, many with features (like a specific kind of liner) that are specific to that makeup look alone.

We have had amazing feedback from bloggers, friends, customers, and other content creators. CJ and I would like to thank all of you for your recognition and compliments. We have had so much great coverage but there are a lot of details and subtle improvements that many might have not noticed so from time to time, I will highlight them here. Today it will be our teeth. For our Vivant line, we wanted to make sure that we didn't neglect a single feature and with photography loving fashionistas on the rise, we couldn't help but notice some not so picture perfect smiles. We were guilty of it ourselves, the first picture is our old teeth, the default Linden teeth. As you can tell in the old picture, the default teeth have a gray cast to them and the bottom of them is uneven. I didn't take a picture but the tongue is a bit too bright red to look natural. Our new tongue is a more natural shade and our teeth are brighter, whiter, straighter, and model perfect.




Now onto your sneak peek....

For those of you that were wondering, yes, we are continuing our Calendar Girl series but with the new Vivant skin range. Expect the release to come out in a day or two. For now, you will have to be content with a look at one of the 3 makeups we will release with our septembre outfit. This is septembre 1 in out buff skin tone. As it often happens, the outfit was designed first and the makeup was created to coordinate with it. Sometimes the makeup idea comes from a specific photograph or image but this month I just played around a bit until I found something that was pleasing to the eye. I wanted just a hint of a cat's eye to the liner to give a nod to hint of period influence in the outfit but I wanted to keep it fresh and contemporary. This is where the color comes in. Die-hard Tete fans might notice that the little tail on the cats eye is in a different spot than usual, it arises from the lower lid. I saw that style on a french blog when doing research for the line. If I ever manage to find the link again, I will gladly post it. She had a whole section on just cat's eyes and it was amazing the variety that is possible.

Vivant Release

Our new shop is finally open to the public and stocked with our new skin range. Vivant is a hybrid skin range that is available in 16 distinct makeup looks with 3 variations each. That's 16 looks, 48 makeups, 6 skin tones, 288 skins in all. Best of all, at just 500 for a single and 1200 for a 3 pack our skin is now affordable enough to change as often as you do your outfit. More than ever before, Tête à Pied is about the makeup. A few other important points, our brows our mod in appearance and we have created a range of free pre-made brows for your conveinance. They are located on the side wall. We have also created matching pubic hair in the form of panties. This allows us to have a variety of free pubic hairstyles and colors. The colors can be changed in appearance under underwear.I do plan on discussing a bit more about our journey and going a bit more in-depth in sharing our inspiration for different looks but for now I wanted to just briefly sum up the most important information.

Less than 24 Hours Left!

Just a quick note to those of you not in the Tete group, the sale ends sometime after 10 AM PDT and the shop will be closed to the general public until Monday when we will release our new line. This is your last chance to buy any of those skins as they will be removed FOREVER. The shop will be open on Sunday for an INVITE ONLY preview party extended just to the Tete group, personal friends, and bloggers. Group enrollment is by invite only until AFTER the party. Anyone who has received an invite and is not in the Tete group, please IM me for an invite or you will not be able to attend the party.

The Beginning of the End

It has been nearly a year since we came our with our current range of skins. As you may already know, CJ and I have been working on the new line for a few months now and the time to release them is drawing near. We will be removing the old range to make room for the new and have decided to offer the skins at a really low cost. Singles are just 200 and 4 packs, 500. I think it just may be the best deal going on the grid right now.
I would also like to take the time to thank everyone who has sent in notecards and shapes to help us prepare for the new line. We can't possibly make everyone happy and there is no way to make a skin that looks great on every shape and at the same time, doesn't make everyone look like a close but that said, I think we've made our most appealing skin to date. While working on Vivant, we have kept both the compliments and the criticisms in mind and we both hope that you all will be as happy with the results as we are.

Août is Out!

Our August addition to the Calendar Girl series is a sweet little suit in seersucker. I seriously adore seersucker, a fabric I find to be both elegant and casual, not to mention a great warm weather fabric. Each suit comes with a fitted cropped jacket, short pleated prim skirt, and trousers. The sets are available in four pastel shades of pink, yellow, green, and blue.

Now we also have some good and bad news in regards to the skin. There will be no skin in the Calendar Girl release but that's because we are busy with a brand new skin range and we decided against selling our soon to be retired skin with it. The good news is that those of you who are eager to see what the skins look like will get a peek since I am wearing it in our août ad.

A Little Update

For those of you wondering how things are progressing on our new skin line, I thought I would fill you in. We finally do have a name-Vivant. We haven't yet set a date for release. The plan is to create makeups until I cry uncle and drop from exhaustion and then it should take us a week or two after that to sort out vendors and pictures.

We would also like to take this time to thank everyone for submitting their suggestions and shapes, both have been very helpful to us. We haven't drawn a winner, we are going to wait until just before the release to do so. Anyone who has an idea for a makeup they would like to see, please drop a picture or link on a notecard titled, "Makeup Suggestion" and drop it on Roslin Petion. It needs to be a pretty close up shot, at least from neck up in order for me to get a clear idea of how the look was created. The bigger and clearer the image, the better chance you have of seeing it on a Tête skin.

In other news, July is almost over which means out with juillet and in with août. As usual, the skin will be gone forever but the clothing will stay. Seeing how search is borked, AGAIN, I thought I would include our slurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/nouveau/201/164/21/

Check Out SLShopper

I just thought I'd share this with you all, both shoppers and content creators alike.
I must admit that when Cristiano Midnight asked us to try out his new pet project, SLShopper , I balked. I am a bit of a flake when it comes to anything remotely technical but with some gentle coaxing and hand holding, he managed to convince me to give it a go and I'm so glad I did. Placing an ad is as easy as posting in the forums, just a few extra fields to fill. After placing a few ads, I timed myself and even when I take my time to provide a thorough description, the whole process only took me 3 minutes. What's really great about it, besides the ease of use, is that it lists slurls so you can go straight to that product in world. It also allows you comment to the creators and save ads.

Juillet Release

I'm madly in love with the Boho look. No, that is not so two seasons ago. Actually, the boho look is one that will never die. It's as old as the concept of the bohemian itself, just constantly recycled from season to season with less or more popularity. I could do a little citing for you all but I'm sick so you will have to conduct research on your own or just take my word for it. La longue vie le regard de Bohème! Or long live the bohemian look. I hope at least that's what I said. I did just barely pass my two semesters of French. I also am in love with Lucas Lameth's Boho jewelry. With Miriel Enfield and Jackal Ennui as sim mates, it takes a lot to impress this girl but he's managed to do it. When creating this look, we kept his jewelry in mind. You can see it in the ad picture.

Anyway, summer lends itself so well to that look, long flowing skirts, sandals, gauze shirts. At the same time, summer makes me also think of backyard bbq's with Susie homemakers in crisp cotton dresses. It's a bit of a dichotomy there, the wild bohemian and the perfect, prim housewife.... but isn't modern living about that? I think this month's release should please those complicated modern women on the grid. The Indian block print fabric, color palette, and neckline are earthy and free-spirited while the dress is so 50s- fitted bodice with full skirt. The outfit also comes with a 50s staple, the capri pant. Really, what more could every woman want? And of course, once again, CJ did a lovely job in executing the design. Nary a stray pixel. This man is amazing.

The makeup for Juillet adheres to the same spirit of the outfit. Barely there, nude lips with a bit of light gloss balanced by a more dramatic eye in earthy shades of red and brown. The touch of 50's comes from the rich chocolate brown cat's eye liner. The release can be found at our main store in Nouveau or our satelite shop at the Promenade.

Last Day to Enter Contest

Just a gentle reminder and something of an update. First of all, for those who have not discovered this yet, the skin shop is now empty, all of the skins have been moved over to the new white boutique. So no more confusion or needless walking. It's all in one spot.

Next up, a reminder to those who are interested, today, is the last day for submissions to enter to win a set of skins from the new range. For details, please refer to my last post. So far, the feedback has been really helpful, especially when people were very specific and careful to offer constructive criticism. Based on what we've read so far, we are confident that we are moving in the right direction. We do plan on keeping the current Tete line around, maybe even add some makeups to it from time to time. So for those of you hate change, you should be happy. I can't wait to share the new skins with everyone.

Want a Chance to Win a Full Range of Skins?

It's long overdue, a new range of Tete a Pied skins. It's been almost a year since we released our last complete range so we decided to have a contest to get feedback on our current line and also get access to shapes to try it out on. To enter the contest, all you have to do is drop off your shape on Tap Shepherd in a folder marked "Tete Skin Test" with a notecard that includes answers to the following:

Your Name:

Skins You Wear Most Often(including other brands):

Most Important Qualties for a Skin To Have:

What You Want Changed About Tete Skin:

What You DON'T Want Changed in Tete Skin:

Any praise or criticism on the following features in Tete skin:
1. eyebrows:
2. makeup:
3. lips:
4. nose:
5. skin tone
6. genitals
7. breasts

Additinal Options You Would Like Included (ex: free lashes, free nails, etc):

Any Other Comments:. You will be entered in a drawing to win to take place before the release of the new skins. Tell your friends that non-group members can enter too!

The shapes will not be used in any sort of promotion. It's for our own personal use, just to make sure the skins look good on a variety of people. The deadline is July 28. The drawing will be random. If you don't have the permissions on your shape, you can still enter but be sure to fill out the notecard.

Juin Calendar Girl In Stores

I'm about to go out into the big bad real world but I thought I would do a quick post to announce the new addition to the calendar girl series. I don't know why I didn't think of the obvious....June bride. I don't even know exactly where the inspiration came from but there it was....hey CJ, how about a dirndl? There is something sexy and feminine about them, especially our version. The lacing, the off the shoulder shirt, the flared little skirt, all a bit saucy but still kind of innocent. The makeup I created is a great example of how the change of hue can make the same exact makeup go from sweet to having a bit of edge. Anyway, as always, the skins are available for just this month. Both can be found in our new shop, the white boutique down the way from our greenhouse skin shop.