Fleur is Smokin'

When we were planning our Allure line, I did a lot of research on makeup looks to gain some inspiration. I poured through pictures from runway shows on the internet, sorted through my inspiration folder filled with pictures of makeups pulled from magazines, and made frequent trips to the bookstore looking for a new book that struck my fancy. One day I came across Eye Candy by Linda Mason. This is where I got my inspiration for our Smokin' makeup. For those curious about the book, it is full of some really fun, funky makeup looks and the models are fresh-faced, 'real' girls.

Get your Allure Smokin' at Fleur. Here's your taxi!
And don't forget Biba and Winter Nights, both offering a variety of unique looks for your SL(tm) evenings :)

Smokin' Hot!!

Photographer, model & graphics :Fury Stapleton

Style notes:

Skin: Fleur Allure Smokin' 3 in Caramel
Shape: Fleur Soul Love (soon to be released)

Fashion Forward: Fleur Allure Exotique Inspiration

While I don't consider myself a slave to fashion, I do follow it closely. I have a deep respect and admiration for clothing as an art form and because of this, I closely follow the launch of several of my favorite designers each season.

The inspiration for the Exotique makeup was from a runway look for Fall 08. Sadly, I can't remember what designer featured the look. What I love about this makeup is that while it is a little bit "exotic", it is still a very wearable evening/going out look for a young woman. The color palette for the first makeup came from the inspiration picture and the other two looks featured color combinations that I created.

I find that for the most part, runway makeup tends to be a great way to predict the seasons coming trends in makeup and serve as an inspiration for your own looks.

Please drop by Fleur and try the very wearable "fashion-forward" makeups of Exotique, which is NOW on 50% sale for the next week.

Your limo awaits!

An Exotique Treat

Model, photographer and graphics : Fury Stapleton

Style notes:

Skin: Fleur Allure Exotique 1 in Caramel

Shape: Fleur, Something Beautiful (available soon)

All about Fleur's Kitten--Now on Sale!

Roslin talking about Fleur Allure Kitten:
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The Kitten makeup look began with a classic 50's style cat eye liner. It's a nice clean liquid eye liner that's not as thick as a 60s liner, nor as diffused and soft as a lot of modern cat eye liner looks are today. It's a style of eye makeup that's pretty much always in style, a true classic. I paired the eyes with 3 shades of semi-matte lipstick. The first shade is a very classic tomato red, the second is a shade of pink with a bit more of an 80s influence. The third shade was inspired by the winter 08 fashion trends, it is a very dark pink with a little bit of plum undertones.
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The Allure Kitten skins are now on sale at 50% off for about a week. Purrrrrrrrr on over and say hello to your inner kitten! Your TAXI!

Puurrrrrrrrr!!!

Photographer, Graphics & Model: Fury Stapleton

Styling:

Shape: Fleur, Here on my Own (to be released)

Skin: Fleur, Allure Kitten 3 in Cinnamon

And just a note: We'll be putting the skin of the week on sale the day Roslin features it in her post. So to catch up, Bare is on sale until Friday! 50% off all three makeups in all six skin tones! The sale price will show when you click pay. I can "barely" contain myself ;)

Your Limo!

Saving $$ at Fleur

It's not a SALE, but in a way it is.

With our new store cards you can save 33-50% on our skins by buying the L$3000. and L$6000. store cards. [While the store cards are available in L$500 and L$1000, it is the larger cards that give you nice savings:)]

It's easy! Just right click the rose-tinted placards that you will find throughout the store and you will be able to buy them. You pay only L$2000. for the 3k card and L$3000. for the 6k card. This way you can spend it over time, OR pick your own multi-pack at considerable savings! As always these cards are giftable. So what are you waiting for?

Your limo awaits: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fleur/166/128/27

Allure Bare

At the urging of Sam and Fury, I'm going to be doing a series of posts discussing the inspiration for each of the Allure makeup looks. For my first post, I thought it would be fitting to discuss our Bare set since it's our most basic Allure makeup.

To be fair, Bare is not exactly bare, it is really more of a 'no makeup' makeup look. I'm a serious makeup lover, even before I became a content creator. As some of you may know, I've a few years experience in cosmetics in RL but I've been passionate about makeup for as long as I can remember. That said, sometimes, a girl wants to let her true self shine through. Or in my case, sometimes a girl gets tired of the 'full face' makeup look that's expected of her at work and feels like going for the bare minimum in her free time.

All three makeups feature a little bit of liner applied close to the lash line. The first makeup in bare is just a light, slightly pink tinted lip gloss and a hint of blush. The second look has a more flushed cheek, the kind you would see after someone comes in from the cold and the gloss is turned down, more of a chapstick, than a proper gloss. The final look is what I tend to sport most summers, freckles with a warmer toned lip gloss.




You can find Allure Bare, and all the other Allure makeups in the Allure Shop at Fleur.
We'll look forward to seeing you there!

How You Wore Yours Gloves on New Year's Eve!

We have the winners of the "How Will You Wear Your Gloves on New Years Eve" Jolie Fleur Flickr contest. And from your submissions it's clear that you were spending your New Year's Eves in a variety of manners :) Per usual you didn't make it easy to choose. But choose we did!

Without further ado the winners are:




First Place & a L$1000 Fleur Store Card: Grazia Horwitz for "Peel me a Grape," wearing our gloves in crimson and not much else ;) [skin is a Fleur Shojo Holiday Custom]
Second Place & a L$500 Fleur Store Card: Fleur Insider, Titania Tigerpaw for "Look No Rope Burns!," finding a practical use for our gloves. [skin is Fleur Biba 1 in alabaster]
Second Place & a L$500 Fleur Store Card: Elspeth Jewell for her smoldering "after midnight..." [skin is the Allure launch gift, Fleur Vampy -- -no longer available]

Thanks to everyone who submitted -- please visit the Jolie Fleur Flickr Group to see ALL the wonderful submissions!

Allure's Allure

Styling:

Skin: Fleur Allure Lounge 3 in Sable

Model & Photographer: Fury Stapleton
Graphics: CJ Carnot

Photographers note: The only post editing done on the original shot was to smooth out the shape of any jagged pixels, at elbows and hips, and to light the figure. There has been no post editing done on the skin itself. It is as seen inworld, no smoothing or liquifying added!

Come visit!

Fury.

How Will You Wear Your Fleur Gloves on New Years Eve?

**How DID your wear your Fleur Gloves?**

The deadline for submissions to this Flickr contest is 9pm SLT, today, Tuesday:)

Show us how you will be wearing your Fleur gloves on New Years Eve. Will you go dancing in them or maybe use them to seduce? It's your imagination that counts and we want to see the pictures of it posted into the Jolie Fleur Flickr group.

Closing date 6th January 2009 at 9pm SLT

First prize will be a L$1000 store card with two runner ups each receiving L$500 store cards each.

Get snapping!!

Style Notes:
Fleur Long Saffron Gloves
Fleur Parfait Trois 1 in Strawberry
ETD's Heather in Auburn Burnt
Dress from VG Republic [now closed]
Jewelry from Alienbear

Party "Paws"

Now that Santa has come and gone at the Fleur sim it is time to contemplate dressing for New Year's Eve. We hope you all partook of the Lucky Christmas Stocking, but life marches on.

There are marvelous dresses available on the grid, but very few creators make gloves and, for my money, Fleur makes the best. They are available in many colors, both basic and pastel. But this Holiday Season Roslin and CJ have released their fabulous gloves in a Brights Pack. Priced at L$100 per color and L$600 for the full shebang, these are a "must-have" for the holiday round of parties.

The colors include Lemon, Saffron, Cerise, Crimson, Violet, Electric, Cerulean and [not pictured] Emerald.

You will find the gloves in the accessories section on the first floor of the Fleur Clothing Shop, which is located to the right of Fleur Cinema. Or you can use the teleporters found in our lobby.

Seasons Greetings from Fleur!

We at Fleur Skins wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season.




We invite you to visit us often during the coming year to see what's new at Fleur, where we have the widest variety of skin styles and makeups on the grid, with something for every taste and price point.

It's been a busy year at Fleur. Roslin and CJ launched two new skin lines: Boutique, with both Parfait and Shojo makeups, and the the glorious hybrid skin, Allure, now with 10 makeups. Fleur collaborated with Nicky Ree, hyasynth Tiramisu and others as well as participating in the first Black Swan event and contributing to Relay for Life. And now Fleur has added it's first new clothes in a while!

Not content to work with Roslin on the skins, CJ has provided us with 3 new builds this year. Each build was special and of the quality one expects from him, but I have to admit I am loving the current SoHo/New York City build the most. Come on over and enjoy the ambience!

This year has also seen the enlargement of the Fleur staff. First I wheedled my way into Fleur to help with publicity and customer service. With the Allure launch it became clear that we needed more help, so we hired 5 Customer Service Associates. One of them, Fury Stapleton, took over my tasks when I was away and did a smashing job. So now she's my assistant working with Roslin & CJ on marketing. We also started the Fleur Insiders -- 10 lovely avatars who represent the variety that Fleur is. I've been working with them and they are a delight!

One of the joys of working for Fleur has been all the wonderful people I have met this year! Don't hesitate to contact Fury, me or any of the CSAs if you have questions or need help!
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REMINDER: The gift-giving Christmas Stocking will disappear on December 26. Random prizes include a special edition Allure Biba skin --come try your luck!

Also there are gift boxes for sale in the Main Lobby in case you need to wrap those virtual presents.

Have you been Naughty or Nice?

**Last Chance to Catch the Fleur Christmas Stocking before it POOFS at 10, SLT, Today, Friday, December 26. You won't want to miss getting the special edition Biba makeup**

The Fleur Christmas Stocking is now available for you to try and win nice Fleur goodies including an exclusive Biba skin.

You simply click on the stocking hanging over the fireplace mantle in the Men's Shop and find out whether you won or not. You may try every 3 minutes. Gifts are given randomly.

The gifts include a Fleur Allure Biba special edition skin in truffle, fair isle dress in merlot, a Fair Isle socks fatpack, scarlet gloves, scarlet long nails, and a scarlet studded O ring belt.

CJ has reserved the right to add presents, possibly even that dreaded lump of coal!

The stocking will be up through Christmas, but who knows after that... So come on over and join in the merriment :) And find out how naughty or nice you've been!


Your limo http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fleur/116/74/27

Have You Been Good?

Coming very soon to Fleur over the Christmas holidays...The Fleur Stocking 'Lucky Dip'.

Lots of Fleur accessories to be won along with a jackpot prize of a limited edition Fleur Allure Biba make-up, that will never go on sale.

Watch this space to see when Santa has been to Fleur and left all these goodies behind.
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Also New at Fleur

{picture from Fleur Insider, Caer Balogh}

CJ has been busy refurbishing the Fleur clothes store, which is now 2 stories high.

All accessories, including the Fleur gloves, can now be found on the ground floor along with new arrivals. The new "brights" include those perfect Holiday colours and come in 3 lengths. All other Fleur clothes are now on the first floor.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fleur/166/128/27

Happy shopping,

Fury.

Emerald Glove credits:

Model & photographer: Caer Balogh
Skin: Fleur - Allure Biba #1 (Truffle)
Eyes: Miriel - Realistic Eyes (Dirty Blue)
Lashes: Cake - Bedroom Lashes
Hair: ETD - Ana (Chestnut)Gloves:
Fleur - Long Gloves (Emerald)
Hosiery: Axienne (Shiny Black)
Shoes: Pixel Mode - Leeza V2 (Liquid)
Pearls: The Body Politik - Tahitian Pearl set (White)
Lighting: CG Facelight 4.1
Windlight: Sydney Pinion - Black box (5%)

The Allure of...

Biba

CJ and I hate revisiting past work, doing rehashes, etc. but sometimes there is call for it. As previously mentioned in this blog, Biba was a makeup that I created for our Vivant line. We had discontinued the makeup to make room for newer ones but it always remained one of my favorites. Not only do I prefer our Allure line to the Vivant as a base skin, I also wanted to improve upon the makeup. It was wonderful to see how many people were receptive to the idea of refitting the the Biba makeup. When creating the 3 different makeup palettes, I took into consideration some of the suggestions made by the Fleur Insiders and group members. Thank you everyone for your wonderful feedback and I hope you all enjoy this latest release.



Style Notes

Skin- Fleur Allure Alabaster Biba 1
Eyes- Miriel Eyes- Steel Blue (standard)
Hair- Pixel dust- Roslin- black (release coming soon)
Pin(both hair and dress)- Paper Couture- Gray Day Pin
Dress- Ivalde- Retropolitan Black Gown 1930
Pose- Long Awkward Pose- Barbie Girl II Barbie 15

Sneak Preview

TaP Shepard dropped one of the, as yet, unreleased Fleur Allure Biba skins on me last night. As soon as I put it on my pixels I just knew I had to shoot and I knew exactly the dress and hair I wanted to go with it.


The Biba skin has the smokey eyes of the 1920's with luscious Hollywood lips too. It just screams glamour. This make up is now teamed with the fabulous Allure body which is, in my honest opinion, the best hybrid skin on the grid.


Roslin has outdone herself and paid true homage to her inspiration.


I can't wait for the finished product to be released...bring on Biba!


Skin: Fleur Allure Biba in Alabaster....coming soon
Hair: House of Heart, Tousled Isabella - light blonde
Dress: p.c; Silk Gypsy

Fury

Hand in Glove!

We've been getting requests for our gloves to be put back in the store. That moment awaits CJ's building acumen, BUT we can happily announce that our leather gloves are now on OnRez for your buying and wearing pleasure. You will find them here.


I've always admired the colors and textures created by CJ & Roslin for the leather gloves and with winter here in our part of the world [and on the sim], the long ones look especially appealing. So enjoy shopping on OnRez for now -- we'll tell you when they are back in the store!
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Ssshhhhhh ... I've been told that Biba is on the way very soon ... After reading Roslin's blog I can't wait! Biba goodness harmonized with the nicely detailed Allure quality.

Work in Progress: Allure Biba

I've mentioned before that the late Kevyn Aucoin has been a huge source of inspiration for many of our makeup looks at Fleur. One of my favorite looks of his was the Biba which inspired a Vivant skin by the same name.








The Biba makeup has always been one of my favorites from the line and apparently a lot of my friends miss it too. Then a few days ago, Achariya posted a look using Biba and we've had a number of requests for the skin. I thought it would be a good time to update the look and fit it to our allure line.



















I pulled the shadow in a bit closer to the corner of inner eye so it's closer to the inspiration look. I also tried to extend the shadow further up and out in the area above the crease. The changes are very subtle to the eye but it was a huge struggle to accomplish. As anyone who is familar with that area of the avatar mesh will know, it's a very difficult area to work with. I struggled to extend it and keep the shadow from getting messy or get kinked. I also went and added a little bit more blush and toned down the highlight in the center of the lid. I'd love to hear some feedback from you all and maybe even suggestions on the color combos for other versions of this makeup look.

Fleur Secret Sale

Oh No! CJ found out about the Fleur Secret Sale and has given us one more day.

Sale ends 9pm SLT Wednesday.

Come find the bargains while you can....13 skins at half price.

Time is running out...the sale must end!

Limo...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fleur/139/123/27