New Skins!
2009-06-16 09:49:24
So, somehow my skin files magically resurrected themselves, so I'm going to finish making up the sets with these ones and then make new actual skin bases. I have nine new skins to release shortly.
<3
Alexis
I'm back....-ish
2009-04-16 15:10:32
So. I moved...Hurrah!
And now I'm back, with the internetz set up. Hurrah!
Right?
WRONG!
When I moved something happened to my external hard drive. I plugged it in, and nothing. I restarted the computer. Nothing. I changed power cables, USB cables, and even gave it a good shake. Nothing.
So it went to the fiancé's parents house for easter with us. Turns out the HARD DRIVE was OK, just the other bits in the external piece were buggered. So we replaced those bits. And I was able to recover ALMOST all of my data. Most of my movies and TV shows, most of my SL transaction records, and almost... ALMOST all of my SL stuff.
ALMOST
Somehow.. SOMEHOW the folder containing every single thing related to EMA is GONE. All of my skins. All of the advertising for them. All of the branding. All of the base files. Ever single tiny thing that ever had anything to do with skin-making is gone. Completely and totally vanished. Dead. Finito. As if it never existed at all.
So I have to redo EVERYTHING.
I'm hoping I can fix a lot of things that I didn't love about my skins, like the ears, collar bones, knuckles, elbows, nails, ect
I also am considering making eyebrows in brown, ginger and blond in addition to black, even though I don't think some of the brow colors will work with some makeup ideas I have.
I'm also half considering making some fun options like unibrows, haven't-shaved-in-a-week stubble, grit under your nails, and other amusing things.
I'll have a survey up asap to see what people think is a priority.
My priority list is as follows:
- fix ears
- fix knuckles
- fix collar bones
- fix elbows
- fix toes
- make new skin colors based on customer trending
- rename skin tones
- [really light]
- [light]
- Fiona – my Caucasian skin tone.. I'm keeping the name as Fiona is my ever constant inspiration.
- [asian medium]
- [light tan]
- [medium tan]
I'll be renaming the skin tones after customers and friends that have really been there and been awesome for the first leg of EMA's life.
I know I have a bumpy road ahead of me, but it will be worth it to make the few people that like my work happy<3
<3
Alexis
RSS
2009-03-26 13:35:57
RSS feeds, I haz one.
Also, I will be away for about a week, maybe more, depending on how long it take s to set up the net at my new house.. yeah, I'm moving.. again. ffs.
<3
Alexis
ugghh
2009-03-22 07:33:20
Sorry if anyone has needed me over the last 2 days.. I ate something that didn't agree with me, so I threw up for 12 hours, starting at 10 Friday night, and then was completely and totally immobilized on the couch for the remainder of Saturday, and all of Sunday morning.
argh
Alexis
I doubt anyone reads this..
@#$$%^
2009-03-12 09:23:13
Goddamned Ilustrator! DIE DIE DIE!
I am trying to make a spiffy new floor for my shop.. one that's really awesome.. you will love it. and fucking illustrator keeps crashing.. and i always forget to save.. I just lost 2 hours of work.
AARRGHH!
Alexis
New build, new makeup (rl)
2009-03-07 06:46:52
So, not that anyone goes to my store, or reads my blog, but I have (another) new build. The hole in the wall to envy is gone, because envy moved away/closed that location. She also sold me one of her little plots, which I'm just using for prims.. so have a little lawn space beside my store. and i needed more space. so skins are downstairs, eyes are upstairs.
What makes me all concernicus, is my freaky desire to use pink in the build. I don't even like pink. In fact, I HATE pink. But because of MAC's damned Hello Kitty release (more about that later) I feel inable to create anything that isn't black-white-pink-grey. I've included my own color change script in most of the pink things so when I finally snap put of this, it won't take me 20 years to get rid of all of it.
I've also changed my store sign. For any of you who have ever tried on my Venti skin, you know the little demo sign over your head, all prim-heavy, and looking like a vector illustration? It's that.. only huge, and the color portion if it bright pink, instead of orange. I've also laid the new sign in the middle of my floor and extruded bits of it so that now I have a shelf/seating-area/desk thing.. I have no idea how to explain this.. you will just have to see it. And, you guessed, the colored portions are.. pink >_<. but whatever. I think it looks frigging cool.
So, this MAC-hello kitty mashup thing. I'm conflicted on it. The packaging is orgasmically fantastic. I love it.. so so much. The quads weren't the normal black/clear lid quads that MAC releases (yes, like the ones that Minnu riped off for use her store, erasing the mac logo form the lid, [yeah, I just called you on it]) but little rectangular ones with the shadows arranged linearly with a swirly awesome logo on top. I loved them. I wanted them. And I cried because I could not buy them. Not for lack of finances (but God that stuff is expensive), but because frigging mac keeps re-releasing limited fucking colors.
Lets start with the Hello Kitty Wild: Too Dolly pallette (how is 'too dolly' a wild name?). WHY did you release Romping again. It's nothing like the bright pink you used in all of the promo material. And its not that great of a color. And I have it already. Bought it back in July 2007 with the C-shock release. And I have EVER EVER USED IT. It's not good enough to warrant a re-release. And Too Dolly, the quad's namesake? Looks EXACTLY THE SAME as Haunting from Alexander McQueen (October 2007). I know this because I HAVE IT ALREADY. The highlighter color, Yogurt was inoffensive, but its a permanent color, available as a single shadow, all year round. And I don't need any more highlighters. so thats 4 reasons not to buy the pallette. The dark color Stately Black was cool, and if they had sold these as singles I would have bought it, though it looked a lot like a few other colors. And it was a repromote from the October 2007 Antiquitease Royal Assets: Metallic 6-shadow palette. But I didn't buy it back then and I would have now. IF it were a SINGLE.
Next up: Hello Kitty Mild: Lucky Tom (I think the names on these pallettes are backwards). Paradisco: Great color, but its Permanent, and I have it already. I love it though. Stylin' Looks almost exactly like Climate Blue (Cool Heat, June 08) which looks almost exactly like Jeweltone (Aug 06). Shade description claims it is a pearl, but it looks like a velvet like the other 2. I have the other 2, and don't really like/use them. the highlighter, Creme Royal, I might have bought, but again, it wasn't a single, but only because my Nylon, a permanent color, is running out. Also, its another repromote from October 2007 Antiquitease Royal Assets: Metallic 6-shadow palette. The namesake color Lucky Tom was boring and.. boring. I don't even remember it.
I live in England and only have a counter store(@!#%@$%^#%^&) so most of the rely cute accessories and stuff weren't available. I DID get a Petite Hello Kitty makeup bag(for way to many pounds), its cute and I love it. If they had had the damned Soft Vanity cases at my location id have bought that instead. It literally gives me actual real heartache that I don't have access to some of these items. Im a totally disturbed mac addict and I want to cry becasue I cannot buy some of this stuff. Yes, you can get it online, but I am a tactile shopper. Online doesn't get my rocks off.
the pigments were boring, the glitters I already had similar versions of. I'm not spending that much on nail polish (and their nail polish is chippy), the beauty powders/blushes/lip conditioners were boring. I don't buy mac mascara or lashes. too expensive. Though the lashes were super cute. I liked ONE fo the glitter liners, but I don't wear glitter liner enough to justify buying it. The lipsticks were either way too bloody bright for me or.. ugly. So were a bunch of the glosses.. ugly I mean. And that Hello Kitty doll was fucking terrifying. Just NO. however I DID want the mac employee HK necklace.. adorable much? Also I ALMOST bought the brushes.. but expensive for only 3 brushes.
So in the end, the collection that I was totally mental over only drained me of 38BGp, because all I bought was 2 lipglosses and a little makeup bag.
I love mac because of its bright new exciting innovative colors. This collection had Bright exciting colors, but none of them were NEW, and not being new, how can they be INNOVATIVE? If you are brand new to mac this collection would be great, but if you are a long time mac lover with a large collection (well large by a normal person's description, small by a mac lover's though) it was a bit saddening. Sure the e/s combos were great looking together, but why mix a bunch of repromotes, permanent colors and colors that looke identical to previous colors together? Why nto make NEW colors. Like actually NEW, not 'new-but-really-repromotes/copies'. I like my mac, and im very interested in spending a lot of money to buy more of it. But I want NEW things, not more of what I already have.
Regardless of all of my bitching, I stil love the collection, and was a little heartbroken that I couldn't get more of it.
wheee!
Alexis
I like makeup waay too much.
Moar Updates?
2009-02-20 12:04:37
Yes, MOAR UPDATES
1) I have TWO new EMA satellite locations. One at Retrology, in the Obscure Finds Market, where Flawed Perfect used to be. I've also talked to Kets, and when the next shop space opens up I'll have an actual shop on the sim. yay!.
My other new location is on the Luth Brodie's Lalique Sim where I have most of my stuff up. I may add some Flawed Perfect eyes at that location, I'm not sure yet.
If anyone has any suggestions for where I could have some more satellite locations, for any of my brands, let me know.
You are all probably wondering why this flash thingy is floating over here ->
Mac cosmetics (I'm guessing you figured out I love them) recently released their collaboration with HELLO KITTY. And lo and behold, I log into my email and what is there.. a sweepstakes to enter so you can win stuff from the collection. YAY!
Just thought I'd share
love love love
Alexis
Wordwang
2009-02-12 04:14:45
Oooh! thats right! last night when I was blogging I forgot to mention wordwang. If you look at the names of my skins, they are pretty random. Half of the names aren't even words. I keep a notebook full of words and things that sound kind of like words, that I like the sound of. When I make a skin, instead of naming it logically, unless I already have a name in mind, I close my eyes and point to a word, and if I think the word fits, I use it. I once pointed to the word "lime" after making a predominantly pink skin, and didn't use it, becasue I didn't think that it fit. In hindsight, I wish I had.
WHY do I do this? I have 270 eyes, largely named logically; I'm sick of logical naming. It's too much work. And this is way more fun.
Why are you telling me this?
Because, now you, my customers, friends, and family, can send me your wordwang submissions, and I'll add them to my list. If I choose your word, then I'll send you whatever product you just named. If I get the same word more than once, the first person to send it to me gets the credit.
E-mail your wordwang submissions to alexis[at]projectalexis[dot]net with the subject WORDWANG and your avatar name, and ill add it to the list.. It's just that simple.
Das Numbarvang!
Alexis
P.S. You get bonus points if you actually know what the heck WORDWANG comes form. Bonus points count towards nothing, but you know you have them. And that's all that matters.
A few things
2009-02-11 15:22:26
1)I have released 2 new skins, Fierce and Nayeli, which are available in my Glenn store, to the right of the stairs.
Stairs? What stairs?
2) My store backs onto KellyM Watkins' store, Envy, and we both thought, separately "hey.. wouldn't we both get more exposure if we just blew a hole through our walls and made it so customers could go from one to the other?" I did not want to sound overly presumptious by asking her about this so I just stayed quiet.. then SHE asked me. Which was faberriffic. So the center panel of my new store is now gone and I have some nifty stairs leading to kellyM's store.. please note that I am in no way affiliated with her store or her products, nor is she with mine. We don't share profits, business goals, products, nothing. We are just sharing a hole in the wall. And maybe some cookies. After we blew a hole in the wall we re-textured her store with a bunch of my textures so that the style was similar. I don't want people getting confused thinking I've started making shoes or she's started making skins or whatever. She can't answer customer service questions about my store, nor can I answer questions about hers.
3) Thank you to all of you who have answered and are still answering my survey. Your answers prompted the release of Nayeli and Fierce and will affect my future designing. If you are saying WTF survey? Join my subscribe-o-matic group to read the notice about it.
whee
Alexis
P.S. Today I was floating about on roflrazzi.com and came across this image. I immediately thought to myself, “My GOD that looks like so many avatars in second life these days”.. GIANT MASSIVE LIPS, poorly poorly done dark eye makeup, waaaay too much fake tan with way too much highlighting on the forehead/nose/cheekbones. That's called camera flash ladies, not good makeup.
This is both a comment on skin makers and avatar face shape choice. I'm not trying to make enemies, I really really am not. But I feel some designers are way overdoing it. Collagen is for RL, not for SL, ladies. Cake-up-make-up is for RL hoe-bags, not SL women. In RL you cover bad complexion with cake-up. In SL you don't have a bad complexion so why do skin makers insist on making faces look caked with foundation, over highlighted, over shaded, over glossed? Also, please quit with the fake and bake. I can understand and fully accept skin tones from different nationalities. I think its really awesome when designer make skins for other nationalities that actually look like they are from different nationalities, but so many skins these days just look like Caucasians, salon baked at 350 for 12 hours.
I'll probably be slashed and burned for this kind of comment. I'll be in sent to SL hell. Whatever. I'll have piles of people saying “Don't bitch about it if you cant do it better.” I CAN'T do it(yet).. Thats why I just DON'T.
SNOWW
2009-02-04 20:05:06
It's snowing here like MAD!
EEE
Alexis
Somehow this just makes me really really homesick.
NEW LAND
2009-01-28 08:40:46
I was sitting around, minding my own business, enjoying a little brioche and tea (wow I sound English..) and KellyM Watkins pokes me and asks me if id like to buy a little bit of land beside mine before she abandons it. I thought she meant the little square from the magazine studio and I was pretty stoked. Then I realized she meant the one on the other side. The one that would DOUBLE the size of my current store. I was so happy i tripped over my TV after running to tell my boyfriend. (literally, you can ask her)
So Yay! My store will have all my eyes now too, and a nicer build. YAY. Yeah I'm saying yay a lot. I'm excited. Go visit KellyM, and her shop, Envy, right behind my main store.
love love love
Alexis
I've made a new online form for my "free stuff for noobs" program from Flawed Perfect. Visit the Winged Isle site or the new Glenn site to learn more.
woo 2009
2009-01-08 19:19:48
Just another update to let you all know that I'm not dead. Life has been busy. I moved to a new flat in England and ever since I moved I've have people over on a bi-weekly basis, (My fiancee insists that it is FORTNIGHTLY, not bi-weekly, and I can natter that "it's a word, I learned it")(yes, he IS special, thanks for asking). This ritual involved a lot of drinking, being hungover, hanging out at the local spa and neglecting SL.
I've made ONE single paltry new skin called CC, set up skins in the Lalique sim, and made a general mess of everything else.
Ohh Christmas. Oh, Alexis, what did you get for Christmas? Oh thanks for asking.. I got lots 'o good stuffs. My top 3 gifts, in no particular order are: a tripod, a new Bamboo tablet and a print of one of the only good photos I have ever taken. I also got 2 'jumpers' from Bench, a photo album from my mother designed specifically to make me cry, a book form Chuck Palaniuk (sp?) a cat umbrella, jammies, a housecoat, socks, lactaid pills (I am lactose intolerant), a shirt that says"Just shy, not anti-social, (you can talk to me)". All around it was a good pile of stuff.. Nothing I had to crinkle up my face and pretend to like.
And for new years we went to the bar, I DIDN'T get smashed, and was NOT hungover the next day. (Thats for real, not internet sarcasm) Which was petty cool.
I guess I also neglected to make Halloween skins this year... oops. Anyone who has me on facebook will see what iw as doing instead.. i covered my friend, my fiancee (yeah i got engaged) and myself in blood, and doodled up another friend as the joker (heath ledger, not jack Nicholson style.)
Yeah im jsut rambling now
shnorg
Alexis
P.S.I thought Mac's decision to Collaborate with Dame Edna was great. now they have decided to collab with HELLO KITTY.. i think i wet myself in excitement when i heard. SQUEEE!
o hai
2008-06-26 09:15:49
So. I'm in England now.
What an odd and fantastical place
everything is expensive. everything is TEENY. Bars have weird opening hours. EVERYONE talks funny. and when i drink i become completely unable to understand anyone.
so far, ive been to London, which is very cramped and very polluted, but still fun, and interesting. ive also been to a village called Maiden Newton for this Maiden Newton at war thing. basically we all got dressed up 40's style (my dress was 50's but nobody knew the difference) and wandered around on a giant field looking at awesome displays, and watching battle reenactments. it was a crap load of fun, save for the torrential downpour on Saturday night, and the overall weather crappiness on the rest of Saturday. Sunday was perfect though. just warm enough, not too hot and not too cold, and i got to take lots and lots of awesome photos of REAL Sherman tanks, and i got to ride on ze German's motor bike. this weekend produced the only photos that will ever exist of me wearing a dress, hair done, makeup done, looking like a 'house wife' and COOKING(and maybe one of me scrubbing the kitchen floor (i spilled my boyfriend's beer)... don't know if Sam got that photo. anyone who knows me knows im NOT a dress kind of girl. not at all.
OH, and i live in bath, which i can guarantee is one of the most beautiful places EVER. i love just walking around. is so pretty.
Alexis
P.S. Bars called Poo's that have awesome music nights make meg hung over >_<
P.P.S. thanks for putting up with me Ally.... i shouldn't drink
Skinkie blogged me in Second Style!
2008-05-11 10:09:21
Skinkie-Style:: The Esthetics of Make-Up
By Skinkie | May 2, 2008
Something slightly different from me this week. I don’t normally do skin reviews, but when I was trying on a bunch of skins I’d picked up from the Skin Fair (yes, a little belatedly) one set stood out so much I almost didn’t have time to put my clothes back on before running to pick up some more demo’s. Esthetica Makeup Arts (EMA) isn’t a particularly easy store to find. It’s set off the mainstore of Material Squirrel, in one of the wings, at the far end of a wide corridor - certainly not a shop you would see in passing. Which is a shame, as Alexis Stapovic produces some nice work.
(EMA) Neoplasm MakeUp in Jen Skintone (Relay For Life Skin)
When Eloh Elliot released her free-perms Another Shop skins earlier this year she, in my opinion, shook up the Second Life® fashion industry more than any other single person has in the history of “Phil’s Place”. Skins were suddenly not something that only the incredibly talented few could aspire to produce, at extortionately high cost to the consumer. Everyone could now own a more than decent looking skin, and anyone who wished to could now try their hand at skin design, having a good basis from which to work. The downside has been that everyone and his/her dog has made a skin, and some really aren’t worth the upload fee. Most have had so little about them changed from Eloh’s originals that avatars risk becoming mere clones of each other. And, from a purely personal point of view, Eloh’s skins frankly just don’t suit some shapes (mine included). It’s a refreshing change, therefore, when I come across a skin, worked from the original Eloh bases, that is a little different…. and done well. EMA produces such skins.
The striking thing about EMA skins is the eye make-up. Hardly surprising then that Alexis also makes a range of eye textures under the brand name “Flawed Perfect”. Stating her influences to be “from of a multitude of sources, from the natural world of plants, animals and nature, to the exotic wild color of broadway show girl musicals… All of it. Everything.” [from EMA website] there is more than a hint of “catwalk” to Alexis’ designs.
The skins come in six skintones ranging from pale (Willow, Kim), thro’ light tan (Amanda, Fiona) to medium-dark tan (Jen, Autumn), all of which have been reworked from the original Eloh bases to totally original tones. The body shading of the Eloh skins is retained (and so not shown here), however, to my eye there is more “glow” giving a fresh soft feel. This glow extends to the face, again retaining the lip shape (and slight smile) and nose shading characteristic of Eloh, but with significant change to the cheek area and, especially, the eye area.
Enough of the whittering, and on with the pictures! Click on the pictures for larger image.
![(EMA) Flare MakeUp, Jen Skintone [Self Indulgence Range]](pix/EMA_Flare_Jen.jpg)
(EMA) Flare MakeUp in Jen skintone (Self Indulgence Range)
(EMA) Trapt MakeUp in Amanda Skintone (Counterfeit Range)
(EMA) GIR MakeUp in Fiona Skintone (Feral Range)
(EMA) Kitten MakeUp in Kim Skintone (Valentine Holiday Range)
(EMA) Fleck MakeUp in Willow Skintone (Costume Skins)
(EMA) Venti MakeUp in Autumn Skintone (Costume Skins), Venti whiskers, ~FLawed Perfect Neko Apnea eyes.
As dramatic as they are, these skins are perfect for this Springs wardrobe with it’s trends of bright fresh colours and bold statements. However, as I’m left wearing the Venti skin I think I’ll just go and find a nice warm lap to curl up on *wink*
- :: What I’m wearing ::
- Skin:: Esthetica Makup Skins - as indicated
- Shape:: my own
- Hair:: ETD - ETD Gwen - Platinum
- Eyelashes:: Celestial Studios - (CS) Lashes - Classic 1
- Eyes:: Skin Deep (now The Body Politik) - Skin Deep Real Hazel eyes/Twinkle Eyes
- Seen In World :: Yes
- Review Copies :: Yes
- Friends List :: No
Alexis
This has been edited style-wise, for squiahability reasons
my absence
2008-05-10 22:44:47
Oo.. IRL I'm a temp receptionist. Well I was supposed to be a TEMP at least. I've ended up staying at the first job they placed me in, way back at the end of Februaty. And it's probably the last placement I'll be in casue of that whole moving to another continent thing. Either way, my time there will soon come to an end, and an awesome guy at work has lent me the entire series of Arrested Development. I want to get the entire series watched before my time is up, cause i will have to give them back:(
I'm almost finished though, I promise
lovers
Alexis
p.s. Man this show is addicting...
ENGLAND NEWS!
2008-05-03 22:01:08
WOO HOO!!
FINALLY, I have my flight to england booked. June 14.
Super excited! a little scared, but super excited nonetheless. i have soooo much packing to do -_- and i PROMISE i will get those Relay for Life skins out asap.
ohh also. GUESS WHO GOT BLOGGED
Ecstatically yours
Alexis
need..sleeppp
2008-04-30 03:27:36
Please note the time of this entry, and the fact that I have to work tomorrow.
Have you ever been listening to an album that you though was just sooooo great that you didn't want to go to bed? I have... I am. I heart Linkin Park - Reanimation.
Sleepily yours
Alexis
p.s. Methinks tomorrow is gonna be rough...:(