Blogging has been light for the past week or so while I spent the majority of my in-world time thinking about and experimenting with different looks for the pageant on Saturday. (Apologies for that — I will be catching up over this week.) I just wanted to share my perspective of the event. There’s no question that any of the finalists would’ve enjoyed winning, but to be completely honest I would’ve loved to walk away with that tiara. Is it worth L$125,000? I don’t know — but I also don’t really care if it has any intrinsic value beyond the artistry that it shows in its creation.
On the Aspire Blog, Ryntha Suavage asked to see contest entry photos of finalists. Here are my three photos that I sent for consideration.
Skin by Lovey Darling, hair by Elika Tiramisu, outfit by DoC Eldritch, shoes by Lyra Muse, earrings by Lucas Lameth, pose by Luth Brodie.
Skin by Tete a Pied, hair by Elika Tiramisu, gown by Ginny Talamasca, jewelry by Caliah Lyon, pose by Luth Brodie.
Skin by Ambyance2 Anubis, hair by Lost Thereian, bikini by Mistress Midnight, necklace by Fallingwater Cellardoor, shoes by Lyra Muse, pose by Luth Brodie.
Throughout the competition, I took photos which you can see in this stream on snapzilla. They’re all tagged with “l’oreal”
The most hilarious part of the event for me was when my cable modem died at 11:45 am. (Remember that the event was going to start at noon SLT!) I grabbed my laptop and headed for the closest Panera Bread to use the free Wi-Fi. I have to give a major shoutout to Panera for that, since I sat in the same booth seat for four hours in skeevy sweats, frumpy hair and probably looking half crazed as I huddled over the laptop, typing furiously. I didn’t buy one single thing — not even a drink — and no one bothered me or said anything. Moral of the story: Live within 15 minutes of a Panera Bread if you have Comcast. (Thanks Comcast!)
The competition itself was a bundle of jitters and nerves — technical frustrations with Second Life itself aside — just driving your avatar across that runway and hitting your pose stops is hard work. Seriously hard work. I had no idea since I’ve always been in the audience rather than on the runway, but what an eye opener. And while I know every finalist wanted to win that title, there was a genuine sense of comeraderie backstage. If you could only see the chat log from our group IM sessions, you would know exactly what I’m talking about. Sure — the show ran to four hours — but in my experience everything in Second Life takes longer than you ever think it will.
As a participant, for all of the time and effort that Bianca spent on training, practice and planning, if there’d been of more specific direction in what the judges were going to score us on for each round, I sure would’ve appreciate that. The watch word seemed to be “glamour” and while I know that conjures up different notions for everyone, it would have been illuminating to hear what our judging panel considered glamourous. Although it’s obvious that my notions of glamour and the judges’ didn’t exactly intersect — I am completely thrilled that Isabella Sampaio walked away with the title of Miss L’Oreal Second Life. Congratulations!
Aside from a completely pleasant trip to Panera Bread, the best thing to come out of this pageant for me is a deepened sense of friendship with several of my fellow finalists. Long after everything exterior and superficial falls away, that’s still the most valuable thing about Second Life — connections with our fellow residents.
More coverage:
There was also an article on SLNN, but it looks like it’s gone now.
Thanks for sharing your looks, you looked great!
I have to say, this whole experience was fantastic…and like the other girls, I was (pleasantly) astounded by the behavior of the contestants. I felt like I was chatting with a group of friends, not just some girls whom I barely knew.
As for pictures, I decided to post mine today as well…on my own blog though (jaydei.blogspot.com). Celeb, yours are gorgeous, and the actual outfits you put together for the show were lovely as well.
i have to concur with celebrity and jadei, it was an awesome experience overall, and yes LONG and tiring, but it was so cool to connect with some very wonderful people… and 19 gals and NO drama??? cept for “technical difficulties?” maybe our little prayer at the begining really worked,
i even lagged more ALONE the next day on the sim than i did when i was full of 80 people! go figure!
i posted my experience on my blog too, gonna go check out yours now jay… and you both looked glam at the event.
i agree to with what celeb said about the judges, they seemed to be pretty varied in scoring, with not really any way to understand what they saw,
it was pretty cool to see how intensely varied each persons wardrobe take was on the 3 looks, one can most certainly say ‘anything goes’ in fashion, i mean it is a trend we’ve been seeing in the real word for over a decade at least… everthing is in and out so fast, everything is “in’ and ‘out” at almost every moment… well according to “someone” which makes for way more freedom now than ever in fashion.
and like i’ve said, it was a great experience, and everyone was very kind, and hard to explain but i’m happy i was a part of it.
thanks celeb for your post!
xoxo,
caLLie
C of T,
Nice post, thanks for sharing the event with us, and your looks…
You were hot…!
[...] Second life fashionista USA [...]
… and I was just informed that Isabella is brazilian! How cool is that?
Lovely, I am so sorry I missed this event! ;_; You all looked beautiful.
Celebrity, you look lovely, both in your submitted photos and in your show outfits. It was fun to meet you and all of the other contestants.
I think we should have a rule to keep the # of contestants below 10 in pageants
4 hours is really a long time, for the contestants, judges, and audience. Bianca, ASpiRE, and the whole crew did a wonderful job and pulled it off though!
I find this funny because I work for TWC/Comcast in the Southern Calif area as an Asst. to the VIP. I usually don’t let anyone in the “real world” know I work for my beloved company. My very reasons is because one day I had on my badge and was shopping for dinner. I was in the check out line when all of a sudden this woman got a look at my badge and said “OMG you work for them, I am so upset about my bill going up”, “Why did you go up on my bill?” how dare you don’t you know I am on social security?” My mouth dropped and was looking around and was reminded of that commerical “wanna get away” rofl. Needless to say I had to give her my direct line number at the office promising to look into her account with just the hopes she would allow me to purchase my items and leave the store. LOL yeah thanks Time Warner Cable/Comcast. Oh and btw I NEVER wear my badge out anymore.
this was a great show
i want some more
slnn’s article is still on their site, just a little deep and unavailable from their front page:
sorry to hear about your trials celeb, as always, your avi looked completely composed at all times.
it’d be nice to have a comment preview so i would know if the html tags were constructed right. as shown above, it wasn’t. SLNN article on L’Oreal’s Show
Great pics and thanks for the humorous story about your WiFI – cool blog site.