The Alphaville Herald

Aspire! and L’Oreal – Face of L’Oreal Paris Glamour 2007 Pageant

by Pixeleen Mistral on 02/04/07 at 9:08 pm

Fabulous photos of 14 contestants!

by Tenshi Vielle, Fabulous Fashionista

Following in the footsteps of much controversy, the Face of L’Oreal Paris Glamour 2007 pageant went off saturday with much less than a hitch – although it started half an hour late at 12:30pm SLT and ended a full *two hours* late at 4pm SLT. Attendees (other than the contestants) were asked to remove most prim attachments, save for hair – and when the lag got too bad, the hair left too – willingly! That’s how important this contest was to everyone involved – we’d let our vain selves go bald and barefoot!

Many of the contestants were decked out for the event, french and non-french alike. Three events took place: Casual classy, bikini, and formal. Nathalie Perfferle, L’Oreal Paris representative, judged the event along with two other judges associated with L’Oreal: Barbotine Dingson and Laurent Savon. (None were available for comment.) Over 200 avatars had sent in their applications over the span of a month; this was quickly narrowed down to the 19 who would compete for the crown.

models wait nervously backstage for the pageant to begin

Each contestant went for a walk down the aisle when she was announced (dressed accordingly per category) and afterwards the judges sent their scores via private IM to Shiryu Musashi.

All of the girls worked very hard on perfecting their avatars for the contest. New hair, new skins, new outfits – they picked from the best designers in Second Life to do their shopping, and it showed – most of the time, when I could rez. Forgive the photos if something is still blurry – I honestly couldn’t get it to rez despite my best efforts. Each contestant was also required to write an answer for a list of questions they were given that would help sway the judges’ opinions. This was very much like a Miss USA pageant – with less hair pulling.

The winner received a year’s supply of L’Oreal Paris products, have their avatar displayed on a special VIP L’Oreal Paris website, and given a modeling spot with Aspire! Modeling agency.

Avatar after avatar paraded in front of my screen until they began to blur together, and then – after a full four hours of competition – the winner was announced: Isabella Sampaio!

photo credit: Shiryo Musashi

Isabella Sampaio: I am both thrilled and deeply honored to have been selected the 2007 Second Life Face of L’Oréal Paris. The day was as fascinating as it was nerve-wracking, but I had the friendship, humor and collegiality of 18 other gorgeous, intelligent, sweet women to embolden me along the way. Truly, it has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had, to date, in Second Life.
Tenshi Vielle: I heard there was some bickering backstage between contestants, did you experience any of that?
Isabella Sampaio: That must have been some other competition! While there was a competitive flavor–each woman putting her best outfits forward–there was amazing support expressed among the contestants as we moved thorugh the three-hour event.
Isabella Sampaio: We all communicated via group chat during the event.
Isabella Sampaio: There was humor and laughter, support and assistance. We alerted one another when someone was missing her hair or her left shoe or had not quite yet “baked” sufficiently. It was amazingly supportive and invigorating to discover that kind of sisterhood. I think it speaks volumes to the quality of the women that L’Oreal and Aspire incorporated into this competition.

I had the chance to speak with Isabella after the competition, and she is as poised and articulate as she seemed while modeling. I was honestly amazed and fairly dazzled. L’Oreal and Aspire! should be proud.

I also caught up with Bianca Darling to find out how the experience was for her – and what could have been improved.

Bianca Darling: Working with L’Oreal Paris was a great honor. Events of this scale are never easy, but I think L’Oreal Paris, AndreaMedia and ASpiRE! made an amazing team
Bianca Darling: Although it looked smooth to all, and although the lag was VERY low for the event overall, we had our mishaps
Bianca Darling: behind the scenes, models were crashing and not getting back in
Bianca Darling: sim limits had to continually be increased to allow them back
Bianca Darling: it was full of adrenaline that’s for sure!
Tenshi Vielle: Was there any possibility of merging it over split-sims, like the Ivillage show?
Bianca Darling: there was no possibility unfortunately due to budgets
Bianca Darling: but I feel lag at IVillage was actually a lot worse than it was today
Bianca Darling: If you want to do a show for a TON of people, best to have a few in a day
Bianca Darling: the sim apexing idea isn’t really that great LOL

Although there was only one winner selected, I believe the majority of the models enjoyed themselves at the show today. Most of the crowd did – although my rear end was begging for a seventh-inning stretch when we hit hour 2.

Enjoy the photos – they accompany each individual score!

1.) Alissa Bright 8 8 8 | 7 6 7 | 7 7 7 | 65

2.) Ana Lutetia 3 6 7 | 4 5 5 |6 7 7 | 50

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3.) Callie Cline 0 8 9 | 3 10 9 | 8 6 6 | 59

4.) Celebrity Trollop 5 6 5 | 5 6 8 | 7 6 8 | 56

5.) Cindy Crimson 7 8 7 | 7 8 5 | 6 6 5 | 59

6.) Colleen Desmoulins 7 5 6 | 5 7 8 | 7 7 8 | 60

7.) Happy Elytis 9 7 6 | 8 7 8 | 7 7 8 | 67

8.) Iris Seale 6 5 5 | 6 7 8 | 6 7 6 | 56

9.) Isabella Sampaio 9 8 7 | 7 5 6 | 8 7 8 | 65

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10.) Jaydei Benmergui 0 6 6 | 6 5 5 | 7 7 8 | 50

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11.) Kelly Bellman 3 8 7 | 6 6 6 | 7 7 7 | 57

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12.) Kryptonia Paperdoll 10 6 6 | 9 6 6 | 7 6 6 | 62

13.) Megan Morigi 5 7 5 | 6 7 8 | 8 9 8 |63

14.) Natalia Zelmanov 8 6 5 | 8 6 6 | 5 6 5| 55

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15.) Sandrine Beauchamp 6 6 6 | 6 7 7 | 7 6 6 | 57

16.) Saty Beleza 3 5 5 | 5 7 8 |8 7 8 | 56

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17.) Sayara Suen 4 5 5 | 5 7 8 | 7 6 7 | 54

18.) Stephania Marx 4 8 8 | 7 6 6 | 5 5 5 | 54

19.) Violet Xingjian 5 6 5 | 6 8 7 |7 7 7 | 58

Top 3 : Happy, Isabella, Alissa
Winner: Isabella Sampaio

The show’s best moments will be broadcast this week on the official L’Oréal Paris website with a special interview of the winner. To those of you that I’m missing photos of, I’m sorry – half of you didn’t rez for me.

If you applied as an avatar and were not been selected this time, don’t worry – a show will be organized every 3 months involving different fashion themes – and you still can be the winner of the next one ! (I can’t wait to see a L’Oreal Vampire contest!) – and if you missed the L’Oreal grab bags, too bad! I got mine!