FX Specialist… What’s That?

By Alexandria Thomson, FX Specialist

I never thought in a hundred years I would be sitting, in my own office space, in Reno NV, typing a little ‘exposé’ on myself, but here I am awkwardly typing away! Hahahaha. Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Alexandria Thomson. I was born and raised in a small beach town on Long Island, NY. I’ll answer the burning question that almost everyone asks me: Why did you move out to Reno/Tahoe? Well, my mom wanted to move out west to start anew and I followed. My love for make-up and special effects (FX make-up) came from watching old-school slasher movies with my dad at the tender age of 7, parenting at its finest, right? I also remember being in awe at all the avant-garde colorful editorial shoots in my sister’s Cosmopolitan & Glamour magazines and wanting to recreate them. That’s where my love of editorial & beauty make-up comes from. I have a strong passion for art in all mediums and I am always inspired by many different painters, sculptors, special effects artists, etc.

So, what is my role here at Ace Studios? I am the FX Specialist. What is an FX Specialist, you ask? When you research it on Google, all that generally comes up is Foreign Exchange Specialist which is definitely not what I do. My job here at Ace is to provide hair and make-up services to our clients who want to look polished and professional for their headshots or websites. We also create beautiful editorial shoots (pictured below) that we submit into advertising contests as well as out of the kit special FX for the Halloween season (or “Christmas time”) for some Make-up Artists. Now the interesting thing about my job is that it is not prevalent to have an in-house make-up artist in the marketing industry. It’s what makes Ace Studios so unique.

Who knew my career would take this unexpected turn into the marketing world, but I want to thank Chris and Kurt for giving me a chance. They saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself. I am grateful. I also get to say that I have the best work-family I could ever ask for.

Here is a taste of our Halloween shoot for 2021.

Shoot: Lady In White
Photography: Chris Thigpen
Make-Up: Alexandria Thomson