Love the Skin You're In

I can sort of understand people getting tattoos of names of loved ones... It symbolizes permanence and commitment.. I sort of understand people getting skulls and things permanently added to their skin... but the thing I understand most is the use of tattoos as a celebration of the body. Just like a flattering waistline decorates you, curling lines accentuating your form celebrate one's humanity in a unique way ^.^

So far, only one creator on Second Life seems to agree with me, in fact, she practically wrote the book on it.




If you've ever been to Deviant Kitties, or any "deviant", "gothic", "grunge", any place at all that isn't couture and shows a bit of shoulder, you've probably seen one of Sinjun Soyur's elegant and expertly rendered designs. She runs a modest little store called Etch'd (once "Ink'd" with her partner Laylah Mistral), that has a selection of about 20-25 different patterns (and some fun chunky heavy weave socks), and most of them are new. I've been an enormous fan of hers since I first discovered her through a photography customer (now friend ^.^), and the last time I visited her store she had only just split her inventory and gone out on her own. I had the pleasure of meeting her then, and I think I remember expressing my love for her full body tribal tattoos... well anyway, if I didn't say it, she was thinking it, because she's answered my prayers and completely splurged on delicious, wonderful, beautiful patterns to adorn yourself with.

I tried to do a simple, straight forward photoshoot, and ended up loving these pictures so much I had to edit them... art made me do it! The tattoos shown up at the top are the "Sin's Henna" set above, tinted white to stand out against Nomine's black Aether skin. So far... I can't take them off. Sinjun Soyer made them as a personal set, and got too many requests to buy that she simply had to put them out for sale. And you can see why... the back is incredible, definitely my favorite part, and the front has beautiful curling lines, as well as a rather daring pair of nipple tattoos... Very daring, a bit daring than I was feeling, hence you have to deal with the pretty back. But it's truly stunning. The second tattoo shown right above is simply called "Celestial", which I layered with Sin's celtic armband tattoos. They're all included on as many clothing layers as allowed too so feel free to layer your heart out ^.^

All of them come in an incredibly unique and authentic looking shade of washed out gray, so you really feel like they've been on your skin. Anyone who's worn henna or tattoos knows that tattoos deefinitely don't stay black for long. Sh also uses an absolutely beautiful variance of dark and light to create emphasis for certain strokes... obviously you see that I can't gush enough. BUT there is a little rain cloud...My favorite tattoos are the ones that cover the entire body, and a lot of times that includes the neck... Something that became painfully obvious is that Sinjun Soyer wears chokers. There's a very strong "t-shirt" line where the shirt mesh ends on the neck for many of her top tattoos (but the seams from shirt to pant layers are done very nicely). I don't like looking like I have a tattoo collar, but since all of the tattoos are mod (and did I mention tintable!?), a quick slip of the slider can create a more natural fade down the neck.


I frankly don't care if you don't like tattoos IRL, I mean they're painful, they're permanent, most of them are ugly... but that means you have absolutely no excuses to not like these ^_^ They're gorgeous, they make YOU look gorgeous, painless, easily swapped out for new ones, and even modest little arm bands are perfectly decent for formal occasions...

Speaking as normally the most modest digital lady around... I command you to celebrate your skin <3

SLurl: "Etch'D"
Shown: Sin's Henna, Celestial... Hair by DK "Cheyenne", and Kin "Ash". Black skin by Nomine

Boneflower

I've been to Temenos Island. I've even bought one of Zoe Llewlyn's endlessly popular spotted Neko skins. But I never really fell in love with her as a skin maker until now.

Her skin series that isn't neko is called Boneflower. It seemed pretty humdrum to me at first, some interesting eyeshadows, doot do do, nothing that jumped out and said "you HAVE to buy me", and then I saw a certain fashcon notice announcing the opening of a new Boneflower series, "Whispers of Night". Hmm, goth skins, I'll check out the picture... and got my butt over there as fast as I could teleport. I saw yummies.


The eye liner is what got me, the exotic cheetah look, or the hint of the eye of ra, or maybe because if I wore the makeup I did on Second Life I'd need another room in my apartment for kohl and eyeliner. She offered up a couple more "natural" goth looks (yeah, "huh?") that have just the tail of the eyeliner or just the dark shading around the eyes, but since I was the one payin' for 'em, I got me my favorites...These are the twilight and gloom shadows, and the yummy yummy lip colors. My favorite is the one on the right, which is the "Lost Stalker" style. It's fantasy without crossing the line over into inappropriate for everyday wear, which is the line I like to walk ^.^

I buy skins for the makeup, but if you're interested in the bits, I'm going to say that it has a very lovely kitty, which is trimmed and comes only in black, but it looks actually very soft O.o Don't believe me? Try a demo, lol. The perfect word for the body shading is subtle. The skin comes in white, and whiter, and this is the white version. As quite the connesieur of pale skins, I can say that this skin has a nice "believable" pale without being completely blinding, and the shading gives some nice definition without being overly athletic or low resolution. The feet are a little blurry, but only compared to skins that pay them a lot of attention. The nails on both the hands and feet are a nice, natural clear polish, and the breasts have subtle highlights, rather than looking like they've been cut and pasted from some porn star's skin. There is something a little odd though, that the nipples are very light... I don't know about your nipples, but certainly the ones I've seen are darker than that in comparison to the skin... But hey, if you're wearing a shear shirt, you probably won't need pasties!

The skins are what got me in there, but Zoe's new clothing line of Broken is what made me need to go back and withdraw some cash from the bank.

Despite my lack of love for the overly goth, (aka, crosses and spikes), the detail and love that went into the brocade on that corset, and the fact that Zoe obviously knows that "corset" doesn't automatically equal "rack" made me buckle (sorry about the pun ;). This is the "Cross Corset" in "Purgatory", which I assume means black. It also comes with very subtle shading in greens, reds, purples and gold, but the dominating color in all of them is the black background. The quality of her clothing actually surprised me! It's not the most ridonculously clear, but the resolution is definitely better than most gothic clothing out there and the way the silk shines completely gets me. It's only 90L for each color! I'm also wearing the "Lucifer" set, which includes this wonderful trench coat in a bunch of different versions, a vest with prim laces, big chunky clunky boots, the pants with a clothing layer belt (doesn't look clothing layer does it? O.o) gloves, and a white undershirt. I'm only wearing the coat, pants and gloves, but believe me, I wasn't expecting it to be so worth the 800L it is to buy the whole set but it is.

Oh! And while you're browsing, don't miss the beautiful and much needed sheer shirts, in a whole bunch of different patterns. They are tres AFI, with long sleeves and a high collar, and they look good on both men and women. But since I have a thing in both IRL and SL about clothing that touches the neck, I didn't buy any myself, but the price is certainly not what stopped me, the sheer shirts are 90L each.

SLurl: "Temenos Island"

Whispers Of Night Skins in "Deathly", Gloom and Twilight shadows 700L per skin
Broken clothing: Lucifer set 800L, cross corset 90L
Worn with Symon hair by Deviant Kitties in black and white

Feline Groovy

I've been a bit busy tending to things in the real world, as sometimes happens, and so since I don't have any new releases, I'd like to show my latest fun thing...

After Bast, I've been feline groovy. After a chance encounter shopping around Japanese sims, I met the delicious Selos Dae, who just happens to make the most unique skins I've seen in a while...

She happens to own the burgeoning little store that goes by the name of "TRAP" that's found on the Deviant Kitties sim. She has a rather small selection, currently just this Neko skin, its male counterpart, and the Elven series of male skins. They all come in fun, wild shades as well as more subtle versions, but the colors are anything but natural. The male skins are also surprisingly unisex, as Selos is one of the very few skin makers I've found who believes in quite a different ideal of male beauty. You'll find no overdone six packs and chiseled pecs here.


As you can see, these elven skins certainly come in a rainbow of color! And have some super sexy well defined collar bones, with dramatic and yummy man shading. Her skins, as I've said, are very unique, and she has a way of making the shading on the face super dark and then very light in some areas, which definitely makes certain features pop (the EYES!) and give a perfectly normal looking avi a subhuman twist.

I ALSO wanted to blog Hybrid's simply monumental sale. For people who haven't heard, Hybrid's creator Philo Sion set all of her inventory at half price on Monday, including a raffle for one lucky winner to get the entire contents of the store. The sale was to benefit her good friend's 27 year old boyfriend who had a stroke. The sale is over now, but some accessories are still discounted and there's still a collection box for those who want to help. Hybrid is THE Neko store, and the store for those who walk the line between human and furry. I can't say normally I'd shop there, but their ears are really cute, (as you can see from the first picture). The ears are even controlled by HUD, as is the tail! (see it twitching up there?) so that even if you aren't into the Neko culture, it's still a super fun toy. My absolute favorite find from there though, is something absolutely fabulous which I think will bring a smile to all but the coldest of hearts...



A PET PEEVE. That's right, this little guy is a pet peeve, because everyone has one. This little mosquito-like critter sits on your shoulder, and doesn't do squat except be the virtual material symbol for an ingrown and universal trait of humanity. And no, he doesn't suck your blood. He's meant to be your pet more than your peeve. He's only 75L at Hybrid, and believe me, he's a steal just for cuteness factor.

I can't sign off without saying something really quick about my HAIR! Yes, I bet you were looking at it and going "ooo that totally goes with Nekoness..." because it does. It comes from the funky and unique "Electro Kitty" store found in the Ikebukuro sim run by Elec Tone. She only carries two different hairstyles, but they're both absolutely delicious and you simply have to get both to encourage her to make more.

SLurl:"TRAP Skins"
SLurl:"**Hybrid** Street"
SLurl:"Elektro Kitty"

Tattoos by Bare Rose: "Chakra Bonji"
Corset Top by DE Designs: "Somber"
Pants by Curious Kitties: "Nayan" in Black and White
Hair by Elektro Kitty: "Darling" 100L per color
Skin by TRAP: "Neko Purple 2 Female" 700L per color
Shoulder Pet by Hybrid: "Pet Peeve" 75L
Ears and Tail by Hybrid: "Neko Starter Set" 550L
Eyes by Hybrid: "Cat Eyes" 95L for all colors!

Ohhhh Miriel...

Ginny Talamasca: Clothes, Robbie Dingo: Music, Munchflower Zaius: Skins, Miriel Enfield.... the fashionista brain goes "jewelry!" and of course you'd be correct. And yet, this multi-faceted jewel of a designer goes waaay beyond just jewelry. While I was enjoying the Linden Lifestyles ball, I saw a beautiful dress on a lovely young lady and thought "ooo, how did I miss that one?" and asked her politely where she got it. Her name seemed familiar, and yet when she said "Oh, I made it" I realized I had most certainly never known her for her work. And so, right after I changed out of my ball gown I headed over to Miriel Enfield's store in Nouveau to see how on earth I could have missed her.


First, being who I am and adoring prim work to the point of obsession, the first thing I saw were stained glass windows that made me want to IM her and demand she give them to me at blunderbuss point. PRIM STAINED GLASS, that's right, carefully aligned, perfectly rotated, gracefully used torii formed prim stained glass built to fit a texture for the colors. The store is modest, sweet and simple, with minimal decor and a vintage feel. Her vendors were a little confusing to get used to, but once I realized how they worked they were simple and easy to use. I was wondering where and how I put my money in, but touch menu's came to my rescue to ask me what metal or stone I wanted, and whether I wanted her jewelry to be copy or transfer. I bought myself some yummies, and then left because I knew if I stayed I'd be naughty and I was trying to save some cash.

But then Miriel headed me off, and pretty much trapped me in her store, because today, she made a daring (and very popular) move by pulling a Torrid, and announcing that ALL of her everyday casual jewelry styles and her retro dress were going to be FIFTY LINDENS or UNDER.

Now, someone had given me a Retro Dress a while back as a gift, and it was in Amber and well... if you know me, you know I don't like Amber. Even if you don't know me, you assume. So I have to say I didn't wear it... but the different colors of this dress... every single color has a personality, and while maybe the Amber and me didn't get along, pretty much every other one did. You want to be badass but cute? Try it in black. You want to be sweet and innocent and enjoying a spring breeze? Try the white. You want to be mysterious, feminine and chic? Try the purple...
Ok, so yeah those are my three favorite colors and constitute the whole of my wardrobe. But I was able to buy all SIXTEEN colors for.... drum roll please....

140 Lindens.

And truly, the keyword for this dress is versatile. as you can see by the picture, the dress is neutral enough that it is completely changed by the accessories, and you really only need one or two. An undershirt (since the dress is on a jacket layer) is a super easy way to add another color, and every woman knows that shoes change the mood of an outfit in seconds. Gosh, and I'm so busy gushing I forgot to mention what wonderful, subtle quality it is. Miriel is one of the only folks I've found to add little seams, darts, puckers, and wrinkles with incredible deftness, those little flaws that add such realism to the unreal. Yes, there are wonderful shaders out there and those that mind their seams (and I've definitely shown my appreciation in the monetary sense)... but have you ever seen a little pucker like this around your lovely digital breast?

If you need to, open the picture in a new tab so you can see properly. This is the incredibly beautiful and underplayed Harem Rose silks, that even though I can't say I like the skirt much, I am right now wearing as my underwear. The shading is subtle, the "cloth" looks like its cupping and holding my digibewbies without making it look as if it is about to tear apart at the seams or stretch like spandex.
There is a little bit of a down side to all this glory though, I feel obligated to say that the edges, right around the edge of the chest area to the retro dress, and when you zoom up close to the silver edging on the above, it runs a bit jagged where it stretches across the mesh of the avatar. From far away you don't see a thing, but for close ups, it did get noticeable. It's a small thing that I felt obligated to share, but really it didn't dampen my enjoyment of these outfits in the slightest. She only has four outfits out at the moment, the other two not shown are Flora, a simple sheath dress in 9 colors, and Echo, an incredibly beautiful empire waist gown (there should be more!) with a gradient, that comes in seventeen different colors, all of them beautiful, and it happens to be the gown that got me over to her store in the first place.


But I'm not done yet. Ohhhh no. Aside from picking up every single casual jewelry style she had, including hair pins, necklaces, and matching earrings and not paying more than 400L for all of it, I ended up finding a room... a room full of eyes.

And damn. I've found my eyes. Everybody searches for a while to find the eyes that are Theirs, just like they look for Their Skin that will define their shape in that perfect way, and the eyes aren't any different. The Eyes Have It, right?



Never a truer word. Miriel, again I say it, is such a multi-faceted creator on SL. While some content creators *coughMEcough* never stray far from their beloved medium, Miriel excels in prim work, textures, AND scripts, for the simple and elegant vending scripts turned out to be all her own sweat and blood. Is there anything this woman can't do? (apparently animation, but never say never). So anyway, back to the eyes. These are actually purposely made as smaller iris eyes, so that we who do not wish to walk the path of anime eyes or stylized eyes can look realistic, without it looking like our irises are taking up a third of our head. My being an Asian avi, and loving the delicate and exotic look of the low lids, made me instantly fall in love. Aside from being a nice and rarely seen size, they are clear, three dimensional, and have a beautiful shine. For the first time I can say that a virtual pair of eyes looks healthy, and she knows how to make them look real without making us all bloodshot (oh, god, the bane of glamour photography is "real" bloodshot eyes). So I have officially found my eyes, in any number of the vibrant and rich colors she offers.

SLurl: "Miriel: Jewelry, Clothing, Eyes"

Little Retro Dress - 50L for one color, 140L for 16 ("Symon" Hair by Deviant Kitties, L&E "Signature Sandals", Shiny Things "Old Lace Up Boots" "Madame Rose Shirt" by B@R, "Intent" boots by Prim Seduction)
Harem Rose - 300 for one color in gold and silver trim, 800 for collection of 9 colors (shown in "jet, silver")
Various Eyes - 50L, 125 for a pack of four. Sold by theme of color (naturals, pale naturals, bicolors, etc) From left to right: Indigo, Hummingbird, Blue Opal, Gray and Forest (shown with Schador Head Wrap, a new release I swear I'll get to)

Along Came Polly

Polly Pavlova gets the "Encouraging a Fledgling Blogger" award, for merits I shall try to express. Dear Polly, when I made random comment in Linden Lifestyles saying her current release didn't seem formal, she IM'd me asking for my opinion and my advice! I'm happy to say I was able to give her some advice that she used in her fairy tale confection, "Fairy Tale Fantasy", and that was when I told her I was starting a blog. Well, when release day came around she sent me a review package, and so she's become the first designer ever to send me something specifically for review. Bless her little designer heart, she even sent me a black one.




As you can see, it's similar to wearing an enormous yummy cupcake. The dress comes in a variety of pastel colors as well as black such as in lavender (shown), mint, pink, and baby blue. While her other dress might not have felt formal to me, this one does despite the pastels, and I feel as if I am either going to a prom in the 1800's or I should be living in a white shining castle waiting for a man to come sweep me off my feet! Speaking of sweeping... I have to say, something I wasn't expecting from this dress was the best flexi movement I've ever seen. It definitely could be because the flexi starts lower and doesn't need to extend all the way from the hip (due to all the swags and bustles),but it gently swishes. I feel like I am gently dusting the floor as I walk, not drowning in an octopus or tripping over a jelly fish or even acting as a flagpole, which is what a lot of flexi dresses end up as. I wish I could capture it in a picture, but it's so subtle as to be just like a real dress... and aside from Marilyn Monroe, real dresses are very unlikely to be caught moving. The only thing that keeps it from being absolutely perfect, is that as I move I can see the flexi from the front trying to escape out the back, but a little tweaking of tension and gravity fixed that.

For the detailing... I have to admit it doesn't live up to my insanely high bar for hand drawn clothing, but I can say safely it does live up to many others' idea of well textured clothing. The texture on the bodice is crisp and high resolution, and while one of the seams is crooked on the side, it's very unnoticeable with the arm poof. In fact, to check I had to shuffle through my animations to find one where I had my arms over my head. But most ladies at Cinderella's Ball don't exactly put their hands in the air, and wave them like they just don't care. The prim work on the skirt and bow and poofs is precise, even and symmetrical. A lot of care was taken on making the prim pieces even and well made, and the same color as the bodice even if it's not the same texture (difficult). I wouldn't suggest wearing this dress to a very crowded formal, as it adds up to 128 prims!

But you know, this dress has been languishing for a while in my inventory. Why now did I decide to review it? Because Polly, in her infinite patience, quietly dropped another review package on me. And these... I had to blog. And NOW. This is the "Spring Fling" Collection from "Drifting Sands", Polly's jewelry store.



As you can see, it is QUITE springy and QUITE flingy and the most delightful and delicious thing to wear with a sundress! The colors and textures are lovely, with larger than life brilliant colors that are quite vibrant, rather than dulled down like most natural-themed jewelry. The set comes in 8 variations of color, and the whole set is only 175! Not 175 per piece, but 175 for the whole set! Polly definitely shows her strength in prim work, as these are meticulously made with many layers and details in the flowers, with easy to position root prims. The Spring Fling set has a hair ornament, a bracelet, necklace and an ankle ornament, as you can see, as well as two FREEBIES!! Yes, FREEBIES!




The Freebies are the same as the hair ornament, except they come in two colors, the "Evening Medley" (shown) which has quite vibrant rich yellow, purple and red flowers, and the "Morning Medley" which comes in a softer bunch of pastel blue, white and soft pink. Even if you don't fancy spending the money (I don't see how, but there are all sorts of folk out there), definitely swing by if just for these beautiful hair flowers!!

SLurl:"The Body Politik" (@ "By Max")

Fairy Tale Fantasy Dress - 750L

SLurl:"Drifting Sands" Jewelry

Spring Fling Set - 175L (Purple Sunrise and Blue Hope shown)
Spring Fling Freebie - 1L each (Evening Medley Shown)

Also worn: HCT "Belinda" Hair in Black, Kin "Lucy" hair in Black, Nicky Ree's "Spring Fling" gown top in Black, Lassitude and Ennui Signature Sandals in Black and Silver, Nomine's China White Skin, Starley's Vogue Skin in Pure

A Touch of the Exotic... or an Uppercut of it!

Please congratulate Analise Lameth and Talyn Barrett on their grand opening of a new store on the Talana sim! They have muuuch more room to spread out and truly spread their wings, and their reputation as being THE supplier of silks for those of the Gorean inclination, or just people who think that their avatars look too warm. I've never bought anything from them before, as sometimes color selection wasn't possible for certain sets, and I didn't really want scripted silks (they are scripted to be easily removed on touch... not something I really need), but I've always admired her work, and her FashCon notice lured me in with its siren song...

There are freebie outfits and a freebie box ONLY available today, the 24th of April. And yes, all of these silks and dresses come in a a beautiful variance of color, which you won't find here since I'm black's bitch.

Their new store is remarkable, with a definite Morocco meets Agrabah feeling, with middle eastern arches and gold edging everywhere, and of course fun filials. They've neatly organized their wares by free woman fashions, weddings, party wear and of course... Silks, what Analise makes their bread and butter on. And it shows, since the silks have been set in the place of honor in a palatial and refreshingly different store.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Meela Silks, because of course I am such a sucker for black and white/black and silver, and even though I didn't quite like the chains from the bodice part, I died for the skirt.



There are some little problems, like the flexi seems a little stiff (understandable, to hold a certain shape) and the bottom alpha has just a little bit of a rim, which is easily fixed since all outfits are Copy, Mod, No Transfer, my absolute favorite permissions ^.^ I am a very, very hard person to please when it comes to details and hand drawing on clothing, so even though the mesh stretches the texture at certain points on the bodice, I still can say it's by far the best you're going to get for those who adore exotic styles.


Something else Analise isn't as famous for, is its "Free Woman" styles, based off of the Gorean class of women who cover their bodies with luscious dresses and veils for modesty. And I have to say honestly, this dress is a dream come true for me:




Please say hello to the Radiance dress. I am ADORING this bodice, with it's graceful, swooping neckline which is all too rare on SL, and its modest yet flattering amount of cleavage. I'm a sucker for bell sleeves and full skirts, and really I have been dreaming of this dress. The hand detailing on this bodice is subtle, yet painstakingly worked over in delicate beadwork, and by far worthy of some of the much bigger names in formal wear, in fact, I'd say this dress was on a par with Last Call or even Pixeldolls as far as detail. Although, if I wanted to talk about detail, I should mention the Yvie dress and just say it needs to be seen to be believed.


Also what needs to be said, is that Talyn Barrett has officially created the BEST Princess Leia interpretation silks on Second Life. It's been needed by us Femme Star Wars fans, and it has been delivered. I sent her an IM congratulating her, and sent her home with a little present:



If you want to see them, you'll have to go!

"Meela" Silks - 600L
"Radiance Gown" - 500L
"Lucy" Hair by Kin Keiko - 100L
"Embraced" Shoes by Prim Seduction - 300L
"Suleika" Headdress by Yours Truly

SLurl:Analise

Fatal Attention to Detail

He's been blogged quite a bit, despite the all too tiny selection in his modest store in Nomine. Fatal Raine, who runs a little gothic punk corner store called Legend, might just be as crazy about tiny prims as I am! In fact, I think he's worse! Referred by Mourna Biziou, I had to go and see what the fuss was about. I see piercings (ah blah, simple little things, boring boring), some wrist stuff, spikes, collars... not my style really... and then I see this little gem:



That little dragon HAS to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen on SL. His teeeny teeeeny little claws clutch a modestly animated little globe, and I have to give major props to Fatal Raine. When toruses get that small, you end up using just the very very tip of the tapered shape, and the rotations can get irritating, confusing, and darn right infuriating to work with. That little piece of adorable has got to stand testament to more time than I want to think about. But it was worth it, even if I don't wear it, I just had to HAVE it.


Legend also has a rather refreshingly unique selection of boots and shoes (small selection, but all made with love), and he encourages customers to put their own spin on his sexy, sleek textured tall boots. Legend sells the skin/shoe layer seperately from the prim heels. You pick out a boot skin, and then you pick out the type of heel you'd like to have with it. You have your choices of 6 different styles of heel, some rather outlandishly spiky, but I decided to be a little more "conservative" and go with the "bold" style, which has a nice clunky heel that I felt suited the boot I went with. It's beautifully textured, and the "Trapped" style just goes rippingly with the Ripped Top I blogged from *Torrid*. It's peekaboo, so normally you can see flesh or colored tights through it.. in this pic I'm wearing it with the Striped Fishnets in black and white from Curious Kitties and I think it couldn't look any smecksier.





And these SHOES... I don't even like backless heels!







What on earth am I doing with these! I couldn't resist them, is what... they called my name out in their siren song of black and white and scrollies. These are the "Crossbreads" in black (of course), and the laces and the little bow are just chillingly real. They also come in two different heel styles, one chunky platform and the more practical "mini" that I chose. They even have color change laces! I'd just love to see a funky "sneaker heel" done as well as this in real life... I bet it'd be comfy.


"Crossbreads" - 250L
"Trapped" Boot "skin" - 200L
"Bold" Boot Base - 50L
"Dragon's Quarry" Necklace - 300L

SLurl: "Legend: By Fatal Raine"

(Outfit: Hair by Celestial Studios "Tribal Hawk", TorridWear's Ripped Shirt, Pixel Doll's Black "Tutu Skirt", "Maori Tattoos" from InKd, Black and "White Striped Fishnets" from Curious Kitties, "Eris Jacket" by Pixel Dolls)

Torrid Bargains!

I've been there before, but I figured it was time to go back. In the recent inventory hiccups, I ended up losing my beloved Huddle, which had all of my modeling poses, ao's, you name it. Luckily and blessed be those designers who make their things copy, I had a backup empty Huddle, and folders of animations to kiss and welcome back home. A few things that I was missing though, were some of my favorite ao overrides from *TorridWear*. So it was about time that I head back there and check in.

There has been a lot of history considering Torrid Midnight's hiatus from Second Life, and the reason she's retired from fashion design. If you're wondering about the whole horrid mess, you can just google "torrid second life" and you'll learn the whole story.

Those of you who took Torrid's side in the feud will be happy to know I saw her at the Bantam Dell Bookshop for Dean Koontz's SL reading, and today when I im'ed her politely for copiable versions of her to-die-for ao and fashion poses, she was online and quite obliging. I also took the chance to give her a thanks, and pretty much bought every piece of clothing I thought I would ever wear in her store, because EVERYTHING is under 50L!!! And I mean everything!! Pants, corsets, full outfits, deliciousness! As you can see, I'm enjoying my new look:



Here's a rundown of the outfit:
*TorridWear*
Touch of Metallic Jeans
Touch of Metallic Gloves
Chiffon Open Halter

InkD "Dangerous" tattoo
Kin Keiko - "Ren" Hair in Black

And since one outfit just isn't enough:


*TorridWear*
Ripped Up Gloves
Ripped Up Pants
Ripped Up Shirt

InkD Maori Top and Bottom Tattoos
Suleika Headdress by yours truly :)

These pictures were made with her beautifully subtle and very natural stands, that give just that right amount of attitude and character to an avatar. This will also satisfy my longing and lust for perfectly detailed clothing for a nice long time... give it about 18 hours :) And please, thank and encourage Torrid to stay in business by giving her a visit ^.^

SlURL: *TorridWear* - Chartreuse

Wilted Rose

For a while it's been THE name in affordable goth, and for some reason I've never been! The generous and understanding Rose Columbia has provided us dark minded folks with a series of 1L super white skins, and 10L hair packs with 39 colors. It's extremely hard to do subtle shading on white skins, so for people who are extremely picky about what goes on to their avatar, they probably won't be too happy. There isn't much detail and there isn't much shading going on, but considering the picky will probably be willing to spend more than 1L, how could anyone complain!? And did I mention these skins are 1L?


I also am VERY happy with the cheapie hair I picked up, this is "Whispies" in black.

I also was happy to pick up a beautifully crafted and nicely proportioned silver ankh necklace, very similar to one I actually own IRL, for only 100L. Beautiful chain work, drapes nicely, and is a subtle, blingless (yay) option for those of us out there who like to be gothic without screaming it from the hills.

Rose Columbia's store is nicely remodeled, with an absolute must-visit Freebie room, that includes the above mentioned 1L skins, and also the wares of the now sadly retired Sarabi Spatula, a name I quite fondly remember from my newbie days of yore. Her funky and original jewelry is now available at discount in the newbie room(which includes kiwi slice earrings and earrings shaped like lucky chairs).

Wilted Rose also has a lovely collection of inexpensive wings and scarves and even top hats and masks! Although of course, I have to say that I still don't have competition for my masks, and the top hats are inexpensive alternatives to mine, if you're not.. *sniffs* happy with mine!

SlURL: Wilted Rose - Bloom County

As smooth as a Sine Wave

I have found dances that are sublime. They are beyond smooth, they are beyond real, they bring your avatar to life before your eyes. I've permanently been spoiled and now no other dance will ever be good enough.

Sine Wave Animations is run by Easy Babcock and something tells me he has a motion capturing program because I don't know how he did it, otherwise. He has a modest selection of about 20-30 dances, all of which loop flawlessly and are meant for a single person. Most of the dances are definitely intended for women, but men who are comfortable doing more than shuffling their feet on the dance floor will find most of them delightful as well. Well, some of them.

I captured some stunning pictures of the beautiful, natural poses these dances put you in, all of which look like reality has been altered. Below are pictures from two dances called "Marscapone" and "liquid persia" respectively.






The store itself is a tiny part of Sine Wave Island, and is rather reminiscent of a trippy Andy Warhol studio. It's usually occupied by at least 8 other people, all of whom are raving about the dances, and spending a good ten minutes on each of the demo pads. I'd like to put in a warning: that the vendors can be changed by other people, and that I had the misfortune of having it changed on me right as I was paying for a different dance. Luckily, every single one of these dances is worth buying.

Each dance is no mod/no copy/transfer, and 350, 250 or 150L. When wanting to go on a shopping spree, this place could definitely get expensive. The store is definitely equal to an expert, masterful confectionary, where you know every single chocolate in there is sinfully delicious, but you have to pick and savor the few that you are going to lavish yourself with. Because make no mistakes, this is the good stuff.

The Skinny on Nomine

For my first post I'd like to deliver some extremely crucial news to the gothic world. If you haven't heard already, the delightful Munchflower Zaius has released her new skins. They're edgier, more original and more unique than the older skins, with a variety of makeup for every character you might feel the need to play in Second Life.

My personal favorite is the Punk Bindhi in her China White skin tone.

With these new skins, Nomine continues its domination of the pale skin market, and rightfully so. But Munchflower has also thrown down the gauntlet on beach babe skin designer Ambyance2 Anubis of Naughty Island skins with her new Latte and Fawn skins, which far outstrip her former line (which had a tendency to be a little too yellow). Her new skins have definitely remedied this, and definitely have that natural glow. Don't worry if you're not into the more exotic styles, she still has her more classic skins, such as this "Naturals - Pinup" in Dark Fawn.



As always, the seams are immaculate, aside from the usual head seam up the back of the bald head. At 700L per makeup style, gobbling up every one of your favorites might get a little steep. But considering the quality of the work you're getting, and the time involved, it's well worth it. Nomine continues to be the only place I buy my skins, because I just can't get enough of them.