Vanity Universe 2009 Skin Fair organisers ejecting avatars on suspicion of ‘wearing stolen skin’

A member of one of my SL groups (Fashion Emergency), Sun Marseille, a visitor to the skin fair, was ejected by Nadja Baxter, one of the organisers. She had no idea why, and so sent an IM to Nadja asking why; she was told ‘you’re wearing a stolen skin’. A log of Sun’s conversation with Nadja Baxter is reproduced below:

[17:30] Sun Marseille: why did you eject me?
[17:30] Nadja Baxter: your wear a stolen skin
[17:31] Sun Marseille: nniumm no
[17:31] Sun Marseille: dont be ridiculous
[17:37] Sun Marseille: how do you know what skin im wearing and who are you to boot me without asking me first?
[17:38] Nadja Baxter: sorry i have not time for people like you
[17:39] Nadja Baxter: buy your skins from the original creator and you are wellcome
[17:40] Sun Marseille: are you nuts??
[17:49] Nadja Baxter: ask to hwher you bought this skin ?
[17:50] Nadja Baxter: no answer ?
[17:50] Nadja Baxter: no answer ?
[17:54] Nadja Baxter: so where you bought this skin?
[17:56] Sun Marseille: little late to ask me now.. isnt it?
[17:56] Nadja Baxter: is it a secret
[17:57] Sun Marseille: not at all
[17:57] Nadja Baxter: you are very wellcome
[17:57] Nadja Baxter: but whre you buy this shin ?
[17:58] Sun Marseille: im sorry .. but you severly disrespected me.. if you had asked me BEFORE kicking me out .. I would have been nice
[17:59] Nadja Baxter: hum yes that can bee

The skin in question was bought from Le Mode ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Turnip/56/144/3001 ), created by Milla Crystal.

When contacted, Nadja Baxter declined to comment.

UPDATE: Nadja Baxter issued an apology; the chat log of this is below:

[18:12]  Nadja Baxter: iok i sse you buy from a creator
[18:12]  Nadja Baxter: so i  apology.
[18:13]  Nadja Baxter: you are wellcome at the fair
[18:14]  Nadja Baxter: it is strange for the customuers what is stolen at a skin

Even with the apology, this sort of behaviour on the part of an event organiser is extremely questionable, in my opinion; one hopes that she won’t be quite so precipitous in the future.

Sun Marseille wearing the Le Mode skin Nadja Baxter called 'stolen'

COCO Gift, Maitreya Hair, and LAQ Boots

This will be a short & sweet post because it’s nearly my bedtime. 

One of my favorite stores, Coco, just announced a new group gift tonight.  It’s a cute black turtleneck!  It comes with two different sized collar prim attachments, and sleeve attachments.  Clothing is provided on all layers so that you can opt to wear it untucked as I’m wearing it in the pic below, or you can go with the shirt + underpants options to wear it tucked.

I figured my new Charli hair from Maitreya would go nicely with it, as well as the new Midcut boots from LAQ. The boots from LAQ are beautifully textured and come in a bunch of colors, I think my favorites are beige and olive.

You can click the images to see larger versions.

Oh, and one more thing before I end this post… is Lost Thereian back to creating new items for Naughty Designs?  I paid a visit recently and came across some fringed boots vendors that look really cute but I haven’t picked up any (yet).  They were in a new building that I could swear wasn’t there a month or so ago when I last visited, along with a bunch of tops and sweaters that are sorted by color:

I don’t know exactly how long these items have been out but I’m guessing they haven’t been there for too long.  The sim looks like it’s still undergoing extensive redesign, the parking lot was floating up in the air. :p

Hair – Maitreya Charli
Skin – LAQ Trisha
Sweater – COCO Group Gift Turtleneck sweater
Skirt – LAQ blue jeans skirt
Shoes – LAQ Midcut boots black

Look, Ma… no lag! Blue Mars Meet & Greet

On October 14, 2009, 9:30 Hawaii Standard Time, Blue Mars Staff and Beta testers had a little get together at Beach City.

I’m pretty sure that most SL residents have heard what Blue Mars is by now, but for the benefit of those who haven’t who might be looking at this post, I’ll just swipe a sentence from the website:

Blue Mars is a free to play massively multiplayer virtual world made of an expanding set of independently operated cities featuring a wide range of entertainment, education, and business opportunities. Register today to get an early look at our open beta and the future of virtual worlds.

In some ways BM is like SL, and in a LOT of other ways, it’s not like SL.  It’s also very much in Beta, so a lot of the client’s features are still being refined.  Beta testers are encouraged to participate in the BM forums to offer feedback, suggestions, and of course report bugs.

But anyway, back to the meet and greet!  Here’s a short video I took; I took it right when everyone was busy making their avs walk or run in circles as a little experiment suggested by Glenn.

There were a lot of avs present, as you can see from the screenshots and video.  But you know what wasn’t present?  Lag!  I’m intimately acquainted with SL lag, and I know that when you’ve got a sim with 35 or more avatars on it, lag is pretty much unavoidable.  It seems BM can really handle a crowd; it was mentioned during the conversation at the get-together that they’ve successfully tested 1,000 avatar concurrency on a sim.

Lots of people were saying they want to see the chat bubbles go the way of the dodo bird, or at least be given the ability to toggle them off.  I personally have mixed feelings on this.  I agree that the chat bubbles are annoying, but the chat history is in need of some improvement in the usability department so until they get that straightened out, I actually find the chat bubbles helpful, albeit annoying to look at.

It was also pretty much unanimously agreed (has been for some time on the forums, actually) that we need names to appear in association with avatars.  You basically don’t know what av is standing in front of you until they actually say something in chat.

Some other tidbits that came up during the meet & greet’s discussion:  we found out that a lot of the users present at our little assembly have 64 bit systems, the BM staff have been testing streaming media, BM is updated with patches and they’re looking at doing these patches in increments so as to make it painless for users, and there was talk of testing solutions for slower PCs.

I’m glad I was able to make this meet and greet, and hopefully I’ll be able to participate in future ones, too.  My guess is that they’re going to try and stagger the times to accommodate people from all over the world, though, so we’ll see!

And since we’re on the subject of Blue Mars, here’s a couple more vids and screenshots.  I love the look of the ocean in BM (These are raw screenshots straight out of BM.)

You can see more of my Blue Mars shots by checking out my Blue Mars collection on flickr.

LAQ Glow Carina

LAQ released a new Glow skin a little while ago, and her name is Carina   Carina is actually one of the faces from the original Portrait collection, but given the “Glow” treatment — updated body, skin and facial features that are enhanced with a healthy “glow”, and sharpened details.  The result?  A skin that has a natural look and fresh feel to it.

Carina is available in three skintones, with eight makeups for each.  Each makeup has a bald version, and a hairbase version for wearing with certain “hairbase” hairstyles from LAQ.

Visit LAQ to try out the Carina skin demos!

Other credits…
>> in the fair tone:
hair – LAQ Imani
outfit – Last Call Femme Fatale
heels – Maitreya Gold Salience
Shot at Mont Saint Michel sim.

>> in the peach tone:
hair – Argrace Baseball Cap relaxed ponytail
lingerie – insolence clara
shoes – UBU Drunks
jacket – COCO bomber jacket
tank – fri.day cream basic cami
Shot at the Harold sim.

>> in the nougat tone:
hair – Truth Belinda
lingerie – Blowpop Jolene
Shot at private location.

Return of a classic favorite: LAQ Glow Lacie

Well, I meant to blog about the re-release of the Lacie skins at LAQ as Glow skins a while ago now, but life has been rather hectic over the past week.  (Just thinking about how crazy things were is making me tired again!)  Better late than never, though, right? 

The Lacie skins are available in four skintones, and each skintone comes with eight makeups.  You get two versions of each makeup:  bald, and hairbase for wearing with certain hairstyles.  There’s a lot of pretty details on Lacie, but the part I love about this particular skin most are her eyes:  she has deep set eyes that are framed by nicely done brows that aren’t too thick or too thin, but just right.

Anyway, enough talk… let’s just get on to the pics

You can click on the images above to see (much) larger versions of them on my flickr stream. Visit the Laqroki sim (Laqroki 154, 67, 23) to try demos of the skins.

On a side note, I never thought I’d see the day where I’d drop over 1k on a single pair of shoes in SL. Ever. But omg, I did! I splurged on a pair of Maitreya Gold shoes and I am 100% free of buyer’s remorse. These shoes boast prim toes/feet and the designers included skin presets/notes so that you can match them to most major designer skins. They’re fabulous so I *had* to show them in one of my pics <3

Other credits… >> in the milky tone image
Hair – LAQ Claudia
Top – fri.day basic cami
Shorts – fri.day denim shorts

>> in the fair tone image:
Hair – Exile Voodoo
Dress – LeeZu freebie
Shoes – Maitreya Gold Salience

>> in the peach tone image:
Hair – 69 Q.B.
Jacket – Aoharu Black short jean jacket
Bikini – Last Call Yelena gold bikini
Tattoo – Aitui Fuse
Jeans – Gearshift Maverick jeans

>> in the nougat tone image:
Hair – LAQ Imani
Top – Last Call Tatienne lacy shirt
Bag – =E.M.A.=

LAQ Glow Jessica skins

Mallory Cowen of LAQ (a.k.a. Laqroki) has released her latest installment in the Glow Skins series. Say hello to the beautiful Jessica Glow Jessica skins come in four different skintones. For each skintone, you get a pack of eight makeups. For each makeup, you get two brow color options, blonde and brown.

And now, on to the pics! I’ll refrain from writing too much, and will just let the pics do the talking. Larger versions of these images are on my flickrstream, and there will be NSFW pics after the cut:

I’ll admit, the most important thing for me in a skin is the face and so that’s almost always what I focus on, but the skins in the Glow line deserve a look from head to toe.  NSFW pics to follow after the cut…

kouse’s cyrenia

Kouse’s Sanctum has a gown out named Cyrenia, and when I saw the gowns I was particularly drawn to the jewel-toned ones. Kouse has actually made the Cyrenia in fifteen colors (amethyst, blush, champagne, dawn, forest, ice, lilac, magenta, midnight, midnight gold, mint, ruby, ocean, sapphire, snow) but I’m just going to feature three colors in this post: amethyst, magenta, and ruby.

Here’s the amethyst version:

This is the magenta version. I wanted to show the movement of the gown, too:

My favorite color is a deep, rich red, or an almost blood-red, and Kouse captured that with her ruby version of the Cyrenia gown:

Included with every gown is a jeweled veil. The gems are actually scripted so that you can change the gem texture; in the image below I’ve showcased the amethyst, citrine, sapphire, zoicite (you can click on the images to view larger versions on my flickrstream):

Here’s the entire list of gem textures that the veils come with: amethyst, ametrine, aquamarine, canary, citrine, diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire, zoicite, and onyx.  Please note, the veils are no modify but you can reposition them.  I chose to wear my September hair from Laqroki to go with the veils, since the long parted bangs show off the forehead area nicely, and the long, flowing length of the style goes nicely with the romantic feel of the gowns.

I wanted to take my pics in a location appropriate for this kind of dress, so I’d headed to the Taure Ru sim.  Ends up you can’t really see Taure Ru in my pics, lol, because of the way I ended up cropping them.  Oh, well!  If you haven’t been there, though, you should pay a visit!  It’s pretty   Just be sure to read their rules for visiting and dress appropriately; the rules are not a long read nor are they difficult to adhere to.

Other credits…
Skin – Laqroki Kira
Hair – Laqroki September
Eyes – Exodi Twilight

Mon Amie’s Active Summer Girl!

Mon Amie cafe on the Omotesando sim has a really cute limited release called “Active Summer Girl”.  It’s a collaboration between Amerie’s Naughty, Uw.st (Uncleweb Studio), and Kana-Na.  The pictures below feature the Amerie’s Naughty S&S T-dress, and the Uw.st Giselle hair in Angel shine&mesh pink.

The hair is copy/mod, and the dress comes with two options for the top half:  you can wear the prim version, or the non-prim version.  This allows you to opt for the body-hugging, snug look or the more blouson look of the prim version.

To see a sample of what the Kana-Na limited edition skin looks like, you can visit Amika Jewell’s flickrstream… or, just visit Mon Amie and check out the free demos. ^_^

When I saw the dress and hair, it immediately make me think, “Ooooh KEWT!” and I knew I wanted to play around with this look a lot!  I ended up putting together a short, silly dance music video with a song that’s been stuck in my head for the past couple of weeks.  Most of it was shot at Photon Pink’s sim.  I pretty much fell in love with Photon’s sim!  It’s whimsical and crazy colorful, and should be on your list of places to visit if you haven’t already been there.

Anyway, here’s my vid

Other credits…
Periquita Wrap me up Dolly (Crazy Barbie Pink)
In video: Pink Fuel Raine skin (older group gift, no longer available)
In images: Rockberry skin (Bunny Hop Hunt freebie)
Pink Fuel Star Lollipop
Poetic Color Eyes (Bunny Hop Hunt freebie)
Poses in first image by Mela’s

fri.day’s just around the corner

I was going to save this post for tonight, but, surprise!  If you are one of the people who had the foresight to join the fri.day update group while it was still in open enrollment, then you can already get onto the sim! I personally haven’t visited the sim yet, I’ll probably go tonight after I’m done with real life work and stuff.  But!  Before I flit off into the busy day, I’m going to get my fri.day post out

It became readily apparent from the moment I opened the review pack that the designers at fri.day understand that women in SL want clothing basics that come with loads of options.  It was all building block type clothing pieces — cardigan, cami/tank, trousers, shorts, pumps, flats, tee.  Just the cardigan alone came with three different sleeve options (long, rolled, and scrunched) and on two layers (jacket and shirt).  To help you get started, they also include styling notecards with pictures that show examples of how their clothing may be worn.

The piece that grabbed my attention almost immediately were the basic denim shorts.  The texturing is nicely done, but what really impressed me were the cuff prims — the texture on them looks really good, and the sculpts are excellent.  I’ve had other shorts in the past where the prims don’t really adhere to my avi’s thigh shape, but these fit very nicely.  The little loop on the side adds interesting detail.

One of the great things about having basic pieces, of course, is their inherent versatility. You can take the different clothing articles and then it’s up to you, your imagination, and your inventory of accessories as to what sorts of looks you’ll put together.  I wore the cami with the cardigan, trousers, and flats to make up a low-key outfit that’s appropriate for maybe a business meeting, and then wore it by itself with the shorts for a casual low-prim look.

In addition to a clothing line that features boatloads of wearability options, fri.day also offers hairstyles. The review pack came with a sculpted updo named Allison.  I chose to wear it in the Jealous Red color because I liked the name :p  To complete my redhead look, I busted out my Laqroki April skin.  (The hair in the picture with lots of cleavage is a freebie from Truth :p )

Gogo posted some nice pictures of the pumps and flats offered by fri.day, which you can see here.  I’m liking the shape and texture of the flats a lot so I’m probably going to check them out and see what other colors they’re available in.  As for the pumps, Roslin Petion of 5th & Oxford said it best on plurk; she pointed out how the arch and height on the side of the shoe are well-crafted and make for a classy high heel!  So much so that it boggles her mind, lol.  ^_^

See you at fri.day on Friday! 

Other credits…
Skin – Laqroki April
Hair – Truth Jess, Laqroki Radiant F02
Eyes – Exodi Twilight
Navel piercing – Mela’s
Necklace – Sable Rose Jewelry
Glasses – Nea-ban
All pictures were shot at the beautiful Alirium Gardens.

blowpop felice & jolene

I’ve been somewhat remiss about blogging this past week due to a busy first life and just general tiredness, but now I’m ready to pick up where I left off!  I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’m really wanting to share on my blog, and topping my list are more delicious skimpy things from Annyka Bekkers of Blowpop.

Blowpop’s Felice is one smoking hot little number that may be worn either as a cami and panties set, or as a slinky, snug slipdress.  It was pretty much love at first sight for me when I saw the shading, highlighting, and creases in the texturing on these pieces.  They’re designed in such a way so that your curves are given some extra oomph — few dresses will make your av’s butt look this good, lol.  I was particularly impressed with how Annyka made the leopard print pattern on the textures line up at the seam along the waist for the slipdress; the spots line up perfect so that you forget that it’s actually composed of two separate clothing layers.

The skirt prim panels for the slipdress are among the best I’ve seen, too.  The hem of the dress features a scalloped lace edge (also present along the waistband of the panties).  Normally this sort of thing would take me at least a couple minutes of editing to get prims fitted juuuuuust right, but after a mere 10 second edit the prims merged with the pants/underpants layer textures perfectly, almost as if they were meant for me <3

Leg-baring, cleavage-revealing body-hugging slipdresses like this almost always make me think of Elizabeth Taylor in some of her scenes in her bedroom from Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.  So naturally I had to bust out my short, dark, wavy Linda hairstyle from Truth and snap pics in my SL bedroom   My bed is from Instinct and what’s great about it is that it has lots of lounging about, chilling out types of poses.

Felice comes in a range of rich colors just waiting for you to eat up:

Another one of my Blowpop acquisitions is the Jolene set in the scarlet color. The stockings are purchased separately and come in different levels of sheerness. Jolene is everything a girl could want in lingerie; cute, sexy, pretty, and delicate are all words that come to mind when I take a moment to admire it. ^_^  How can you resist stuff like this?  You can’t!  :p

Other credits…
Skin – Laqroki Kira
Hair – Truth Linda, 69 Nina
Eyes – Exodi Twilight