Grid Expectations

Do you recall balking at the price of skins when you were a newbie? I definitely remember thinking, no ways am I spending that much on a mere skin for what amounts to my virtual dollie.

Hoo boy, has my tune changed since then! I’ve since seen the error in my previous way of thinking. (In fact, I am what my friend Gogo refers to as a “RaC Faithful”, hehe.) If you take any pride whatsoever in your avi’s appearance, having a good, quality skin that you are completely happy with is like having a really good makeup foundation in RL — it is absolutely necessary, utterly indispensable.

Enter my friend IsabellaMarie Oh into the picture: she has been in SL off and on for a few months now, but has never really spent much time in-world other than to rez the odd prim here and there. She was perfectly content with traipsing about in her default avi (the horror!) and the only reason why she now has a cute outfit from Last Call and a Minnu skin is because I nagged her and gave her some lindens.

Well, ever since getting her Minnu skin, Izzy has warmed up considerably to the idea of dolling up her avi. She’s remarked a couple of times on how she wouldn’t mind having different kinds of makeups, but she is still quite reluctant to blow L$1,000+ on a single skin, much less L$4,000 - 6,000 on a fatpack (even though it’s “cheaper” [per skin] that way).

So naturally, she was the first person I thought of when I saw that the new skins were put out at Another shop! These are hand-drawn skins, and they’re really quite adorable. They come in four skintones, and all of them feature freckles. The skins themselves are completely bare in the pubic area, but if that’s not your thing there are two pubic hair options that are thoughtfully provided; they go on the underpants layer and are called “full” and “landing strip”.

What really made me think of Izzy right away, however, was the price point — these are insanely affordable. Each skintone sells for only L$200, and your money gets you six (6) — yes, SIX — different makeups. Six!! Izzy ended up buying the Rd skintone, which she models in the pics below along with demos for the other three skintones:

L to R in the picture above: Sd silver, Fd nude, Ld subtle nude, Rd subtle nude

L to R in the picture above: Rd silver, Rd red, Rd pinup

L to R in the picture above: Rd nude, Rd dark, Rdº (this one’s a freebie!)

Izzy is also wearing the Phoebe hairstyle from ETD, the Indigo 2 eyes from Nomine, and a custom shape from me I am toying with the idea of offering custom shapes at my store, Mela’s; if you are at all interested in getting a custom shape done then send me an IM and we’ll talk. ^_^

Are you helping out a newbie friend with finding a nice variety of skins to play with but at a price that won’t single-handedly obliterate all of the linden dollars they’ve camped for? Or perhaps you want an affordable addition to your own collection of skins? Pay a visit to Another shop! in the Lippert sim: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lippert/75/182/179

P.s. Note to Izzy — I was just joking about your avi being horrifying, you were a pretty newbie :p

I’ll explain the title of this post in a bit, but first let’s cover the important stuff.

What do you get when you mix four women, two to three years of development experience cultivated on IMVU, and relatively new statuses on Second Life with rez-days dating back to just this past May, August, and as recently as this month?

The answer: a breath of fresh air in the SL fashion scene known as D!FF.

Earlier today when I met up with my friend Gogo, she was wearing a cool T-shirt paired with these perfect skinny jeans that she said she’d just gotten at a store called D!FF, located on the Juicy sim. Naturally, I had to go check the store out for myself. Here are some of the goodies I picked up while there (clicking on the images will take you to their respective flickr pages):

The D!FF Stripe*d Sweatars (yep, that’s how it’s spelled) come in a pack of three, colored grey, olive, and peachy. You can see the attention to detail on these off-the-shoulder sweaters — the sweater’s texture doesn’t simply abruptly start and end at the neckline and hem; rather there is a ribbed knit band that circles the shoulders, wrists, and waist.

Next up, we have the D!FF Blue-ee Darke*d Jeans, a pair of skinny dark jeans that are destined to become one of my wardrobe staples. I’m already imagining the possibilities with these jeans… Ever admired that skinny jeans + baggy shirt + big bag + pumps + messy yet ostensibly sexy hair look that Kate Moss pulls off with utter ease? These are the jeans to use to emulate that look. I’m already thinking about how these will go perfect with my Enkythings Talyn pumps, a prim scarf from perhaps BP* or Petit Ange, and a longish type of shirt/blouse like Blaze’s Boyfriend Buttondown or Last Call’s Carolynn Ruffled Shirt, or perhaps Last Call’s Starley II Mini Sweater Dress (just don’t forget to wear your dress shape with that). Top if off with Naughty Designs’ Nicole sculpty hairstyle, aviators like primOptic’s rebans, and a big bag… and you’re set!

Just as a side note, one of the girls at D!FF shared that they will be working on releasing these jeans in different colors. W00t!

You can’t have jeans without some T-shirts to go with it, of course, and D!FF has got you covered. Their tees range from the silly and playful such as the I LOVE NERDS tee and the White Rehab*d Tee, to the somewhat understated yet elegant Circle Tree*d Tees that come in red, blue, green, and grey.

I’m not sure which item I like better; the jeans or this super cute-yet-sexy Pink Bra*d Cami. Again, the attention to texturing details is evident on this piece. The slight sheen on the black bra that boldly peeks out at the top combined with the shading on the pink cami itself gives the distinct impression of a push-up bra, and the subtle shadows and highlights drawn across the cami suggests the snug fit of the material as it is stretched over the torso.

And is a store really a store in SL if it doesn’t offer at least one or two freebies? D!FF makes this cute Vintage Mustard Bow Top available for L$0, which you can grab from the sign that’s located at the entrance to the store.

UPDATE… It might be a little confusing, trying to locate the freebie. You must click on the word “free” on the sign in order to get the items, clicking on any other part of the sign will not work.

Pay a visit to D!FF in the Juicy sim to find these goodies and more: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Juicy/197/152/22

What we’re wearing:
Gogo is wearing ETD Loopy hairstyle in platinum, MinnuModel Pale SkinGloss in Rain, and her own custom shape. I’m wearing ETD Hailey hairstyle in chestnut, Celestial Studio Vogue skin in Smoky Noir Champagne, Enkythings Talyn Black pumps, Nea-Ban Retro Standard scripted glasses, and Mela’s Pacific Rose body shape.

All right, I said at the start of the post that I’d explain the title a bit more. So far, other than D!FF I’ve done only one other “awesome store alert” posting on this blog. I’ve created an Awesome Store Alert category for future alerts. Whenever I come across a store that is relatively new on the scene and I feel is deserving of more attention and should be watched for future releases, I’ll write about it and post to this category.

The Fashion Vote bit is based on the concept of dollar voting. What is dollar voting? It’s basically the idea that whenever we buy something, we are casting dollar votes for it. Here, Wikipedia explains it much better than I’m capable of doing at this time :-p Fashion Vote blog posts will simply be a review/recap of avatar appearance-related items that I’ve purchased, or “voted” for. The idea is that by sharing what I’ve bought, I’m sharing what I feel are items that are noteworthy and deserving of people’s money. Keep an eye out on this category; there will be other people contributing to this as well.

My friend Gorgeous recently turned me on to BP*, a shop owned by BettiePage Voyager. She actually has three locations, and upon visiting all three I discovered that each location has at least one exclusive item that you won’t find at the other two.

I picked up this this dress and hairstyle, which I really like a lot. You know I’m really liking an outfit/hairstyle if it stays on my avi for more than two hours :p and this ensemble made it through an entire day.

I won’t go into too much detail because I really think the pictures speak for themselves. The dungaree dress and the wild ponytail hairstyle are exceptionally well-crafted, and everywhere I went people were asking me where I got my outfit from.

Other items pictured above are freebie earrings, necklace, and slippers from Lassitude & Ennui.

BP* locations:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aoba/75/159/30
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Osaka/147/138/21
http://slurl.com/secondlife/KABUKI/140/79/28

Lassitude & Ennui:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nouveau/71/65/30