i heart fancy fairy

Violaine Villota of Fancy Fairy released three new Dia De Los Muertos skins and a Fae Witch costume.

It was love at first sight when I saw them.  <3

The outfit came with everything you see here except for the hair, eyes, and prim lashes.  (Hair is from my store, mela’s;, eyes are from Nomine; lashes are from Laqroki.)

Go visit Fancy Fairy, where the skins are either 25L for one or 3 for 50L (yes, really!) and the costume is 100L.

willow gowns from kouse’s sanctum

Kouse’s Sanctum should be a familiar name to most who like to keep up with the latest in SL fashion, especially to those who frequently dress their avis in gowns befitting fantasy RP. If you aren’t, then you really ought to acquaint yourself with Kouse Singh’s work and consider joining the Kouse’s Sanctum update group for several reasons: she is a prolific designer with a quickly growing collection of beautifully textured gowns, and she showers her group members with all sorts of love in the form of frequent group gifts, exclusive group member discounts, and secret sales at “hidden” locations.

One of Kouse’s recent releases was her Willow gown, which comes in numerous color choices. Red being my favorite color, I had to get a shot of the Willow in Blood.

It is standard for Kouse to include attachment options. In the image above, I used the regular flexi-prim sleeves and the regular skirt, which is nice and full. The Willow gown also comes with the tiara pictured. ^_^

The other sleeve option, as shown in the Sapphire image, is called “delicate” for obvious reasons. The prims are smaller and sheer, giving it a lighter look. Also shown on the Sapphire gown is the “slim” skirt option.

As I mentioned earlier, the Willow gown is available in numerous colors — ten colors, to be exact! There’s something for everyone. I do love the color red, but the Ice version is so pretty, I’d be hard pressed to say which of the two are my favorite. Here is a close-up of the Ice gown, to give a better view of the lovely texturing on the bodice and the delicate sleeves:

Visit Kouse’s Sanctum in the SeaBreeze Oasis sim (SeaBreeze Oasis 60, 59, 23).

Other credits: All skins by Laqroki, hair by Laqroki and ETD, eyes by Simtropia and Nomine, all poses by Mela’s.

Kouse’s Sanctum

I’m naughty — I had these in my inventory for a bit and only got to blogging them today! It’s just that I’ve been busy/consumed/obsessed with different projects. This post will be picture-intense, so to balance things out I will attempt to refrain from indulging in my usual verbosity. Emphasis on the word “attempt”. :p

Okay… today’s post is all about a lovely shop named Kouse’s Sanctum. I first learned about the white-haired Kouse Singh on flickr, where she posts beautiful images from the fantasy side of SL. Think Avilion, elves, and dragons. ^_^ Well, I guess I’ve been residing under a sculpted rock or something because it was quite a pleasant squee-worthy surprise to discover that Kouse has been crafting beautiful gowns.

First gown up: the magnificent Celestial Empress gown in Azure. You know, my favorite color is actually red, but show me a dress like this and I could easily forget that fact, hehe. An Evanescence song came on the radio just as I put this on, so I might’ve channeled a very slight bit of Amy Lee when accessorizing. ^^

Here is the Emerald version:

You know what’s great about gowns like Kouse’s? Pair them up with a romantic hairstyle like this one and you get a perfect showcase for your lovely shoulders, and imho there’s blessed little out there that can capture that right balance of fantasy, romance and sexiness without venturing into tramp territory. Gratuitous shoulder shot next :p

Kouse is generous. This next version of the Celestial Empress is called the Midnight Kiss, and it’s a group freebie and even comes with a tiara and necklace.

The corset lacing along the back is positively delicious. I’m a big fan of stuff that shows off the curvature of the spine; the more, the better, I say!

Another series of gowns to take a look at is the Lady Serenity. This next photo shows the Cirrus version of Lady Serenity (worn with white hair in honor of Kouse ^^):

There is a subtle difference between the two dresses in that shot above — the skirt on the right is actually somewhat transparent. All of Kouse’s gowns come with different flexi-skirt options. Some are slightly transparent, others are built larger so that you can use the outfit as a ballgown.

Lady Serenity comes in other colors, too. Here it is in Red Rose:

Again, the two skirt options:

Last but not least, the Lady LeShelle dress in Forest:

Lady LeShelle comes with two prim belts in silver and gold. I meant to show the Lady LeShelle gown in black, too, but I couldn’t find some of the prim pieces in that great ever-expanding maw that I call my inventory.

Pay a visit to Kouse’s Sanctum to pick these goodies up and to see even more of her selection: Garindan 10, 146, 263

Other credits and SLURLs after the cut. Missing SLURLs will be provided later when I log back in and can grab them; until then, the Search tool is your friend.

The White Faun

I am still in fantasy dress-up mode. ^^

This faun (or satyr if you’re an ancient Greek :p ) outfit is from a collection called Titania’s Court by Riann Maltese, which you can find right at the entrance to Fairy’s Grove Creations.

I’ve been wanting one of these faun outfits ever since I first spotted the vendor for it back in October, but as always I was gripped by indecision as I contemplated the six colors that are available. I ultimately chose the white one because I think it makes for a nice contrast with my darker human skintone. The faun avs come in six colors, ranging from black to white, with autumnal-looking reds, browns, and yellows in between.

This truly is a beautifully made ensemble. For starters, the texturing work on every single piece in this set is fantastic, from the horns to the hooves.

I was also really pleased with how the legs look. The primary leg prim is a sculpty while the tufts of fur that appear around the hooves and at the leg joints are mostly torii. The texture covering the lower torso and thighs is on the underpants layer and comes in two versions, one of which does not cover the crotch (for all you kinky fauns out there, I guess).

For your head, you get a pair of sculpted horns and sculpted ears, and a prim tail for your tush. The ears and the tail are scripted to twitch and move, much like how you’d see a neko ear attachment move.

02/25/2008 Important addendum!!:  There are two versions of each color at the vendor, one for males and one for females.  Whenever you click on a color button, a preview of the av will show in the display, so that’s one way you can tell whether you are viewing the male or female version.  You can toggle between the genders by using the male/female symbols on the left side of the vendor.

More on what I’m wearing following the jump…

Fancy Fairy by Violaine Villota

Fancy Fairy by Violaine Villota

Heads up! This post will have oodles of pics plus a very short video.

All right, so I am still on my fantasy fashion kick, where I’m wanting to dress my avatar in ways that I wouldn’t dress in RL. My last couple of posts in this series were about these crazy cute rabbit costumes from Love Soul as well as beautiful medieval-inspired gowns from Evie’s Closet. ^_^

This time, I’ve meandered into the realm of mystical fairies. The lovely Violaine Villota’s shop, Fancy Fairy, (which btw exists in RL, too!  www.fancyfairy.com) comes stocked with a great selection of fairy wings and costumes, and the range of prices you’ll find there will fit anyone’s budget.

First item we have here is the Dew Petal Steel Blue outfit. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful color and texturing of this dress, which almost makes it look as if you are wrapped in layers of diaphanous gauze. Along the chest area are dewdrops (hence the name of the outfit), and the edges of the skirt prims have this gorgeous, gossamer-frail-torn look to them, thanks to some mad-skillz alpha work. And look at those wings! They’re somewhat sheer and move nicely with you since they’re made of flexi-prims.

Like the dress but don’t want to flounce about as a fairy? The dress works great on it’s own — pair it up with some strappy heels and you’re ready to go dancing instead of fluttering. Violaine has thoughtfully included two skirt lengths, the top on multiple layers, and two glitch pants, of which at least one was modifiable (I forgot to check if the other one was modifiable, too, but it wasn’t really necessary since it was already the perfect length to go with the shorter skirt.)

Next up is the autumnal Red Leaf Fairy outfit. The layers on this outfit are simple enough — an asymmetrical system skirt (wear your dress shape unless you want to be a large-bottomed fairy ), a system shirt with a “strap” (dunno what else to call it, lol) going over one shoulder; but my goodness the artistry displayed by the textures is impressive! They’re a delicate blend of browns, siennas, burnt reds, golds, purples, dark blues… really marvelous looking stuff. Again, the alpha work along the edges of the top and the skirt are fab.

As beautiful as those textures are on the clothing pieces, however, the true crowning glory of the Red Leaf outfit are the set of wings that come with it. I know I’m totally going to sound like a broken record by the end of this post… but look at the texture! The gold highlights on the wings themselves, the highlighting along the darker spines, the mottled edges and the alpha where they’re “torn”… gotta love it. Yes, these are flexi-wings, but what makes them special is that they are scripted to flutter via (silent) voice command. I took a short video to show them fluttering:

And you know what? Fairies need lingerie, too. (‘Kay, I just made that up. :p ) This is the Champagne and Roses Fae Lingerie set, just in time for all you romantics who want to celebrate Valentine’s Day. These pretties come with a two-piece bra and panty set, sheer pink stockings, and two corsets that have a lace-up detail along the back.

I personally was super-impressed with the panties, because for crying out loud I dunno how many times I’ve had undies that did not cover up the crotch area as much as I’d like. What’s more, I saw nary a hint of the dreaded texture bleed along the inner thighs that is often associated with panties/bikini bottoms. Amazing.

And talk about comprehensive… every piece is on every layer possible, so you can mix and match these with other items to your heart’s content.

And yes, this would not be fairy lingerie if it did not have the requisite fairy wings These are flexi-prim wings and not scripted.

Fancy Fairy has an ample selection of wings to choose from, and yes, all of them are bloody gorgeous. Pictured above are the Kira Grande White Pearl Goldflexi wings and the Kira Valentine Pink Flexi Wings.

The wings come in two types: “plain” flexi-prim wings (“plain” is in quotation marks, because really, these are anything BUT bland) and scripted ones that will flutter, in a wide variety of colors to satisfy most, if not all, tastes. I believe all of the scripted wings will flutter solely by voice command, which IMHO is great because the last thing I want to do is give up more of my client’s real estate over to space-sucking HUDs.

And finally, we have the Sun Fairy outfit. Guess what! It’s only 1L. You have no excuse for not being a pretty princess fairy now. :p This outfit features flexi-prim wings, sculpted sleeve attachments, beautifully done skirt prims, an off-the-shoulder top with a rouching detail all along the flattering neckline, a gold, velvety-looking corset that’s laced up along the backside, and a some beautiful prim leaves and ribbons decorating the breast. There’s even a glove layer so that you have proper looking sleeve ends that go over your hands.

There’s lots more available at Fancy Fairy, and what’s nice is that the Dew Petal outfits, which come in all sorts of colors, can do double-duty as both fairy and evening wear. You can find the shop in the Fushida sim, or just look up Violaine Villota’s profile and check out her Picks tab where she’s got all her locations conveniently listed.

And one more thing to note — this shop is yet another great example of a RL business that takes advantage of SL in a way that shows some common sense.  If you like what Fancy Fairy offers in-world, then you might like what it has to offer in meatspace, as well.  Check out the website at fancyfairy.com ^^

What I’m Wearing…

… with the Dew Petal outfit:

Shoes – Paper Couture, strapped diamond heel
Hair – Cake, Faith silver / RaC, Princess black
Eyes – Nomine, Drakonian blue / Simtropia, brown deep
Lashes – RaC, black flirty
Skin – RaC, Akisha / RaC, Trisha
Poses – Poseur

… with the Red Leaf Fairy outfit:

Hair – RaC, Raven black
Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep
Lashes – RaC, black flirty
Skin – RaC, Trisha
Poses – Poseur, Reel Expression
Video pose – Poseur

… with the Champagne & Roses Fae Lingerie set:

Hair – Cake, Rumor black
Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep
Lashes – RaC, black flirty
Skin – RaC, Trisha
Manicure – RaC, No 04
Poses – Juicy, Reel Expression

… with the Kira flexi-prim wings:

Hair – Armidi, Ginza silver (and the lingerie set, obviously :p )

… with the Sun Fairy 1L outfit:

Hair – RaC, Raven
Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep
Lashes – RaC, black flirty
Skin – RaC, Trisha
Shoes – Shiny Things, Classic Ballet Flats antiqued
Poses – Poseur

Love Soul usagi

As I’d mentioned in my previous post, lately I’ve been wanting to take advantage of SL by dressing my av in ways I wouldn’t dress in RL.

There’s a shop that you can find in a lot of the Japanese sims called Love Soul, where they have all sorts of adorable things like hairpins, manicures, and headbands. The thing I really loved at their shop, though, were the two rabbit outfits. ^^

Yes, this costume is extremely primmy because of all the fur attachments. Under the prim attachments are plain white cover-ups on the underpants, undershirt, and socks layers. The paw attachments that go on the hands are actually sold separately, but these items are so inexpensive you probably won’t even think twice about buying those to go with the outfit.

Worth every damn prim, imo! Look at that lil cottontail and the pink pawpads.

The Love Soul MokoMoko Hand and Rabbit Wear items come in both white and black.

Full credits and SLURLs are after the cut…

I’m looking forward to Another Fundraiser ^^

Hooray! I submitted two skins for the Another Fundraiser event that’s coming up. For the makeups, I decided to look at a couple of birds.

The peacock skin has blue and green eyeshadow with a soft pink blush and lipcolor. The swan skin has an alabaster skintone to mimic the white swan’s feathers, black smoky eyeshadow inspired by the dark area around the swan’s eyes, as well as a sort of dark orange-ish matte lipcolor that echoes the color of a swan’s beak.

And, I couldn’t resist… I had to play dress-up with the skins and then take some pics. :p Oh, and check out the little machinima I did to see how the peacock feathers move, it looks really awesome — my friend Vivi is wearing them at the 3:06 mark.

Credits/SLURLs for the items used in the following (photoshopped) pics are at the end of this post:

What I’m wearing:

Peacock image: Hair – ETD, Phoebe teal; Eyes – Simtropia, blue light; Peacock feathers – Reasonable Desires, from the Peacock Showgirl set; Lingerie – House of Nyla, Peacock Feather Lingerie; Body Shape – mela’s, upcoming release; Skin – mela’s, peacock skin for Another Fundraiser

Swan image: Hair – RaC Hair, Princess black; Eyes – Nomine, Orbital 4; Dress – Nicky Ree, Swan Lake Dream Black; Body Shape – mela’s, pink lady; Skin – mela’s, swan skin for Another Fundraiser

Fireflies

There’s a new kid on the block at La Reina, the sim where my store is located! Okay, not a literal “kid” but rather, a store called Fireflies. I’d never heard of it before, but I’ve since made myself quite familiar with it. :p

Aside from the fact that the dresses at Fireflies all come from the same designer, Novella Voom, there is a common denominator shared by all of the clothes offered there that strikes you immediately: they are all sexy. Provocatively sexy; elegantly sexy; sweetly sexy… I’m sure I could come up with several other adjectives ending with the “-ly” suffix but I think you get the point.

The textures are beautifully done, too. My favorite from Fireflies, the Scarlet, is a flirty red dress that seems to shimmer, and the clever highlighting and shading on the shirt layer makes it look as if the dress is reflecting light. Then there’s the sheer and lacy Isobel dress with it’s use of clean alpha, which you can take advantage of by wearing yet more lacy underthings; or if you want to be truly daring, just wear the dress by itself and let it show off that lovely skin of yours. ^_^

Here are several of the dresses that my friends Wilma Delgado and Gorgeous Yongho and I picked up while browsing the shop (clicking the images will take you to their respective flickr pages where you can view a larger size; credits and SLURLs are at the end of the post):

I should mention that everything in this store is very affordable. In fact, the last four dresses shown above are all just L$1 each; last time I checked, there were six of these “dollarbie” dresses available.

To see these dresses for yourself, visit Fireflies, located on the boardwalk at La Reina.

What we’re wearing:

1st image: Dress – Fireflies, Scarlet; Hair – Kin, Ash black; Lashes – RaC, Black flirty; Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep; Skin – RaC, Trisha smoky; Manicure – RaC, Manicure 04; Earrings – Paper Couture, Paillette earrings black and red; Bracelets – Amaretto, black bangles (freebie); Shoes – Shiny Things, Signature Slingbacks red / Jewelry worn with long version: Earrings – Caroline’s Jewelry, Eva Gold Hoop Earrings; Bracelets – Caroline’s Jewelry, Gold Flexi Bangles from the 3 Flexi Bracelets-Gentle Sway set

2nd – 4th images: Dresses – Fireflies, Isobel in black, red, and white; Hair – Kin, Ash black; Lashes – RaC, Black flirty; Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep; Skin – RaC, Trisha smoky; Manicure – RaC, Manicure 04 / worn in full-length shots of black version: Lingerie set – Insolence, Clara Black Satin; Shoes – Armidi Gisaci, Dalia Pump black

5th image: Dress – Fireflies, Vivienne; Hair – ETD, Marisela nickel burnt; Skin – RaC, Tasha smoky; Shoes – Shiny Things, Spring Stilettos black; Jewelry – Appetite & Eve Jewellery [Serendipity Studios], Victoriana Diamond Encrusted Pearl necklace, earrings, and ring

6th image: Dress – Fireflies, Eden; Hair – Kin, Amaunet white; Eyes – Nomine, Orbital 4; Skin – Sin Skins, Etheria Crinaeae (blue/aqua); Manicure – RaC, Manicure 11; Choker – Curious Kitties (accessories), Strap Choker; Neko ears – Hybrid, Sculpty Neko smooth fur; Neko tail – Hybrid, Basic Neko Tail; Piercings** – Zipz, eyebrow light metal spike micro twisted + nose titanium curved barbell + lip linked double light titanium captive steel rings; Tattoos – The Body Politik, Tribal Armband; Stockings – Curious Kitties, Fishnet & PVC Stockings; Boots – sf design, hi tuff black small boots; Bracelets – Cake, 80s pop bracelet
** Piercings were originally three separate sets; modified and linked by myself to accommodate lack of sufficient facial attachment points.

7th image: Dress – Fireflies, Krystal; Skin – Minnu Model Skins, Pale SkinGloss Rain; Hair – ETD, Katherine platinum; Shoes – Periquita Shoes, Black Toe Lolita; Necklace – GRANDMA!, wood-necklace (Y)

8th image:  Dress – Fireflies, LeiLei; Hair – Celestial Studios, Annie May II espresso; Lashes – RaC, Black flirty; Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep; Skin – RaC, Trisha smoky; Manicure – RaC, Manicure 02; Earrings – Paper Couture, Chinese Lantern Earring pearl; Shoes – Shiny Things, Ballet Flats classic pearl

9th image:  Dress – Fireflies, Romy; Hair – ETD, Naomi black; Eyes – Simtropia, gray light; Skin – Soda, fiona beta (group preview freebie); Manicure – RaC, Manicure 02; Body Shape – Mela’s, upcoming release; Leggings – Girlie, black leggings; Shoes – Shiny Things, Wood wedge platforms black/black; Bracelets – Caroline’s Jewelry, Black Rubber Bracelets

J’s shitkicker boots

Okay, so these aren’t really called shitkicker boots by the designer; it just sounds cool to me and it’s a phrase that I know my friend Vivi would use. :p

Here are some zoomed-in shots of the boots. (Btw, I’m using the angel3 and angel10 poses from the Juicy Angel pose set that Gogo recently released, as well as the naughty2 pose from the Juicy Naughty set. They were perfect for showcasing these boots up close and personal, and at 1L for each set you really have no excuse for not having them in your inventory!)

Clicking on the following images will take you to their respective flickr pages where you can view larger sizes; credits and SLURLs are at the end of this post.

Before I say anything else about the shoes at J’s, there are two caveats that you should be aware of first: (1) there are no demos available, and (2) these shoes run a bit small, even in their “larger” sizes.

These sculpty shoes are the Work Boots from J’s, located in the Tsukishima sim. Creator JB Gazov has done a great job with the sculpty shape of these boots and has taken care with the textures on these, from the upper parts to the brown leather on the flexi laces and the realistic brass of the grommets through which the laces weave. The two different colors of the rear pull-on loops are an interesting feature — the left shoe’s loop is red while the right shoe’s loop is brown. Finishing it off are thick, detailed outsoles that look like they’re ready to provide your avi with some serious traction.

I chose the flashier red color, of course, since red is my favorite color. If that’s not your thing, however, then perhaps you’ll be interested in the more traditional black and brown versions.

The poster in the store says these boots are unisex but from what I saw, there’s no way these boots would fit most of the male avatars that I personally know; as I stated above the shoes at J’s run pretty small. (Machete bought the western boots, and despite the fact that different sized prims are included in the folder, he had to bring down his leg muscle and body thickness sliders in order to be able to fit into the largest versions.)

When I saw the red boots, I immediately thought of my Priestly Vestments coat from Amerie’s Naughty that’s been sitting in my inventory for several months. I love the coat but I’ve never really pulled it out of my digital closet and worn it for a reasonable amount of time… until now. ^_^ It’s a lot of red, for sure, but I felt the boots worked with the almost cartoonish attitude and drama of the coat. Since I want to keep the focus of this post on shoes, I won’t go into detail about the coat, but you can still read the excellent write-up Morrigan Repine did earlier this month at Style Hotline.

Although these boots have a chunky and somewhat masculine look to them, you can definitely work a feminine angle with these by choosing the right items. In the example above, I chose to offset the bulkier shape of the boots by emphasizing a sleek leg line, visually elongating it with black tights and a body-hugging mini-skirt. Topping it off is a cute and decidedly feminine half coat.

J’s features more than just work boots, of course. There are several other sculpty boots that are worth mentioning; while I would have loved to have bought all of them I exercised self-restraint and chose to buy the backribbon boots.

Ladies, before I go any further, I feel I must warn you again right now: these boots were definitely made with a slender girl in mind. I think it has to do with the fact that most Japanese female avatars (at least the ones I’ve seen around) are all on the tinier side. After experimenting with a variety of body shapes, I’ve concluded that if you’ve got a body thickness upwards of 20 or if you’ve got the leg muscle slider set beyond 55, your avi WILL break through the largest non-modifiable sculpty prims.

I really like the height of the heels and the slim look of these boots, which is aided by the solid black coloring. A couple of elements accentuate the color block: zipper details that are part of the texture (not prims) run all the way down the insides of each boot, and on the back of the legs are brass grommets and black leather laces tied in a bow.

As soon as I saw the boots on my avi, I decided I wanted an outfit that would emphasize the leg shape even further. I chose a longish all-black sweater and a black mini-skirt. These two items, like the boots, are completely black in coloring but what really makes them visually interesting are the great cowl neck shape and the wrinkly-looking texture of the skirt. Finishing it off and providing a little bit of contrast is a colorful reddish hairstyle. ^_^

Overall, I’m happy with my purchases, especially the red Work Boots. I’m impressed with the quality of JB’s sculpties and will definitely be keeping an eye out for his future products. While I’m thankful that my new boots fit my avi without too much hassle, however, my only complaint is that I wish there were demos and and that there was more consideration for larger sized avatars. If your avi has a build similar to mines, then you should have no problem fitting these as well, but if your avi is somewhat larger then unfortunately I’d have to advise against spending on these, especially since they are not transferrable.

What I’m wearing:

1st & 2nd images: Boots – J’s, Work Boots red; Hair – Kin, Ash white; Skin – RaC, Trisha smoky; Eyes – Nomine, Orbital 4
Prim Lashes – RaC, black flirty; Manicure – RaC, Manicure No 04; Coat – Amerie’s Naughty, Priestly Vestments; Pants – PixelDolls, Black Pants freebie

3rd image: Boots – J’s, Work Boots red; Hair – ETD, Amber black; Skin – RaC, Trisha smoky; Eyes – Simtropia, brown deep; Glasses – NeaBan, Retro S; Manicure – RaC, Manicure No 04; Coat – Kurotsubaki, Red half coat; Skirt – Last Call, torn mini jean skirt from the Yelena set; Tights – Blaze, charcoal tights from the 13-color bundle

4th & 5th images: Boots – J’s, Backribbon boots black; Hair – Kin, luv burgundy; Skin – Tuli, S4F cream brown brows ~ rosy lips/smokey blue (holiday group gift); Manicure – RaC, Manicure No. 04; Body Shape – Mela’s, upcoming release; Eyes – IC, older freebie gift; Sweater – Armidi, Au Fraize Boucle Sweater black; Skirt – <3 Cupcakes, from the Black Gathered dress set;Hosiery – Paper Couture, from the free gift box in Barcola

AWESOME STORE ALERT: Another shop!

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