Second Style Magazine

Update [CT]: I’ve added (NSFW) photos of sachi’s new skins below the cut. (And Grazia remains a big chicken! )

I love it how you plan on doing something, and then something else happens that turns around your schedule completely and you end up having such a good time. It happened to me again yesterday when I planned a quiet afternoon of going through my review folder and trying on some of the new things in there, when I got an IM from Sachi Vixen, the multi talented designer from Adam ‘n Eve. She asked if she could have my opinion on her new prim lashes, which after trying, I gladly gave. Sachi has made easy adjustable, great looking lashes, in a lot of different versions. And what makes hers so unique is that she has made blacks as well as tintables for all of them.. so if you think brown is your new black… well, now you can make them brown… or green.. or purple.. whatever suits you. I have not seen tintables before, so I think this is really a great find. The skin in this photo is Adam ‘n Eve’s Pandora in tone 3, make up 8 and the hair is Armidi’s Law in black I

While talking to Sachi, she TP-d me over to her shop, where you can find practically everything for your avatar… shapes, hair, clothes and oooh… skins. Wonderfully crafted, beautifully make up’d skins. Now, honestly, I had to tweak my shape a wee bit to look great in these skins, as my mouth didn’t match the skin’s exactly, but I think it was worth the effort as you can see in the photo above, wich is me wearing Pandora. Sachi, together with her business partner Damen Gorilla, is one of the sought after avatar creators for people who have to make an appearance in SL looking like their RL self. If not the lashes lure you to Adam ‘n Eve.. well.. let the skins do. Sachi has recently done a new version of her very own skin, Pandora, and it is of a flawless perfection… even the feet, usually a nightmare in SL look pretty good.

While talking skins and trying out the new poses and animations that Damen has made (I’ll be using them in a next post so that you can see them… for the gowns that are to follow they were not the best… Damen’s poses are better for more casual wear right now) my eye caught a wonderful gown that has a strong historical touch to it. It’s called Refined, I have it on in Ivory here, and it is truly an adorable gown with a distinct regal touch to it. I remember having seen an old photo of empress Elizabeth (Sissy) wearing a similar gown, or rather some photos that all have clothing elements that you’ll find in this particular one. The version Sachi made for SL comes with 2 skirts, a sleek one and a full gown and 3 different flexi bustles. The skin is Pandora, tone 3, make up 8 and the hair is ETD’s Janae in chestnut.

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Back in December, I wrote a long post about the Chloe skins by Mallory Cowen of Raspberry and Cow (RaC). I loved it then — and I still love it now, although side-by-side, it’s easy to see the flaws in the skin that annoyed my fashion blogger colleague Sabrina Doolittle at LindenLifestyles. But about a week ago, I got a note and an updated set of skins from Mallory. She wrote, “I’ve totally redone the body work on the Chloe skins.” And she really has — it’s a quantum leap. (NSFW photo behind the fold.)

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This is going to be a quick post as my long weekend (Queen’s Day today) has passed again faster than I expected :-/, but some time ago Sherona DeGroot from Innovations dropped some delicious outfits on me and I finally managed to take some usable photos of them, in between update, update aftermath and just not being able to log on at all.

Although named the Concept Collection, these outfits are final and released. They all come with various options, slacks or skirt, plain tank or polkadot tops and even shoes in matching colors and dito textures. Speaking of which….. the textures are so gorgeous. Eclectic, vibrant and rich designs in fabulous shades. Sherona has been playing with the current hype for a more corporate look and has come up with a very playful and authentic collection. Although my favorite is the black and grey suit, I also adore the brown and turquoise outfit that I wear here with the trousers, but I also love the teal outfit and oh well, the turquoise and pink one is too cute as well.

The poses in this photo are Damen Gorilla’s from Adam ‘n Eve, the hair is the Poynter from Armidi and the skin is Adam ‘n Eve’s Pandora, tone 3, make up 8.

Second Life residents are currently experiencing a lot of problems in world. Inventory losses, borked friends lists, broken search,  failing teleports, failing group notices & group chats, grid stability in general to name but a few. Christian Diaz has written an open letter to Linden Lab which in the meantime has been signed by thousands of residents already, requesting adequate solutions for the current problems, some of which have been an issue for over a year now. Read the original letter here: http://www.projectopenletter.com/ and if you agree with its content and share the concerns of many, sign the letter.

Open Letter To Linden Labs
as written by Cristiano Diaz and Signed by thousands

In the past eighteen months, Second Life has expanded, growing from a small community of early adopters to a platform supporting millions of users. Linden Lab has created a world that inspires a deep level of passion in its users and provides unprecedented opportunities to share creatively, socially, and financially. With explosive levels of growth often come unexpected problems. In keeping with your company’s policy and rich history of resident involvement, we the undersigned would like to take this opportunity to address some concerns that we feel have gone unanswered for too long. There are some consistent, ongoing problems that are getting worse under heavy load, not better, and are not simply irritants but problems that are causing financial loss in some cases, which is unacceptable. Here is a brief list of the main concerns:

Inventory loss
this is a devastating problem that is worsening. We have no ability to protect our own inventories through backups, and are trusting you to protect that data. This is the highest priority. Sensible inventory limits (on non-verified accounts only), combined with better management tools and ways to protect our inventory ourselves would help to mitigate the problem as well. Regardless, this cannot continue – we will not accept financial loss as a feature of Second Life. It is your responsibility as service provider to ensure our data is not lost, and you are failing us.

Problems with Find and Friends List
we continue to see search outages on a far too regular basis. It is bad enough trying to get anywhere without being able to use search, but many users are also paying money for classified ads. Our friends lists just do not work reliably any longer, after years without an issue with them. If America Online/MSN/Yahoo can provide presence information for hundreds of millions of users, surely there is a way to make our friends lists work again.

Grid stability and performance
teleports fail quite regularly, especially under heavy load. Attachments end up in places they did not start out in, and sim performance varies wildly. None of this makes for a very pleasant experience for users. Long promised improvement to physics and scripting would help dramatically to reduce these problems, but there are a lot of other scalability issues as well. It often feels like the grid is coming apart at the seams. The promised use of limiting logins of non-verified accounts during peak load has been severely lacking. This would be an effective interim solution to load issues, but Linden Lab seems unwilling to use it.

Build tool problems
the importance of build tools that actually work as promised cannot be overstated enough – we rely on them to create content. Prim drift, disappearing prims, imprecise placement, problems with linking and other issues with the tools need to be addressed. Too much time is being spent trying to work around the problems.

Transaction problems
inventory deliveries are failing with an alarming (and annoying) frequency, leaving merchants with the burden of replacing missing content and having to try to confim the transaction in the first place. We trust that our L$ balances are accurate, but given recent problems, that is a cause for concern as well, and one we place our full trust in you to ensure its accuracy.

We remain fully supportive of Second Life and are more than willing to continue doing our part to help, but our confidence is steadily being eroded due to a general lack of communication and the apparent failure to successfully address the many issues detailed above. What we are asking for is that these problems are addressed immediately, ahead of new features, and that we are able to see tangible improvements. We accept that this will not happen overnight but it also cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely either.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Here’s our newest Fashion Challenge winner, Lux Yao! Congratulations to her. Since Lux happens to be a model for Miriel, she asked that the prize be given to our runner up — and I will honor that request. The next fashion challenge theme will be set soon!

Lux Yao
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Finally… on today’s agenda, I have the new suits that Nyte Caligari from Nyte ‘n Day and Sol Columbia from Luminosity have created together. Ideal corporate wear. Suitable for any business occasion whether it is just a quiet day of reading, catching up on your files or a day with a back to back meeting schedule. Or just… screw the business… you like wearing suits because they are so incredibly elegant and flattering and they just give your avie a stunningly classy look.

I love the grey texture on this skirt version of the suit, it has a subtle herringbone structure that is totally classy. The three piece suit (jacket, skirt and slacks) comes in three colours, the classic grey and black, and a very feminine lavender. The jacket is very detailed and well tailored for a perfect fit.  The lapel is of a shinier texture that forms a nice contrast with the rest of the suit. This is truly a full outfit. Not only you’ll have the 3 piece suit, you’ll also find the blazer combined with open collar oxford shirts (jacket layer) in seven colours in your folder, as well as a 2 pairs of semi sheer stockings (black and tintable white).

The oxford shirts are also made available as separates (as well as in a fatpack) and they are lovely. I have had an early version of these for quite some time now, and I just can’t emphasize enough how well they combine with basically anything in your inventory. Probably because they come in two versions: tucked (shirt & underwear layers) for a more conservative look and untucked (jacket layer) for more casual wear.  In this photo I  wear the shirt with the  black trousers from the suit, the new Nora Entice Mauve skin that is of an incredible beauty, ETD’s Twist from the now discounted Couture Collection (50% off!!!) and Caliah Lyon’s Claris pearl choker.

Luminosity: Luminous Island 101,125,48  ~  Nyte ‘n Day: Couture Isle 83,117,31

Seen in world: yes  ~ Review Copies: yes  ~ Friends list: yes

I had to take a moment to blog this hairstyle…it was, without a doubt, my Hair Fair favorite.

Satine Dot of Old Gravy is known for her unusual and crazy creative hairstyling, and this particular style, called PFR, is right up there with the crazy. This style has so much going on, from the braid along the top to the giant skewed bun on the side, and little ponytails going every which way. Fantastic, for those days you want to stand out and rock your hair…I actually think I styled somebody’s hair this way as a young’un (Satine…are you my mommy? o.O)

Get PFR at Old Gravy.

Seen in world: Yes  |  Review Copy: No  |  Friends List: No

Although the Hair Fair is over, one of the most exciting designs I saw was by Leetah Moxie of the fabulously named Curl Up and Dye hair design palace. I was tipped to the Antoinette hair by Iris Ophelia — who has some incredibly fun photos featuring this hair on her flickr stream here.

But the moment I saw this hair I thought two things. One was, of course, “OMG, I must have it,” and the second thought raced back to a bit of fashion history: last year Digit Darkes of X3D created a series of five Antoinette inspired gowns which came completely set with three prim hair designs, a pair of coordinating to-die-for heels (100% squee factor on the shoes — just all by themselves) and of course a ball gown shape inspired by the fashions of the day, but with a color palette and fabric selections that are decidedly modern. Or, as I wrote to Leetah in IM, “I think you got your peanut butter in her chocolate.” This is definitely a case where two great tastes taste great together.

The touching details on this design are amazing. First is the flexiprim trail of hair that rests over the shoulder — and then there’s the bonanza of fussy bow detailing everywhere. It is a perfectly regal hairstyle — and I adore the texture in the auburn color (shown). But Leetah’s also done some other fun designs for Hair Fair including a “NO MORE WIRE COAT HANGERS” Joan Crawford homage for the next time you need to thrash your daughter awake for her selfish neglect of her precious clothing.

But Celebrity, some of you are thinking, I don’t want my avatar to look like a princess in Versailles. OK — no problem. How about a thoroughly deviant fetish princess? Here I’ve mashed up pieces from Dark Eden (ballet boots, lilith straps collection), Sweet Dreams (latex dress, posture collar) and the blonde Antoinette hair. It’s either delightfully trashy camp or some kind of deviant statement of style — or maybe both.

The Antoinette and Joan hairs are available at the Curl Up and Dye salon in Inari 32, 183, 401. The gowns are available at X3D in Dacham 91, 104, 48. (Fetish Princess components available at their respective stores as noted.)

Seen in world: Yes
Review copies: Yes
Friends list: Yes

I think, I hope, that the photo Celeb was referring to is this totally delicious one by Ivalde’s Neferia Abel. She made this dress only today, inspired by all your “loverly”Audrey outfits and has posted it, but alas… too late. However I think it is a totally blogworthy little number so I just had to post it anyway. So… out of contest…. may I present to you … Mathilde… aka The Ultimate Hepburn.

For now this is the only version of this dress, but Neferia is working on some more colours. I have seen it in world, as a matter of fact, I’m wearing it right now, but I think Neferia’s photo is so nice and shows so well what inspired her that I decided to use hers.

I have been examining this dress over and over again.. and I have not been able to discover even a minimal thing that I don’t like about it. I can tell you what I do like best though, and that is first and foremost the texture of the bodice. Neferia has done it again. Puzzling with photoshop and her example textures (mostly old fabrics that she collects and recreates) until the shading on the bodice as well as the high waist were perfect. I also like the neckline and the hem of the prin skirt. The red ribbon on it is such a nice find. The bow is linked to the skirt, so you won’t have to attach it to your body somewhere, but when you move a lot with it, or dance, the bow tends to disapear temporarily in the skirt. But frankly, I think this is as good as SL gets bow-on-skirtwise. I am not a huge fan of hats in SL, but to my surprise this one immediately fitted like a glove err.. hat.

Neferia confided in me that she is working with a friend on more matching hats and shoes, where her friend will be making them and she wil be doing the textures… can’t wait to see the result of that.

Seen in world: yes  ~ Review copy: yes ~ Friends list: yes

One of the most fun and appealing things about Second Life is that you can represent your online persona as nearly anything you can imagine — from mermaid to superhero.

Since some of my earliest childhood television memories are of the Greatest American Hero show — especially the theme song Believe It or Not (which was also in a movie montage from The 40 Year Old Virgin) — I was pretty excited when Nicky Ree created and released this line of superhero/heroine costumes. They come in many different colors, one color per set — I’m wearing a mashup between the red and black costume sets — and they all have Nicky’s characteristic top notch highlighting and shading.

You get the full-on Jack Kirby treatment with excellent muscle shading and abs of steel baked right on the clothing textures. One special added personalization bonus for this set is a jacket layer letter overlay. I chose a “C” (what it stands for is left as an exercise to the reader) but only because there was no Greatest American Hero symbol option. Alas.

So if you live in a down-and-out neighborhood like this one, head over to Nicky Ree’s and pick up your own superhero costume. My only question is when will Nicky release a line of supervillianess costumes??

Seen in world: Yes
Review copies: Yes
Friends list: No

Special thanks to Lana Miranda for granting permission to republish her photos here.

Yesterday I was talking to Roslin Petion, one of the two people behind Tete à Pied skins and I noticed she was wearing the sweetest skin I have seen in a long time. Since I owe quite a few Tete à Pied skins by now and I could not remember having it seen before, I asked, curious by nature and expecting a negative answer, hoping for a premiere on an unreleased skin: “Is that in your shop?” and Roslin answered with a simple “yes it is… it has been for a while really, it’s the Au Naturelle skin”. How could I have missed out on such a lovely barely make-up’d skin?

Is it a coincidence that just now Celebrity has used this very skin just now in her useful video tutorial about adjusting primlashes? Yes and no. Yes because we hardly ever tell eachother upfront what we are blogging, and since the skin has been out from the beginning of January, how could she expect I was doing a review on it right now…but on the other hand.. no.. it’s no wonder Celeb uses this particular skin because, as she says, a no make up skin is very useful when you are working on adjusting lashes, or your shape for that matter.

However, back to the skins. And I’ll confess upfront.. I have no intention of going nude on the blog, so I’ll show you the faces, and tell you about the rest of this high quality skin.

What struck me in these skins, in the faces more specifically, are the eyebrows. These too are au naturelle. They are not plucked like many SL skin brows, nor are they combed, gelled and fixated in a perfect line up of tiny hairs. They remind me of my RL brows. Maybe that’s why I like them so much.

The first skin , upper left, is the skin that Celeb has used in her tutorial. Bare, no make up at all, a fresh clean face, right out of the shower so to speak. The lips are matte, and the only thing I have added to this face are…. prim lashes, in this case the fluff lashes from Sin Skins. Second, upper right, there is Minimal. This one has a soft brown eyeliner, a wee bit of lipgloss and a delicious little beautymark on the upper right cheek. The third one, lower left is Rosy. It is a bit flushed, like after a long walk on the beach on a cold sunny winter’s day. This is the healthy face that we all have in mind when we apply blusher.  The lips do have a subtle shine, but more like having applied chapstick than lipgloss. The last one is called Freckles. Obvious, but some of the cutest freckled faces I have ever seen in SL, and the only freckled skin I have, because I’m really not such a freckles fan. These are just adorable though. The only make up on this skin again is the hint of gloss on the lips. More about the Au Naturelle skins to follow on the next page.

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I decided to film and narrate a quick video tutorial which shows how I edit prim lashes in Second Life. There are probably a lot of different ways to do it, but this is what works for me. If you have a tip to share, please leave a comment! Otherwise, I hope people find this helpful.

I want to give a shout out to the shape prodigy Haver Cole for creating the shape I’m wearing in this video.