Second Style Magazine

I’m am very happy to announce that I have the privilege of being the new owner of Second Style Media. Since being an active part in Second Style for the past three years, I’m honored, and very excited, to acquire this new role. I would like to thank Celebrity for this opportunity. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with her since the beginning as we’ve both seen this magazine grow up from nothing into what it is today. You haven’t seen the last of her, though, she will be posting on the blog, as usual, with her fabulous insight to the SL fashion world.

Second Style Magazine will hold production until May to allow for the necessary transition. Thereafter, we will continue to release on a monthly basis. If you are interested in advertising, please contact me and mention this blog and receive 10% off any size ad or package. Advertising on the blogs will continue so if you are interested in advertising immediately, that is available as well.

Thank you all for your support these past years. With out you, we wouldn’t be what we are today. I look forward to continue working with you all to make Second Style even better in the years to come.

Thank you,
HeatherDawn Cohen <3

Mimmi Boa’s SuperElite Elite Graduate students will be doing their graduation show at 1pmSLT on Tuesday February 17th. Come down and see the latest fashions from OC Orage Creations, Indyra Originals and Total Betty. You can find us here!

Isabel Brocco’s SuperElite Elite Graduate students will be doing their graduation show at 6pmSLT on Tuesday February 17th. We hope you will join us for the second show to see the designs of Patrizia Blessed, Digit Darkes, and Zullay’s Designs. Again, we will be here.

Love is in the air, that is for sure! Valentine’s Day weekend. I hope all of you experience love in some form or another. Lots of ongoing adventures in SL right now such as “Diana the Huntress” exhibition, Zullay Designs Where’s The Love? Hunt, The Vain Inc. “Kissed” Hunt, The Greatest Love Hunt, and Runway Fashion week begins today! For more info on these and the following events, please refer to the google calendar. You can always send me event info in world or at rhirossini@gmail.com Hope to see you out and about!

Friday 2/13

Runway Fashion Week 2009, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bryant%20Park/147/52/653
1pm Brenda Clellon
2pm Kunglers
3pm MB Designs
4pm Jador
5pm Mashooka

Saturday 2/14

Garden of Art & Tranquility Grand Opening, 12:30pm http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mac/128/130/31/

‘Be My Valentine’ Valentine’s Party, 2:30pm http://slurl.com/secondlife/Haute%20Couture/190/141/22

Runway Fashion Week 2009, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bryant%20Park/147/52/653
1pm House of RFyre
2pm PB collection
3pm DE Designs
4pm Chianera Cioc
5pm azul

Sunday 2/15

Runway Fashion Week 2009, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bryant%20Park/147/52/653
1pm MEB Fashions
2pm ::eLDee::
3pm Bolero Collection
4pm SWA Second Wave Apparel

Yep – real life has struck again, but since this is the final week of the 30 Days project I wanted to close out my run with a really lovely set of skins by Ayesha Bisiani of Skin Within. Ayesha has a bunch of different ethnic skins ranging from pale Russian to dark African. One of the newest skin lines is the creole inspired Anaise line which is shown to the left. (Note on the right the amazing new prim-toed shoes from SLink – I’m wearing the chocolate set in my photo. They’re L$500 a pair and look so so good with this skin tone from Skin Within.)

One of my favorite things about the Skin Within lines is that Ayesha develops four lines of makeup for each skin tone. A day and evening set, a “fantasy” set, and a smoky eye makeup set. She’s never afraid to play with color, and the fantasy makeups – especially on Anaise lend themselves well to photography and haute-fashion runway shows. You can see Mambo on the left from the fantasy line and Laballe in the first set of photos above.

Which isn’t to say you sacrifice anything from the rest of the skin for makeup’s sake. The body on Anaise is really quite lovely with her caramelly skin tone (and that modifiable to go a shade darker and a shade lighter) and the body shading on this skin is as yummy as it looks. I am especially in love with the nose and ear shading on this skin – I think it looks fabulous on my avatar’s shape. The body also features a torso with well defined cleavage shading and “soft” tummy – it’s not quite as ripped as some of the other skins you can find in Second Life which suits me fine.

One of the other unique things about Anaise is that the day and evening makeups all feature freckles. On the left I took a close up of one of my favorite makeup sets, called Paris from the evening line. You can see the skin has a well placed and well dispersed smattering of freckles across the cheeks and nose. On the right, I am showing off the extraordinary skin-art Ayesha released for the Anaise line in a very (1 copy left in fact) limited edition. As Anaise is inspired by the creole culture of Louisana, Ayesha hand-drew Mardi-Gras inspired artwork directly on the skin along with a Carnival-style makeup theme on the skin’s face. With RL Mardi-Gras fast approaching, you might want to consider saving your pennies for a skin-a-pooloza for your big Fat Tuesday celebration.

What’s next for Skin Within? Ayesha tells me that she’s thinking about her next Limited Edition skin. She is not yet decided, but is looking into an Asian inspired theme or potentially even doing a new line of darker toned Indian or African skins.

You can check out Skin Within at Skin Within (124, 128, 28).

You can pick SLink’s wonderful new (and affordable) prim toed platform sandals at Sanctum (56, 126, 35). Also – until February 15th, you can pick up a set of these sandals with a special Valentine’s theme for only L$100 – that’s 80% off the normal price!

Lingerie by Love Lace and Insolence. Hair by ETD. Gloves by Fleur.

Have you ever visited a shop again and again and completely overlooked an entire category of designs every single time? As a self proclaimed “shopoholic”, I like to think I’m pretty thorough when it comes to turning a store upside down while snatching up goodies, but I have to admit in one particular instance…I completely missed the boat.

Last February, I began using my neko alt account, Krismorel, to get away from the stresses of SL fashion and try my hand at roleplaying. If you are a neko, have a kitty-kitty alt,  or are close to someone who is often in neko form… you know that there are three shops in SL that should be on “speed teleport”: Atomic Kitty, Catnip, and Deviant Kitties. This blog post will focus on the first, or rather the designer behind Atomic Kitty: Ivy Graves aka Crushed Clarity.

I’d been to Atomic Kitty hundreds of times to buy the uber fantastic neko ears and tails, or to drag neko friends there for kitty-kitty appendages of their very own. Somehow, crazy as it may sound being the skin whore that I am, I always missed the fact that Atomic Kitty offered a skin line.

Until a couple of weeks ago.

I was helping a friend fix up a new neko alt and, of course, dragged her to Atomic Kitty. She wandered into the skin room and started trying on demos. I’d already outfitted her with my Bitsy Silhouette shape that was based on my own neko alt, and I swear when she slipped into the Hope skin demo I gasped…take a look yourself….

This is a photo of took of my friend in the old Hope skin line from Atomic Kitty. I was JEALOUS of the GORGEOUSNESS!

I say old skin line, because when I was talking with Crushed Clarity (the alt of Ivy Graves, mastermind designer behind Atomic Kitty) she informed me that the current “Hope” skins at Atomic Kitty were on clearance sale to be discontinued pending an upcoming release of skins she’d been hard at work on. During the conversation, I learned that Atomic Kitty was splitting off with a new branding of ATOMIC that will encompass everything except the tails and ears she is currently selling under Ivy Graves.

I made “gimme hands” and was rewarded with a preview of the new skin line…

Available in 5 skin tones, you can see the above shades of Dark, Tan, Light, and Pale of the Stardust preview line.

Following are all the makeup options in the Sunkissed tone (which is the middle of the spectrum between Tan and Light)

Each makeup line is based on the same yummy Lip. I mean…look at them…I am declaring these the absolute nummiest lips in all SL, and confidently stand behind that statement. There are nine options for each makeup set: 3 Different eyeliner options, with 3 eyeshadow color variants. As a bonus, every skin purchase includes a very natural looking set of prim lashes (shown in the photos above).

The face is sweet and sexy all wrapped together, with innovative makeups. The body can best be described as hand painted realistic, with a very pretty matte texture. I should note that the lightest tone (Pale) isn’t very light, so those looking for a creamy “afraid of the sun” shade may be disappointed.

NSFW Body Photo

I wanted to mention a few details about the body…specifically the “OMG PERFECT NIPPLES!!” They are subtle and on the smaller side and, quite honestly, are my dream nipples in SL (maybe TMI, but very close to my own RL nips). The bum is shaded with that Y effect that I go gaga for, and the rest of the body is just ….well…faboo. Ears? Beautiful. Stomach? Gorgeous. Legs? Toned…but hey take another look at those JUICY JUICY LIPS!

The Stardust skin is available exclusively at the Atomic shop on Crush Row until the grand re-opening of the Atomic Main store. Join the subscrib-o-matic group when you visit the Crush Row location to stay informed about the opening and release of the full skin line.

Other Need to Knows:

• Price: $L1000 for individual makeups or $L2500 for any 3 pack combination of either all liners or shadows. $L7000 for all 9 options in a makeup line. Remember every skin includes prim lashes.

• Location: Crushed Clarity has been busy setting up her store on Crush Row so the skins are available at the time of this blog release. TP to Atomic @ Crush Row. Turn left at the TP point, her shop is the first one (to the left of Aitui). Don’t forget to hit the subscribo-matic group to get notified about the mainstore opening and full skin line release!

• Credits: Both hairs used in this post are from the Radiance Line @ Laqroki
• the shape is one I made exclusively for the Atomic skin (named Star) and will be available at my Crush Row Silhouette Shapes shop as a dollarbie for a limited time until Feb. 15th. Look for the Pink Heart on the table inside Silhouette Shapes.

Only one of these weekends left until the famed “Valentine’s Day” I hope you all have someone special to share this time with. Lots of fun stuff in SL this weekend! There are a few hunts going on for Valentine’s Day, We have The Greatest Love Hunt, The Vain Inc. “Kissed” Hunt, and Zullay Design’s Where’s The LOVE? Hunt. You can also see the “Diana the Huntress” exhibition (landmark in calendar). Please see our google calendar for more information on these events. As always, please send me event information in world or at rhirossini@gmailcom

Friday 2/6

Saturday 2/7

SuperElite Graduation Show, 9am http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fashionista/135/128/21

LA Modeling Academy Grad show, 12pm http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jonathan/7/197/24

The Biggest Fashion Show. 2:30pm http://slurl.com/secondlife/ZI%20Paradise%20Island/159/230/24

Sunday 2/8

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jonathan/103/185/24

One of my earliest joys in SL was the ability to dress totally off the wall in all sorts of costumes, hair, and skin. This included mermaids, Elizabethan era courtisians, aliens, super heros, etc. What makes a great costume is a fab skin to put together that polished look. It’s one thing to put on a costume, but to totally transform is another.

Early on I was fortunate to have been led to PanJen to find some really cool skins. There are also regular type skins for those of you who like a toned down look. Oh and did I mention the cost? Yeah, each skin is 350L! Worth a gander and really afforable for playing dress up.

Skins shown here are PanJen Drow, PanJen GlamGoth 3, PanJen  Mystery MKII 4 blue, and PanJen Goth Elegance 1. Lashes are also from PanJen.

Created by Pandora Jensen who has been a SL’er since 2004, the skins at PanJen meet a wide range of styles. From Goth, to Pixies, or Drow to Sparkles this is a shop I highly encourage you to visit.

Visit PanJen at Absence (65, 146, 454).

I’ve written a couple of times before about Pulse Skins by the incredibly talented Lorac Farella, and I definitely couldn’t leave them out of our 30 Days project, now in Week 5. (Just 9 more skins to go…) Lorac was kind enough to share some of her newest releases with me and since Valentine’s Day is on the top of my mind, I decided to build a giant prim heart to photograph these skins inside Second Life. These first two skins are part of the Pulse “Kissed” skin line. On the left is Magical and on the right is Serenade. Like all of Lorac’s Pulse skins, these are all hand painted skins. Astounding but true – Lorac has spent a long time mastering pixel artwork and she brings that passion for pixel art to her skins in Second Life. The body on Kissed skins are a bit defined, but don’t have that uber-crunch gym-rat look at all. The makeup and face highlights all give Kissed a very youthful and vibrant look. Lorac also loves to play with her eye color on these skins. Magical, for instances, brings pink, purple, and a touch of shimmery green to the mix; you can pick lined or unlined as you wish.

You can really see the eye makeup in this close-up photo on the far left. And on the right is another new release from the “Bella II” line – this time a dark tone. I love Lorac’s dark tones. They’re not too yellow, and they’re not too orange. They have a really nice blend. I must confess that this shape I’m using is not my normal shape. It’s called “Out of Africa” by Scar Ayres. Scar recently opened a new shop and although I’m not a huge fan of pre-made shapes this particular one caught my eye. Scar also tipped me off to the Pixelfashion lashes I’m wearing throughout these photos. They’re L$300, but they have a menu-based color change system. I don’t know when or why I’ll need lime green lashes, but if I do, these have me covered. In any case they’re easy to fit and look so lush. I’m really enjoying them. Mostly in black, of course.

Finally, I had to leave Pulse with Lorac’s wonderfully shaded and multi-tonal Elegance line. This is Tone 6 from her line. There’s one shade darker and 5 shades lighter. I absolutely love the shading on this body and the face is so amazingly executed with perfect highlights and lowlights in the right places. Elegance comes in 7 Virtues, 7 Sins (this is “Greed” – green eye makeup, of course) and a new monthly release for 2009. (January and February are already available.)

Skins: Pulse, Nip Tuck Island (40, 134, 461)
Shape: Scarlia Inc, Tora 5 (67, 140, 21)
Color change lashes: Pixelfashion, xstream80 (62, 210, 29)
Lingerie: Insolence, Venom (94, 133, 28)
L$1 Giant Prim Heart: Le Zoo (136, 36, 24) – with Valentine’s Day coming up, I figured, why not? If you want a giant mod/copy/no trans prim heart, stop by and pick one up.

I’ve had a long history with Minnu Palen and her gorgeous skins since she introduced them to the grid over a year and a half ago. From Generation1 to Generation4, then Zero, and now the latest “Fashion Capital” faces, I’ve been there and it was always like Christmas morning when Minnu would message me “hey slut…new skin…” and then bomb me with folders overstuffed with new beautiful faces.

Thanks to Minnu, I have items in my BodyParts folder named “new new new face”, “new girl” and “Test1″ that I can’t rename to more appropriate titles like “Beautiful Freakin Prototype Skin (pale)” because they are no modify. New skin from Minnu makes me giddy. Always has…and I don’t anticipate that changing.

Minnu’s new creation for the recently rebranded store of LeLutka, the London skin, was a smashing hit and quickly became the beloved skin of many fashionistas, with two new “Revolution” makeups recently released exclusively at the LeLook shoping sim.

If you take an good look at the face of London, you’ll find a finish that is more matte than the gorgeous sister skin “Moscow” and, in my opinion, a fresher and more youthful appearance without the dramatic blush.

Each face of London is delivered with three eyebrow options as seen above. I’m a huge fan of the subtle “i lost my tweazers and have strays” brows, but I’m sure everyone has a preference that suits them.

With 6 skins tones to choose from, it’s important to note that each complexion is available with makeups that are unique to the skin tone. I sometimes pout that the Fair tone gets the best and most dramatic makeup, but I’m probably suffering from “grass is greener” syndrome since I find it difficult wear the creamy shade and keep my usual natural blonde hair.

LeLutka London is not just a pretty face though, it has a beautiful modelesque body to match. My favorite area is the natural cleavage that is so different from many popular skin’s unrealistic spherical boobs of gravity defying proportions. The tummy is toned, but not overly muscled, and the bum is adequately shaded. I have found that the derriere of the LeLutka skins, in general, work better with shapes having the sliders on the lower end. My normal shape has “punkin butt” syndrome, so the shading on the skin can appear odd sometimes on me.

Still, for a skin junky like myself, LeLutka is the primo drug. I’m a lucky lucky girl that my dealer encourages my addiction by mainlining me. I can’t wait until the upcoming skin fair to get high again.

Need a fix? TP to LeLutka

PLease join us today at 11am SLT for the debut of Lady Thera’s new shop on Fashionista Island and an amazing fashion/art presentation.