Second Style Magazine

 It’s day 13 of skins and it feels appropriate to show off a skin that’s been my favourite since the days I roamed SL as a noob and was almost afraid of trying new skins, let alone buy them! I’m a horror and B-movie fanatic and being new to SL i was quickly drawn to the many gothic clubs and rolplay sims, and then I found Nomine. To this day I think there’s few who makes gothic skins better than Munchflower Zaius - even her palest skins have good body detail and some of them – like  Ultralight Vamp Blood Red pictured to the far left above – has potential even way beyond the vampire RP clubs. I have used this particular skin frequently on the runway, as high fashion often demands very pale complexion and stark dramatic makeup it’s perfect even for glamorous evening wear.

 Call me sick, but i’m also in total awe of Nomine’s more brutal skins like Fawn WL Torn Back Alley Veteran skins, complete with wounds and bruises. I love these for roleplay or clubbing with my gang of rowdy girlfriends, not to mention for photoshoots portraying a more disturbing beauty. The back alley veteran comes with red and nude lips and the body detail and glossy wetlook is amazing for those days when you really want to bring out your inner greaser rebel chick.

More glorious skin for January: Detour’s Nina ia as skin I fell for in a really BIG way. Nina looks like a bit of a rough and tumble, she possess a tomboyish cuteness with her very pale skin splashed with adorable freckles – not just across her nose but all over, even her shoulders and belly. During times when the idea of the ideal beauty was someone far more stereotype freckles were seen as non-flattereing and even ugly. Girls “cursed” with this type of skin were prone to rub their faces with different types of product in an effort to rid themselves of the freckles. And as fashion dictated a porcelaine-doll complexion, many an hour was spent in front of the makeup mirror dabbing on foundation to conceal the pigmentation dots.  But hah! – no more! With a more diverse and interesting take on beauty freckes are often hailed as trendy and so Nina is very of the moment. And these days it-girls are often seen dabbing false freckles on their snub noses when noones watching.I know so many guys who claim they just adore a freckled girl, especially if she’s a fiery redhead to boot. I tell you what, few of my skins have more pull than this *winks*

 Nina comes with four different makeups which all in their own way look funky and go well with Detours fashion forward lashes. Each skin also comes with face light and a shape which I never use, as I’m not really one for pre-made shapes. Nina has pale lips, one of the makeup’s has rather rosy cheeks which is very wicked. The eye shadows are more a hint of colour rather than heavy made up paint jobs and it serves to accentuate the eyes beautifully.Auburn eyebrows kind of determines that Nina is a natural redhead – no matter what hair colour you slap on you will look most natural in reds and auburns.

Detour’s Nina is not a classic beauty. But – and to me this is much more important – she has all the qualities I seek in a “look”: she is sexy, a little naughty, perhaps even a little dangerous – the kind of girl you can easily picture getting up to no good, staying out too late, playing with the bad boys – a little Miss Troublemaker. And although her style is luscious and tempting she is definitely not for everybody. That – to me – is always a very good thing.

Hair: “fuafua” by Shop Seu

Lingerie: “Black Guilded Lingerie” by Chic Boutique

Eyes: Tuli green eyes

Lashes: Detour – “Thorn Lashes”.

It’s day number three of the glorious 30 Days of Skins and being the time of year when it’s cold, dark and all over rather drab i thought it was time to bring some warm, spicy Soul to the party.

The creator behind Soul is Nany Merlin, who work with graphic design and photography in real life. She has created several series of skins and shapes under the Soul label: Soul Special Skins, several male lines and her latest creation Race, a line of ethnic type skins ranging from Egyptian, African and Spanish to Indian, German and 3 different Asian skins. All skins come with 9 different makeup options or shading and facial hair options for men, a shape and a set of eyes.

What I find particularly attractive about Merlin’s work – which is a combination of photosourcing and drawing - is the texture of the basic skins themselves. The detail is magnificent even close up and has has the look of real skin with carefully applied foundation and blusher dusted with a light coat of translucent powder. The effect is truly yummy. Zoom in and you can even see pores! Anyone who has ever studied real skin up close will have to agree that Merlin’s creations are spectacular, and upon her perfect canvases she has carefully applied eyeshadows, blushers and sensually soft lipsticks. The body detail is as impressive as the makeups: lovely shoulderblades, supersexy tummy detail and unbelieveably cute and real looking belly buttons. Little things like this pleases me no end. 

My favourite of them all is the Afrodite-line which comes in six different skin tones, all with nine different makeup options. I’m tempted to steal a cheesy advertizing line like: “don’t wear it if you don’t mean it!” – but these skins are smokin’ hot.

Being a bit of a retro fanatic means I’m always on the prowl for the ultimate cat eyes makeup, and Afrodite’s makeup no. 10 has the most perfect eyeliner I have yet come across on an SL skin. The effect is especially gorgeous on skin tone number 1, a slightly tanned hispanic look. Slipping into this skin gives me an instant sixites sexkitten look sported by legendary french bombshells Francoise Hardy and Brigitte Bardot way back then. The idea of smoky eyes and neutral to rosy lips is sensual rather than stark and the all over effect is very very “shut-up-and-kiss-me”.

 Lingerie: Insolence  Hair: Maitreya and Cake