Choose the shoes

This is a shoe post. You've been warned. After reading it you may feel the urge to spend indecent amounts of L$$ on new shoes. I guess that's fair warning.

As I said in a previous post not too long ago, despite my infrequent activity in SL™ I still managed to take a tour of the Shoe Fair 2011 - not only that, but I also made a few purchases, which you can see in this picture:

[Click on the shoe names in the text for links to individual pictures and descriptions on my Flickr.]

Am I happy with the results? Well, it varies. At first I wondered why some spend 975L on a single pair of shoes being able to get nice stuff for half the price, but I found the answer myself.

On the upper right corner are the Naucci Heels from [Decoy], priced at a reasonable 475L. These are a nice pair of sandals; however, not to be chosen if you're in a hurry. It took me a while to do the tinting seen above, and if you zoom into the picture, you'll be able to see that I didn't *quite* get the exact shade. Call me a perfectionist, but I appreciate having RGB bars in order to do some fine-tuning. The preset tones are approximate, but not exact, and there's no notecard with instructions to help out a bit.

Second, lower right, are the Maxine Wedges by Baiastice. At first I had bought the regular sandals, but upon realising that the wedge version was the charity item at the store, I decided to get both - for 590L each pair. I have to say those have been my biggest disappointment. It took me forever to do some relatively decent tinting, and one can easily see from the picture above that I did a poor job. Anyway, once you're done, you can't save it for future use - for that matter, you don't have a set of values to write down, either. Besides, despite all the nail polish options that are included, I had a hard time finding one that I liked. The package includes a notecard, but I didn't find it very useful - it gives a long-winded explanation on how to use the resize scripts, while IMHO those are self-explanatory. Not a word, though, about how to brave with the giant coloured box.

Next, on the lower left hand side, are the really popular Soleil sold at N-Core. At first I had my doubts, as 795L seemed quite steep for a pair of shoes, but then I bought them and found out all the options that they offer. In the single-colour package, as the name indicates, you buy just one version of the shoe - but you still have the possibility of changing the colour of the straps, the heel, the metal bits, etc. This is all done via a rather spiffy HUD, which is divided into 3 tabs: skin (shown above, where you can tint both skin and nails), stocking (where you can choose to wear those and also select their pattern and colour) and options (where you control all the tintable parts, plus sound, alpha, size, position and the standing animation). In case that's not enough, the notecard included in the package has pretty exhaustive instructions, as well as a significant list of RGB skin presets - where I could find my target skin tone, Belleza's Erika in Fair. All in all, it took me a few seconds to tint the skin - after I was done reading the instructions on the notecard, that is.

Finally, on the upper left corner are Maitreya Gold's Foxy - the most expensive pair in the whole lot, costing the sizable sum of 975L, but also my favourites. In my 4+ years around the grid I've never hidden the fact that I'm a Maitreya junkie, but in this case I also think their prim feet are some of the best made ones around. On the more practical side, the package comes with detailed instructions, an easy-to-use HUD and a notecard with the values of quite a lot of skins - some of which I had never really heard of. Erika wasn't on the list, but it didn't take me long to get it right nevertheless (I used the values of another Belleza Fair skin and it worked nicely). When I got ready to take the pictures I noticed that studio lights blew up the skintone, but it was just as easy as clicking one of the given presets and it was a match, so WIN.

So what's the conclusion of all this? Like with everything, it's mostly a matter of personal taste - in my case, I would rather spend a bit more and go for something practical. Perhaps there is not much of a difference between the shoes as such, but maybe the couple hundred more you're spending are due to the fact that someone put a lot of thought into developing a truly usable HUD. Or took ages checking and compiling the settings for all existing skins. That, for me, is priceless.

High-tech honey!

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post again. The good news is I finally got myself a new computer. The bad news, I can't take pictures with shadows on Phoenix - the result after trying is just a blank, or rather black, image. Tough luck. Maybe one day I'll have the patience to try the V2 viewer.

In the last few months, I've started a major inventory cleanup operation during my scarce SL time. I'm not really going to blog about that because there's enough tutorials on the topic - I'm essentially following the same steps as Harlow Heslop, perhaps with small variations. I started out with a nearly 40k inventory, which is now almost down to 30k, but that figure means I still have tons of work to do.

What's the point in me mentioning it, then? Well, the best thing about inventory cleanup is that one gets to discover real gems hidden in unpacked boxes, long-lost folders, etc. And what I'd like to blog about is one of those: the Raider dress from Miel (which means honey in Spanish). It sneaked into my inventory as a group gift when I touched their subscribo at some point, probably on the visit in which I got demos of pretty much everything they sell - and then never remembered to try them on, because I lost said demos in the chaos of my inventory. Anyway, the demos are now neatly packed in my "Demos" folder, and their dress makes a pretty good visiting card:

It comes in the six colours you can see above (left to right: nero, lime, gold, sky, coco and cranberry), both in solid and striped versions. In the picture I'm wearing the solid versions, except for nero, which is striped. All layer options are included, plus three sculpted parts: top, belt and skirt. The prims have a resize script that makes it really easy to fit to perfection (no zero-size bottom was needed in my case) and the colour changes are also controlled via script - which makes the dress a wonder of technology, as you only need to click once for all the different parts to change. Very practical.

Such a dress really deserved a proper set of shoes, so I went on a trip to the Shoe Fair 2011 for the occasion. I'll blog about my finds some time soon - for now, this is the list of what I got:
Maitreya Gold: Foxy in Pearl (worn with nero)
Baiastice: Maxine wedges in Sylver (with lime and sky) -Fair exclusive-
N-core: SOLEIL in Coffee (with gold and coco)
[Decoy]: Naucci Heels in Blue (paired with cranberry)

To finish off, I just added bangles to accessorise. Left to right:

TDR special Bangle I
Zaara : Melange bangles L (green)
RH Engel Jewelry - Sahara Collection - Tigers Eye Bangle
Zaara : Melange bangles L (blue)
ZC : Indra painted stacked bangles *gold* R

Hair in all cases is Truth's new-ish Phoebie (cranberry), skin is Belleza's Erika (group gift) and eyes are the Golden Green of Amacci's Real Eyes collection. Yes, I'm still looking for new eyes.

A hairy issue

Here's what. I've hardly been around for the past few months, due to nothing in particular, and to everything in general. I checked, and my last blog post dates back to December'09, for the Footwear Expo, which I couldn't miss for the life of me. And now, an event of similar proportions has happened (besides Sam hunting me with ideas for a blog post every time I log on). Anyway, the event. Sales. Sales all over the place. Every time I checked my offline group notices I read about a new one, and time was running against me. So what's a girl to do? Of course, go shopping. That is what I did. Compulsively. Not until I dropped, but until my L$ balance did... so low, I couldn't see it any more. What a weakling. But at least I got these pretties:

Nice, aren't they? Now, I must make a confession. The first place I hit was the Hair department at Fri.day, because if I'm not mistaken, the sale ends today. I hadn't bought anything for so long that I went overboard. It was like going to the kitchen to get a cookie and finishing up the whole packet. So Fri.day hair is all I bought. Of course, I cheat myself into thinking that this way I'm stocked for the whole of 2010. But the sheer thought haunts me: what if Truth holds a sale, too?

Anyways, from left to right, top to bottom: Brande 2, Miley, Carrie, Amelia, Melanie 2, Jasmine 2, Marie (without and with hair flower), Joanna 2, Mandy 2, Lucy 2 and Victoria 2. All shown in my favourite, Jealous Red. Other items in the picture are Tuli's Gina skin (The Dressing Room special), the discontinued Miriel's Forest green eyes and Glamour lashes, Tiny Bird's Painted Bird Dress (50L Fridays) and poses by /Geez/ (photosphere courtesy of Samara Barzane).

For separate, larger and slightly edited pictures, check my Flickr.

Elaine's monthly post: Foot for thought

Since they were released, I've been having mixed feelings about prim feet. The basic idea of getting rid of the ugly default toes seems good, but after the appearance of prim feet a new problem arose -- the phenomenon known as Frankenfeet -- which, in my opinion, is even uglier. My first shoes with prim feet were a freebie and a nightmare (I won't call names, though); the base colour of the prim was too dark and I never succeeded in matching the feet with the exact shade of my skin. But having seen increasingly acceptable feet around, I decided to go to the shoe expo, get some demos, and make the leap. Here are my results.

Top left are Tied Hunter in Bold, by Heart and Sole. They are not operated via HUD, but through blue popup menus. However, the out-of-the box skintone was quite close to mine and it was a pretty straightforward fix -- besides the RGB that I can't make much sense of, there is a "lighter" and a "darker" button, which worked well for me. The downside is that I couldn't find a way to remove the toe ring, as the shoes are no-mod. On the other hand, they are quite reasonably priced (around 400L) and look extremely sexy.

Top right are Kalnins' Conqueror. Being a Gold Card member and subscriber, I only paid about 225L for them with all the discounts, so I didn't even grab the demos before buying, as I am familiar with their usual level of quality. The shoes come with a HUD that is reasonably easy to operate -- it has three tabs: one for colour combinations, a second one for skin tones and the last one for resizing and extra options (foot light, sounds, and the like). The second and third tab worked great, but I must say I was a bit disappointed with the first one: happy as I am to be able to choose between thousands of colour combinations on the shoe, I missed having less flashy nail options. Also, I'm not too convinced with the build of the toes which, compared to others, look a bit too sausagey for my taste. Ah well.

Bottom left are Zara in Steel01 from Kitties Lair. A special pack was sold at the fair, at 490L for two pairs (pink and black) but I just loved this colour and decided to get it; after all, a single pack for 390L wasn't bad (at least not before I went broke). These also include a HUD; however, it was a nightmare for me to find a workaround. As you can see in the picture, in fact, I gave up before finding the exact skintone, because I got tired of adding and subtracting red, green and blue to the four basic skintones. Having said that, the nail options are really good, and both the shoes and feet are really well built, so I'll definitely give it another go sometime.

Bottom right are the Maitreya Gold Shanti, in Snow Leopard (an expo special colour). What can I say? Onyx LeShelle keeps outdoing herself. The HUD comes with several skin tone presets, which save you from the RGB nightmare (if you want to, you can go there, but the thing is you don't have to). Plus, the pack includes a notecard with the settings for the most popular skins, including my sunkissed Tuli, so I just followed the instructions, et voilà, fine-tuning done in all of 10 seconds. Also, the toes are completely different from all the others I've seen -- perfectly shaded, more realistic... my favourites so far. On the negative side is the price, over 900L, but seeing the results, I went back and bought Esprit too!

Finally, in the centre are the SLink Jolie Pied Achillia Gladiator in tan, the only footed-flats I found. SLink was the first store to offer standalone bare feet and I think their work is quite remarkable; from what I've heard, they've made serious developments since they started. The HUD was the first one I braved, so I wasn't too sure how to proceed -- it seemed easy, but it wasn't tremendously so. At 775L apiece, I'd say these shoes are worth their price, reasonably well-built and generally very wearable.

On all pictures I used a pose from the Foot Focus set (I think it was 09), from Long Awkward Pose, available at the expo.

Now, let me get back to unpacking the boots... in the meantime, you can check the full-sized pictures here.

Rock and fall

(comes out from under her hiding rock and notices the temperature)
Oh wow... it's not summer any more! Not even in Spain! How on Earth did that happen? Must be global warming. Right, so I'd better save that bikini blog post for next year (Ha! yet again) and show something more appropriate for the season...
(rummages through inventory)

Yes, that's much more like it. The central piece of the outfit is the DuffelCoat in beige from Aoharu, truly primlicious in terms of detail. It includes not only a prim hood and prim buttons, but the lower part is also sculpted and it has pockets! Pockets! I think I'm not taking it off until spring. I had a bit of a conundrum as to what to pair it with, but freebies came my way to make my life easier: the black turtleneck sweater is a group gift from *COCO* (one of many, well worth sacrificing a slot to grab the whole lot from the gift wall at the main store), and I found the scarf, also free, almost accidentally while browsing XStreet. It's from a place called Edge Grafica (totally unknown to me, but hey, I live under a rock) and it's copy/mod, so it lends itself for nice adjusting (I removed the back flexi prims so they wouldn't interfere with the hood). And I totally dig the safety pin.

In keeping with the theme, I rescued the Destroyed Wash jeans from Celestial Studios, an old classic of mine, paired with with the Unisex Classic Moccas from Armidi Gisaci (I read Milla's blog from under my rock, thank goodness for that, and thank goodness she's back or I'd be barefoot). The hair is (still) Fri.day's Cassie in jealous red, the skin is (still) Tuli's Hope in Onyx (the september picks reward), the Muted Hazel eyes and the Natural lashes are (still) Miriel's, and the poses are (still) from [LAP]. Some things never change.

Ah yes, the Tigers Eye earrings (which you can't really see, but I swear they were there the last time I looked) are from the RH Engel Jewelry Sahara collection.

Check the full outfit details here.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Actually it's tomorrow that is the 2 year anniversary of this blog, but never too early to celebrate!

At the beginning it was just me, but over time Noena Merlin, Fury Stapleton & Elaine Lisle joined in, adding their unique voices and skills to The 3 Fashionteers. The name has changed twice since the blog's beginning, but we have always sought to both edify and entertain, while giving our honest opinions.

Left to right: Noena, Elaine, Fury

So in hono[u]r of us all, here are the 3 first photos each posted on the blog. [If you think I'm going to post my first miserable photo you are wrong!] It's been a pleasure not only to be their friends, but to have the privilege of meeting each of them in RL. I can tell you that they are just as wonderful in RL as they are in SL, if not better :)

So here's to 2 years of blogging and friendship! And hopefully many more.

Pink and punk... with a hint of Asian!

I haven't done a proper "freebie post" for a while, and it's about time. But this one's about freebies of a special kind, meaning you can't just go grab them at the stores - they need some extra work.

First of all, the dress... oh the dress. When Miko Omegamu of *Icing* released Chinoiserie, I was in sighs at its gorgeousness, but then I was a bit disappointed that it would only be available in red - since a flame red dress on my redheadedness would be, I think, redness overload. However, hope sprung in my heart when I saw this newer release, Imperial Blossom, a more casual redux of the first one. The version I'm wearing for the pics is the special edition available through Miko's lucky chair - although, of course, those who are not terribly into waiting for their letter to come up (or into pink) can just hop over to the vendor and buy it, as it can be purchased normally, too.

When I tried it on, however, I knew I was in danger of doing girly or über-cute... and since sometimes I prefer to go the hard way, I decided right away that some black leather would be the ideal way of accessorising pink silk - so I rescued my much-used ETD Leather Ring Wristband. But... (Recurring dilemma!) What about the shoes? Oh yes! Perfect! Just last month was the Creators Stamp Rally, in which I participated and got a few nice gifts. I hadn't put my rewards to good use yet, among them the *COCO* Ankle Wrap Wedges, so I tried them on and... voilà, just the desired effect!

Continuing with the Asian theme of the dress and of the CSR hunt, I chose a slightly messy bun on my hair, Cassie in Jealous Red from the Fri.day sale (but - argh - I forgot to add a couple of chopsticks). Tuli had of course included the perfect makeup for this colour combo in the Hope fatpack - it's called Avenue, with a subtle green eyeshadow and glossy pink lips. I can't get enough of these skins. The eyes (in the exact shade of the eyeshadow) are Miriel's Strong Green, with Glamour lashes.

Poses, as per usual, are Long Awkward Pose's - much to my disappointment, I couldn't make it to the Poop Hunt this year, but I hope those of you who went got bucketloads of shite.

Large view, full details and slurls, here.

Another one bites the dust

While I was out in limbo, another store happened to close down - and since (as you may have guessed by now) I like those little tribute posts, I put something together to commemorate the occasion. In this case, it was the Rezzable sims, and the store, Crimson Shadow. After the announcement of its imminent disappearance I went off on a bit of a shopping spree, and I came out quite satisfied with the booty. I'm not sure how familiar you were with the store, as it mainly sold gothic gear, but one of my favourite corners was the Poison Candy one, filled with lots of retro outfits with a twist.

This one is called Vintage Skull Dress - although it is deceiving at first sight, a closer look at my cleavage will shed some light as to where the skull could be located. Just take a peek... don't dwell on it! The skirt is completely sculpted, not system, and it was a marvel to adjust - completely seamless! Not to mention the textures... and I just had to take more pictures to show the cute bow tie at the back!

Of course, when choosing the hairstyle I had showing that bow as an absolute must, and in the end I concluded that the perfect match was Sildette v.2 from Novocaine (which happens to be on sale for 50L in the Truth yard!). Also, in keeping with the retro style I chose the dark blue peep toe pumps from SKG Shoes - free (or 1L, I'm not sure because I got them ages ago, but whatever price it is, it surely is a nice deal). Earrings and necklaces were undoable, so I just stayed unjewelled for once.

Other items shown are Tuli's Hope skin in the Gig makeup (yaaay fatpack!), Miriel's Cool Shimmer eyes and Natural eyelashes and Long Awkward Pose poses. If you want further details or slurls, you can check them out on my Flickr.

Spanish summer

Hi hi! I've been quiet for a few weeks, first due to holidays, and then due to having to catch up with work after those days off... (Life is hard!) At least the holidays gave me a break from this cruel, hot weather, but now I'm right back into it, and it doesn't look like getting better for at least a month. As you will understand, with these temperatures we have in Spain, I'm not really looking forward to getting dressed, so I've been this close to doing a bikinis post (and maybe skins) but then Fury was faster... clever girl! So, I tried to put together something light, cool and summery, that I would very much wear to combat the Spanish summer in style.


The dress is the Silk organza dress from Armidi Gisaci - which I first saw on Autumn Hykova (owner of Tiny Bird) on her Flickr, and I instantly fell in love with it, so I did not hesitate to ask. Hers was in a darker plum colour, but the fabrics are so incredibly light that I thought a light shade would be the most appropriate choice here. So I picked immaculate white for the challenge to make it look non-bridal. With that purpose, I put the accent on non-discreet accessorizing, with bright colours that totally speak of summer - yellow and orange. The shoes are the Saturday flats from Shiny Things, in the shade so aptly called sun. The necklace is an oldie, the Han Hana Bead Necklace by Earthtones (now Luc), and the bangles and earrings are part of the Melange set by Zaara, in this case in yellow.

The hair you've seen me blog before, it's Sehra in cranberry by Truth, with the yellow flower - I just can't get enough of it, it goes well with pretty much everything and it totally screams of summer, plus the textures... (sighs) This man is a genius. The skin is also by a genius, and I think it's safe to say I'm madly in love with it - it's still Tuli's Hope in natural. But let me share something: today I made up my mind and went off to Journey to get myself the whole Hope fatpack. Concentrating this much love on just one skin can't be healthy, so I decided I have to share it with the whole 10 makeups!! (cuddles the pack)

The other items you see in the picture are the Miriel Vivid Hazel eyes and Glamour lashes (no longer available) and some of my 170 LAP poses. For further info and slurls, check here.

I want to be a princess...

... every time I buy a new gown at Evie's Closet.

I've been wanting to blog these pieces forever, but there was always something else that came up and skipped the queue. So, it's about time I talked about Evie's Closet, probably the best place to go for those interested in period gowns, but also a very interesting landmark for those who just like good quality clothing in general, since their creator, Evangeline Miles, has an incredible eye for detail. Each of these beauties is absolutely flawless, worth every single L$ you pay for it. On a first impression they might seem a bit pricy, but at around 500L apiece, considering the probable amount of time it took to create these gowns, I'd say every single linden is justified. Some gowns include extras in the pack, such as modesty undershirts, different sleeve options, and even a wreath in the case of Aria. But I'd say, even without those bonuses, these gowns stand all by themselves. On the pictures I tried to capture the flow of the skirts on the less poofy ones, but I failed miserably -- it takes seeing them in motion to really understand how skilfully done they are.

Watch and drool, if you feel so inclined... (hands tissues)

I had to stuff a lot of images on this post, so please click on them to view the large versions.


Meanwhile I'll pray to the Blogger gods so that the formatting stays in place and my order makes sense.



First, top left is the Aria Gown in teal, which may be familiar to some because the white version was given away as a group gift a while ago. What I like most about this gown is the texturing -- the satin on the skirt has a glow that is just right. Also, the skirt -- oh the skirt -- is one of those that makes you want to dance just to see it in motion. The gown comes with both long and short sleeve versions, as well as a modesty undershirt and a wreath, so you really can't ask for more.

Next, Top right is Romany Kiss, again previously distributed as a gift (this time, for everyone) in a special colour version. It was actually the first Evie gown to go into my inventory (at some clothing fair ages ago, I think) and I instantly fell in love with it. Anyway, the colour shown here is Passion. What can I say about it, other than that the top is beautifully textured with embroidery, which matches the belt, the skirt flows and the sleeves fit like a glove? Nothing, I guess!!

Bottom left is the Chimera Gown in Onyx. This one also came with a modesty undershirt, which matches with the sleeves, picking up on the colour of the skirt and adding some extra texture detail, but I so loved the fit of the decolletage that I went without. The corset is a must-see, and the delicate beaded belt just adds win to the whole outfit.

Finally, bottom right is the Aurora Gown in Green. This one has me in awe: it came with a system skirt, which I initially disregarded (as I generally tend to do) -- big mistake!! When I put it on I realised that Evie has cleverly turned the extra layer into an essential element, that is, a belt! If you look at the picture closely, it's the darker green piece that covers the hips -- it covers up the area where the skirt is attached, and thus the corset and the skirt, which are a different colour, are beautifully joined.

As to the rest of the outfit, for all the pictures I used Tuli's Hope June 2009 Picks Reward special skin (what, you don't have it yet? gogogo!!); Truth's Sehra hair, which allowed me (yay!!) to match the flower to the different outfit colours (purple with Aria, invisible with Romany kiss, grey with Chimera and lime with Aurora). Eyes are Miriel's Cool Shimmer, lashes are Glamour from Miriel too, and jewellery is Eolande's Picks Rewards Gift #5 (oops, I forgot to collect 2 to 4), the Pearl Valentine set. Shoes are Maitreya's Slinky Stilettos (believe it or not), and poses, Reel Expression's Party Dress set.

Details and slurls on my flickr, to clear up any likely mess.

And with this, I bid my farewell for a couple of weeks. Be well, ciao!!

[Edit: I just read on Miriel's blog that the sim is going to disappear tomorrow, so if you don't have all the eyes yet, run get them!]

Survival tips for hunters

Warning: Not only a fashion-related post. If you don't care, scroll down to the picture - the outfit details are below that.

There are currently about a dozen (or more) active hunts on SL™. People tend to have mixed feelings towards those, but a very common argument against them is that they're lagfests, so some plain refuse to participate, which is something I don't totally get, since I know there are a couple of things one could try before giving up in order to improve the hunting experience.

I am the proud owner of a Frankensteined computer, i.e. one made up of both very old components (including the graphics card) and brand spanking new ones. To give a rough idea what my Second Life™ experience is like: I can't activate atmospheric shaders, reflections on water and glow are nonexistent, and my skies are generally pretty plain. I do, however, have a fairly smooth in-world existence, and I even make it through hunts. But how?

First of all, I am good friends with my Graphics tab on the Preferences menu (or dialog, in geekspeak). I keep changing the settings depending on where I go - Ultra is reserved for photo sessions, Mid works for everyday usage and Low is for crowded evironments - sales, hunts, lucky chair stalking, etc. Low settings basically ensure somewhat quicker rezzing, although mileage can vary, depending on the amount of stuff that needs to be rezzed. Sometimes the many sculpties that people wear never stop looking like giant balls, but to be honest, on such occasions I don't really pay attention to what people are wearing. Which leads me to something else: ARC.

Avatar Rendering Cost (ARC) shows a point score above each avatar's head which indicates how "laggy" they are on the viewer-side. ARC is found in Advanced Menu > Rendering > Info Displays > Avatar Rendering Cost. [...] It's generally best to be considerate of others when putting together your avatar, and to do what you can to stay under a score of 2,000, especially in crowded areas. Under 1,000 is even better. These are only guidelines, but be aware that the higher your score is, the more lag you generate for other Residents, particularly those with older machines.

(from Second Life Wiki)

ARC is something that generates somewhat heated discussions, and I must say I'm no expert in the matter, so I'll stay away from fundamentalism. I try to keep my score low whenever I go to crowded sims; however, I do my best to avoid seeing what the others' rendering cost is. Policing other avatars' ARC will just ruin your mood - it will even make you want to poke some people in the eye - so I just want to propose a healthy (even fun, for those on the geeky side) exercise related to it, hoping it can be useful to some.

First, let me tell you how it all started. Keris (it's always the boyfriend's fault!) was totally thrilled about having a hunt for men (the Make Him Over Hunt), and in joining the hunt group, he commented that a "hunter skin" (that is, a skin with clothes baked on it, on just one layer) had been given away to be worn during the hunt and to help reduce lag. It had me wondering about the effectiveness of having all clothing textures on one layer as opposed to several, so we did the test. We detached all prims (bald! horrors!) and stayed only with textures on, he on one layer, and I, on multiple ones. Result? ARC = 1, for both. Which means you don't really need to go so minimalist - and, good news for the fashion-conscious, you can be well-dressed while hunting.

So, based on that information, I tried to create a "hunting outfit" that kept ARC to a minimum, as I realised that my "shopping outfits" did not quite help reduce lag. This ensemble is just an example, I don't mean to prescribe an official uniform, so turn on your ARC, be creative and make your own. Here are some tips. For starters, skirts (except sculpted ones) are based on lots of prims, so they increase ARC massively - for this reason, trousers are generally better. Also, needless to say, elaborate jewellery is pretty much out of the question.

Here's my outfit, adding up to a total of 285 (306 with the wedding band):



The base skin is Tuli's Hope in natural makeup and sunkissed tone (yep, I think the skinwhoring phase is over). On the jacket layer I'm wearing the Isis shirt in midnight blue by Zaara, with the cami from Ornamental Life called Flower War on the shirt layer to cover sheerness. The nicely matching colour is Bake my Heavens - gotta love the names Shir gives to her stuffs. The trousers are also from Zaara, the Ishaya Velour slacks in white (can you tell there was a sale and I piled up?). I even added the sculpted bottoms, as they increased my ARC next to nothing, but of course, if you go without, that's even lower cost.

Clothes done, ARC still bright green. Now for the tricky bit: hair and shoes. These are the pieces that really make a difference, as they use up lots of prims and alpha textures. I've chosen a shorter (and therefore less primmy) hairstyle, without alphas - the Davina II from ETD. I've tried on lots of hair for this, and Davina was the one that gave best results for me, but I'm sure there's tons of options. Regarding the shoes, I was surprised that these older ones (thus, not made with sculpties) from Shiny Things, the Classics in blue sea, would increase my ARC so little. I decided I could even add a bonus in the form of lashes (Natural, by Miriel); but of course, if you choose to wear a skin that includes painted lashes, you could even save that extra cost. The eyes are Miriel's Cool Shimmer and the poses are from Imperial Elegance.

Whew! Longest.post.evah.

Timeless Ivalde

I've been having a hard time sorting through the Ivalde items in my inventory - I had never fully realised the amount of clothes I have from that store, and seeing the fashion feeds this week, I suspect this is true for a lot of people. Mostly, this is proof of Neferia's generosity, since a lot of those items made it into my inventory as group gifts, Advent gifts (2007 and 2008), hunt gifts, lucky chair gifts, just-because gifts... you name it. Some clothes I didn't even remember having tried on, some fell into oblivion and had never been unpacked, so this week is feeling a bit like Christmas day for me. A few times I've heard people who complain about the quality of gifts, which is something I really don't get... haven't they heard the "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" saying? Anyway, I'm not going to enter that discussion, although for today, I wanted to put together a post that serves as testimony, for such naysayers, that Ivalde gifts do not fall into the category of second-class items at all; quite the contrary, they are sheer reflections of the quality of the store and the skills of their creator. It is also interesting to try them on chronologically, which clearly shows the evolution of Neferia's designing skills - with increasingly more complex and detailed textures, better usage of prims and, finally, the arrival of sculpties.


My first choice, on the left, is a fifties-style cocktail dress, called Rosa (which totally reminds me of an outfit worn by Charlotte York in Sex and the City, by the way). This was given away as a group member gift, and not only does the skirt flow beautifully, the texturing is also flawless. I paired it with the Shiny Things Brandys in white and the ::69:: Egoist hair in fieryred.

In the centre of the picture you can see Pauline in teal - I don't have a clear idea when or where I got it, but I do suspect it was a gift too. This seventies minidress features a clever combination of different textures - satin and crochet (my apologies if that's not the right word, my English vocabulary is very lacking in this area). The seams are perfect, but what I liked best was the fact that I didn't have to do anything to adjust it - it just fit. I combined it with the Aphrodite Creations Rosette pumps, the Maitreya Emma hair in red and, since I didn't want to offend the audience with knees and thighs (:-p), I added the leg part of the Celestial Studios Black fishnet tights, which I shortened to create a legging effect.

Last, but not at all least, on the right is my most awesome discovery, the Taylor blue rose dress - a lucky chair gift. The puffy sculpted skirt totally called for an eighties style (in a good way) for me, sort of how Carrie Bradshaw would do it - so I went straight for the slouchy Maitreya SoHo boots and the Sheer fishnet tights (22: mesh black), topped off with Truth's Linda in cranberry.

As you can see, for all three outfits I kept accessories to a bare minimum in order to keep the accent on the dresses. Skin-wise I used the Tuli Hope June 2009 Picks reward special (which everyone can get by adding Tuli to their profile picks), the Cool Shimmer eyes by Miriel and the Glamour lashes (by Miriel, too). Poses are from the Imperial Elegance Lolita set (left and centre), and from the Reel Expression Party Dress set (right).

More Ivalde Goodness

Following up Fury's and Sam's posts about Ivalde, it didn't take me long to decide which pieces created by Neferia Abel I wanted to show as my favourites. The first one, the Arsinoe Egyptian Princess Gown, has a very special significance for me - originally it is not sold as a wedding gown, but it was in fact the dress I wore for my partnering party with Keris. I liked (and chose) it because of its simplicity, as I didn't really want to look like Bridezilla, but at the same time I wanted to wear something that honoured the day.

All of the items, except the skin (Tuli's Hope Natural, a group gift) and eyes (Miriel's Emerald), are the ones I originally wore for the partnering: ETD's Eva hair, Cascade Diamond earrings from JCNY, Star necklace in white from Alienbear Designs and White silver stiletto slingback pumps from SKG Shoes.

My second choice gets voted as the most fantastic period gown I own. I originally bought the Liza Blue Vintage Promgown for a ball that was going to be celebrated at the Land of Lincoln sim and which never took place (for reasons unknown to me), so this beauty and my Southern Belle persona were folded back into my inventory, awaiting a chance to get shown off - so I guess this is it. As I cropped the pics I realised, though, that the skirt totally guarantees the preservation of your personal space by a couple square metres... so I may reconsider and wear it to the next sale (coughs).

Anyway, besides the dress, in the picture I'm wearing Tuli's Hope Natural skin, again (warning: once you try it on, you'll never be able to get off it); ETD's Roslin updo and Miriel's Cool Shimmer eyes and Teardrop Earrings in Antique Gold (free! hurryhurry!). The shoes are the same ones I wore with the first outfit - but unless you've got some extraordinary superpower, I can't really prove it.

This said, I would also like to wish Nef a prompt recovery from her health issues and send my hopes that she will be able to get back and fill the grid with her beautiful designs soon. Get well soon, Nef.

Summer of Love

Warning: Yet another weather-driven post!
I've totally embraced summer clothes in RL by now, which translates into a turn towards hippie-ish styles in-world. After having a look around the feeds I realise I'm not the only one... would this just be an excuse to wear skimpy clothes without feeling embarrassed or slutty? Mayhaps. But this is not a psychoanalysis post, so let's talk about the clothes!

This ensemble was born with the Asian Tunic from Kurotsubaki, one of those charming (not so little) Japanese stores where you end up spending a whole lot of lindens before blinking. (I warned you!) The tunic comes in two different lengths, and although I can't remember 100% sure which one I used on the pictures (that's how long they've been waiting to be blogged!), but I'd say it's the short version, which looks more like a vest. Underneath it, to give some extra coverage and diminish skimpiness, I used a simple white tank, the Simple White Tank (teehee) by TorridWear, an old freebie that comes in very handy as a basic piece for anyone's wardrobe. The shorts, called Autumn, are from Twosome, another little store worth discovering (and raiding, since they have quite a few low-price, high-quality items).

I must apologise for repeating shoes (the Coquettes from Kalnins); this doesn't mean I've definitely stopped shoe-shopping (god forbid!), but that I'm still trying out the 14,641 different colour combinations... I'm hoping to be done soon. The bangles are from Yak & Yeti, a Nepalese-themed freebie store whose main store had to close down when the new Openspace policies were introduced. They might have their satellite stores still in operation, though... I'll do some in-world research and report back.

The other items shown are Maitreya's Apple hair, Tuli's exclusive Faith "The Deck" skin (drools), Miriel's Quiet Green eyes and Feather lashes. [Edit: Poses are from Imperial Elegance and Striking Poses.]

For the whereabouts of Yak & Yeti and the tunic version details, follow this link.

Windows of the soul

In my previous blog post, I commented very briefly -in fact, I only posted the link- on the announcement that Miriel is closing down for good. I felt, however, that such news required further acknowledgement. So here's a full blog post... kind of my elegy. The jewellery is great, granted, because it's all scripted and you can choose the gems you want to wear and always match your outfit. However, Miriel has been the staple store for me in terms of eyes.

Eyes are an item that gets ignored every now and then; in fact, I have more than once thought to myself "I wonder where those eyes are from" when reading a blog post. I always do make a point in saying that the eyes I show in my pictures are from Miriel, but I'm just as guilty of not saying which exact ones they are. If you go back to my first blog post in February (I'm not expecting anyone to really go, it's just a trope), they were already there, and so were the lashes; in fact, a quick look at my Flickr informs me that my addiction dates back to August 2008, and since I turned to Miriel, I've never looked back.

The reasons are many. But if I had to make it short - I guess I'd say they're soulful eyes. They're so well made that they have a life of their own. I must admit I'm fussy about eyes: many times I've heard people say that X creator's are the best, but when I try them on it takes me 0.5 seconds to find fault and get back to good old Miriels. Also, I don't want to settle for just any shade of green, there's always a specific one on my mind, and Miriel has it. In fact, such versatility allows me to change my eye colour depending on my mood - and my clothes, why not. Sam took me there the first time, and I've kept going back for more. When I was there to get assorted one last time yesterday, it was sad to think it will soon be gone.

Ok, let the violin music stop and the pictures speak for themselves. Here is a selection of my favourite eyes from Miriel (I labelled the images themselves to avoid messing up, if you want to see each row separately, they're available here):

Birthday gift

A few days ago I was wandering around -ok, doing the WebQuest hunt- totally oblivious that I still wore my "Happy rezday to me!" tag, when something funny happened. I landed at a store called Spork, which was totally new to me. The store owner, GM Nikolaidis, was there and welcomed me singing "Happy rezday" off-key... we had a short conversation and I was pleasantly surprised by his sense of humour. To boot, he ended up sending me a gift voucher (despite me telling him it had been weeks ago), so I decided to take a look around anyway and pick a piece, just to see whether their clothing was any good.

My choice was the Flight dress, and I let GM pick a colour for me, so that it would be a surprise gift... and yay! he picked blue, which turns out to be my favourite colour. Textures, layers, originality... Spork is definitely on my list of places to get back to. In fact, after trying on the dress I decided to return in order to get one of the "expansion packs" of the dress, the Midi skirt - since I knew I'd feel more comfortable with a longer skirt length.

More stuff. Want to hear some good news? I had been drooling over Keris' shoes from Kalnins every time he bought a new pair, so when he told me they've started making women's shoes and forwarded me the notice, I nearly threw a party. It's not just that the sandals (Coquette) are awesomely well done, but that, instead of releasing a gazillion different colours and making you choose one, or charging a fortune for a fatpack, they only do one pair, with a colour change script, and sell it at a very reasonable price (500L if you're not a gold card member, half that if you are). Besides a ton of options (resizing, sounds, a footlight [!], etc.), the script lets you recolour 4 shoe parts separately, so all in all, for 500L you get... 4... 8... 12... umm... many! different shoe combinations. (Edit: Keris did the calculations, and fyi, there are 14641 variations) *faints*

*Gets up again* All right, time to finish. Other items shown above are: Alexis skin by Laqroki; Truth's new freebie hair, Jess; Miriel eyes and lashes (by the way: this is terribly sad), and the Shiny Things Glass Chunk necklace and double bracelet. Poses are from Reel Expression, if I recall correctly.

As usual, here's the full outfit credits.

Oh, Mama!

In my country (Spain) we celebrated Mother's Day one week earlier that almost everyone else - it's always on the first Sunday of May for us. So, while everyone else was celebrating with their mums, I got away from my family for the weekend. Of course, as is customary whenever there's any special day on SL, I came back to a ton of notices that were doomed to getting lost. I could, however, rescue an important one saying that Nicky Ree had a special Mother's Day gift, available only until 12th May. Lookit!

It is, of course, not me but the dress, Satin Shine Floral Gown in blue. As is usual with Nicky Ree's designs, it comes with two different skirt options, but I'm only showing the ballgown one in the picture because I suffer from that common SL disease, called bigbummitis.

I guess I could have worn prim feet with this one, because surely no one would have noticed a skin colour mismatch. However, I opted for rescuing a pair sandals from last season, which I think picked up nicely on the purples and blues on the gown - they're Sasy Chic in Tulipe, from Aphrodite Creations. Also the delicate jewellery, from Dark Mouse, echoed the blue on the dress. They're the Spring Flowers earrings and necklace in silver, plus the Aquamarine Chunk Bracelet, also in silver.

The skin is an old favourite, a Vogue from Celestial Studios - although I had my doubts, because the new group gift from Rockberry (Uma) matched very nicely, too, also with purple smoky eyes. But I guess I've been changing skins so much lately that I liked the idea of getting back to a classic. The hair is ETD's Tiana, eyes and lashes are from Miriel and poses are from the Reel Expression "Party dress" set.

Full outfit credits, here.

It's a green day

Greetings! I'm going to keep this one short and sweet - I just wanted to share my serendipitous discovery of the week: sometimes designers give out freebies that coordinate perfectly - unknowingly, I presume.

Why do I say this? Well, first, during the weekend I received the new subscriber kiosk gift from Pink Outfitters that every0ne's already blogged, because it's worth it: the Poppy Sheer Chiffon Blouse in light green... which I doubtlessly paired with the *I k i* straight leg jeans in indigo. But here's the twist: no matter how many pairs I have in my inventory, my shoes never match the way I want them to! I tried and tried, but nothing I already own would convince me. And then, poof, I saw the MK Bella Sneaks on Berry's blog ('cuz Berry is my new unofficial style guru). "Nice," I thought. "I wish they would do them in green." When droolage (I know, it's not even a real word) subsided, I scrolled down, and there they were! They did not only exist, but they were also on sale for just 1L. Besides the fact that the colour looks perfect, I love the name - green tea. Kinda awesome stuff, right?

Apologies for the brevity, but I'm redoing my AO and I need to concentrate. :-p

If you want to find out the name of the skin of the week (yeah, I'm afraid skinwhoring isn't over yet), the details of the missing items or any other outfit information, it's all on my Flickr.

Who put a spell on me?

Srsly, Secondlife™ is a sale festival lately and I can't stop spending.
Crisis? What crisis?

The dress shown in the picture, the Runed Wrap Dress, is part of the still ongoing *Hexed* sale. When I first tried it on I wasn't sure about it - the skirt was a bit too short for my taste, but thanks to Miko Omegamu's video tutorial I managed to adjust it to the desired length without any problems - I guess the awesome texture motivated me enough, et voilà, a totally wearable dress! As further precaution against leg exhibition I added the Mesh Black tights from *Sheer* and the Maitreya SoHo Boots in black suede, which I had been hankering for since I first saw the release announcement. I know there's prim feet sold all around the grid (even some freebie ones); I have been beta-testing them lately, but I still prefer the good old toe hiding system of wearing a nice pair of boots (especially because they do not require tinting every time you change skins!!).

Which reminds me, another discount item: the skin. Yup, I'm still on *that* experimental phase where I can't wear the same skin (skin brand, even) for a week - but seriously, how could I? They're all so yummy! Shown above is Laqroki's Alexis skin, from the portrait line, whose prices have all been reduced. At the sight of a Laqroki, I must confess I normally say, "Are you kidding me? At those prices? Not *that* good!"... but I guess 990L for a full pack (6 makeups) is enough to convince me to try them out. All the other portrait skins I tried on made me feel "someone else", but Alexis fit just right. One of these days I may do a skin post - if you don't mind me doing it in a diving suit!

Anyhow... while I was still at the Hexed sale I received a notice from Dark Mouse that announced reduced prices on some items to be retired - so in my shopping daze, off I went! Here you can see the Lapis Lazuli set in silver. Could it be a match made in heaven? The gems wouldn't have fitted the blue on the dress so perfectly if I had done it on purpose!! I paid about 50L for all three sets (silver, gold and copper) and all the reduced prices were along those lines, so I bought everything that was on sale, just in case. If the world ends now, I win best accessorized! ;-)

The other items shown are Truth's Nikhita (still from *that* 50L sale), eyes and lashes by Miriel, and the Sunny Day Stone Bangles from EarthStones. Poses with attitude from Long Awkward Pose.

Further outfit details here.