More well-sculpted shoes are always fun to see. Yesterday, I featured 2REAL’s Pure lowtops, so today I’m taking a look at House of Curios excellent—and amazingly cheap—new hightops, called Swypes.

I greatly admire anyone who tackles shoes in SL—they’re quite difficult to swing in a good way, to the point where there’s just four or five shoe designers I ever bother visiting with any regularity. A fresh addition to that small group, however, is 2REAL. These shoes are all over the feeds right now, and quite rightly. They’re exquisitely sculpted and textured by 2REAL Okelli, with a huge variety in terms of looks you can achieve.

While I am waiting for the Clothing Fair to rez in one window, I am catching up on blogging some other acquisitions. Such as the oh so sexy Mourna outfit from Silent Sparrow, which I decided to pair with the new Nomine skin, Mosaic, that I reviewed the other day.

The SL Clothing Fair benefitting RFL opens tomorrow at 3 PM SLT. Just as last year the fair will consist of a total of 9 sims, with 8 of them built to represent the theme of “fashion cities of the world”. Each participating designer will have at least 4 RFL items in their store (and do make sure to shop from these so that you can take part in the photo contest) and many also offer exciting new releases. Its a fabulous chance to browse some of the best designers in SL and raise money for an important cause at the same time. It is, of course, also a fabulous chance to experience first-class lag, so make sure to travel lightly in terms of attachments.

The press preview isn’t actually starting for another hour, but I am going to be a little sneaky and at least offer a look at some of the new items offered by Adam n Eve at the fair. I’ve been itching to share these for a few days now. Plus, a new Exile hair and a brief look at Tuli’s Eva skin, which will be released on March 18th. I expect to do a more in-depth review of that soon.

Quite recently, Ran reviewed the latest male skin from Nomine, Noam. The release saw some fairly significant changes in the style of the skin which we both felt made them work on more shapes, and naturally I started hoping that a new female release might be on its way too. I’ve liked the look of a lot of the previous skins too, but they’ve not quite worked for my shapes.

Yesterday, then, saw the release of the new female skin, Mosaic. I ran over to check them out and found a face with just the right blend of youth and attitude for me, so when Munchflower offered me a sample pack for reviewing, I was more than happy to say yes.

I do like an excuse to get naked save for some jewellery. In this case the excuse consists of Launa Fauna’s special Lapine skin for the thought-provoking Melt installation and Siyu Suen’s first new release for the Accessory Fair.

New clothes from Silent Sparrow is always a pleasure to get our hands on, to say the least, and these latest additions are no exception.

At last, I can show the full skin tone and facial hair range of Noam, now that Munchflower Zaius has rolled out the full line. Besides the addition of many additional facial hair/makeup options, there’s been a number of tweaks between this and the pre-release version I reviewed earlier.

Tonight was one of those nights in SL.  The textures—especially the alpha layer for the boots—just wouldn’t load. At least not until it was almost bedtime for me. But, I just had to get this post out, with the latest and very cool release from Solange and with the sexy “Viewer 2.0 Ready” boots from Adam n Eve.

So…Viewer 2.0. Can’t say I like the UI (but until I get a lighter skin, I can’t judge it fairly; dark skins are devilspawns), but I can definitely say I like some of the new features, not the least the tattoo layer and the alpha layer. The best part is that there is already content out there for trying out how useful these layers can be, such as two collections of add-on makeups and face tattoos from sachi Vixen of Adam n Eve. Oh, and a 69 L Hump Day face tattoo, which you really ought to get even if you don’t have the viewer yet since it won’t be around later.

Swaffette Firefly knows just how to catch my interest. One of those amazing, all-around designers who can produce formals, casuals, and historical wear for avatars in SL, these brand new Captain Shirts are really very nice. Nice ... and ruffly.

Ran and I used to do quite a few hunts in SL, though it has been a good while since we had the time to do so. Plus, our inventories are insane enough as it is, at least mine. But the Magic & Romance hunt organized by Morgaine Price of Mer-Elf Creations did tempt me to do some store-hopping since it is all about fantasy-inspired clothing. It is also quite a small hunt, so it won’t overwhelm you if you give it a try.

And if you do, make sure to check out the regular on-sale items offered by the stores too. Such as this forthcoming release from Mer-Elf Creations, the Wish gown.

Corsets are undoubtedly a weakness of mine in SL. Lately there’s been a few attempts at producing a corset that gets closer to simulating the very cinched-in waist of a tight RL corset by using sculpted prims together with invisiprims. The latest such attempt comes from Silent Sparrow, where hyasynth Tiramisu of late has been adding some interesting prim pieces (and jewelry, even) to her repertoire.

For this look at her prim corset, I’ve paired it with another weakness of mine and another new release; a lovely long and flowing hair with beautiful flexi curls and no bangs from Jolie Femme.

It’s been awhile, but Munchflower Zaius of Nomine has released a brand new male skin, and it’s ... well, it’s quite pretty, which I think is the plan. Before I go further, though, note that this skin is from a preview release, and Munchflower is not entirely done with the skin line. So, on to the particulars.

It seems to be the season for new hair textures, as both Tiny Bird and Exile have launched whole new texture lines for their hairs. I am really liking the overall look and the colours from both designers, and in both cases I feel they’re softer and richer. Exile, in particular, has really improved the reds, plus made some colour packs that are very excellent value for money.