Before I get on with the gushing over pretty things, allow me to squeal. I won a contest! Specifically, SL Posers inaugural Flickr contest. My entries can be seen here and here. Now I will have even more fabulous LAP poses to play with. Poor Ran (he’s the photographer) will not get a moment free. ;) So, what’s on the menu today, other than showing off sexy poses? Well, a new fabulous dress from Adam n Eve (the colour is absolutely sinful), some more Tekeli-li jewellery and a skin reminder.

I am procrastinating, and that always gets me thinking about all sorts of things. Today’s random thoughts (actually, they’re not so much random as meandering little sidetracks sparked by a couple of things) concern some wishful thinking about skin selling approaches in SL and a little pet peeve about something resulting from the many recent virtual copyright cases (and no, its not no-mod hair this time, though I still dislike that).

I have had my eye on Naergilien Wunderlich’s store for a while now. She is an RL costume designer who is reproducing many of her own designs for Second Life. Her store includes a lot of Victorian clothing, some Elizabethan outfits, and some outfits inspired by various period or fantasy movies. In addition to this, she has a separate store for modern clothing and she has also made a few photorealistic skins as well. Most recently she has added her first batch of period.appropriate hairs. It was this latest addition that prompted me to finally pick up a few things.

When it rains, and pours. sachi Vixen of Adam n Eve has released not one but two new male skin lines in the space of two days, and there was much rejoicing since it’s been a good while since she’s done a new male skin for sale. This review is of the first one, the David, which is available in four tones along with four facial hair options; each purchased skin comes with the option of head hair and bald. The tones run from relatively pale to quite dark, and the face (when compared to the second skin, Nicholas) seems a bit younger. 

As I popped over to check out Calla’s new store this morning, I ran into Tekelili Tantalus of Tekeli-li. Just the other day he released his latest set of fantasy jewellery, and he made me a very happy girl by giving me a copy of the full set. I guess that means I’ll catch up on some of the older releases that I don’t have yet instead with the funds intended for that purchase. ;) Alternatively, I’ll see if I can’t persuade Ran to let me buy him a copy of the new set too, because unlike past Tekeli-li releases this one is intended as a unisex set. As such, it includes two sizes of the bracelets and the choker.

I was trying to be a good girl yesterday (at least in terms of not spending all my hard-earned Lindens too impulsively), but we all know what happens to good intentions, right? In this case, mine took wing and flew out the window as soon as I saw the forum post announcing a new jewellery set from Tekeli-li. Off I went to check out the new offering, and moments later I was teleporting back home with a much higher ARC than when I arrived. Oops. ;)

When I saw the Lord Edward suit at the Fleur-Nicky Ree Spring Ball, being worn by a model, I just had to get it. It’s perhaps the most gorgeous piece of 18th century-inspired clothing I’ve seen in SL. The brocaded waistcoat, the big buttons against the green stripes, the aged lace, the knee-high stockings—just utter perfection, precisely the thing to suit this particular avatar (based on a roleplaying character I’ve always supposed existed in a sort of broadly 17th-18th century sort of setting). Alas, Nicky hadn’t gotten it into her store then, so it was an anxious few days until I could finally get my hands of it.

Yesterday, Ayesha Bisiani of Skin Within launched yet another addition to her line of gorgeous and highly distinctive female skins. The new addition is called Zarya, and it is intended as a Greek skin. Certainly, Zarya’s olive complexion, slightly toned body and wide variety of stunning makeups are definitely worthy of a classical goddess.

What do you get if you mix a limited edition fantasy makeup from Skin Within with a fae costume from Adam n Eve and some gorgeous accessories from Tekeli-li? A pretty striking result, if I may say so myself, but do read on and see if you agree with me.

Lately, Ran and myself have started to develop a slight addiction to silent sparrow. We’ve had an interest in hyasynth Tiramisu’s gorgeous Victorian and Gothic offerings for some time, and picked up a few pieces (as well as many very lovely freebies), but it has been the most recent releases that have had us eagerly opening up any notecards from her group to see what is on offer. Today the Beloved suit arrived, available in a male and a female version, and we realized we just had to get ourselves a matching set. 

For the last few days, I have been sauntering about in rather less than what one probably ought to wear in public, but I simply have had too much fun wearing the new Crochet silks from Adam n Eve to take them off unless I am going somewhere .... well, respectable. ;)

Now, silks from Adam n Eve are generally of a style than you can wear in most areas, as they tend to feature full skirts and tops that amount to a bit more than pasties. The Crochet silk is from a similar cut, with one of the four bottom-half options being a full skirt (the other are a mini-skirt, a loin-cloth style skirt and harem pants), but as the name suggest the material isn’t all that covering.

Thanks to Ornamental Life, I was alerted to the one-day sale at Tekeli-li on the 2nd of April. I had been curious about their rather unique-looking fantasy jewellery before, but I hadn’t actually checked it out. Silly me. As soon as I got over there, and found a large collection of full sets of stunning jewellery at incredible prices (incredible even before the sale price of 47% off, mind you), I knew that the cleaning out of my inventory I had done a few days earlier would be all in vain. Now I’d get to clean out some lindens instead. ;)

I somehow managed to not buy every set in the shop (though in addition to the 7 that I did get and will be showing in this entry, I also picked up some fantasy weapons), but it was not without some effort. I went back several times to pick up more sets, after trying on the previous purchases and finding them even more stunning than their pictures showed them to be. They are beautifully crafted (but yes, quite prim heavy, so probably nothing to wear at the next fashion show) and the scripted colour-changing makes for amazing variety. On some pieces, there are as many as 5 different sections that you can change individually. That means that for between 200 and 400 lindens, you get a set of jewellery that you can transform in an awful lot of ways.

I may be very much into fantasy outfits, but fantasy skins are a new thing for me, since my avatars all tend to be human rather than elves or anything along those lines. However, I just couldn’t resist showing off sachi Vixen’s Adore-able drow skin after seeing just how well it suited me. I also couldn’t resist the new Vanessa outfit from Bare Rose (I am starting to amass quite the collection of outfits from them); as soon as I saw it on their blog, I knew it had to come home with me. So, the end result is, I think, one very pretty drow in a charmingly naughty lace outfit.

I really should be in bed by now, but something came up that has kept me awake a little longer than intended. More specifically, what came up was a sale on selected silks at Solange (how’s that for alliteration at 2 am?) and new absolutely gorgeous make-up for one of my favourite skins, Pixel Deep. That was more than I could resist, and the results of my late-night shopping expedition have now been documented.

Something new from me—a makeup review. After chasing great makeup-free skins for several months, I have succumbed to the lure of the pretty makeups available for some of my favourite skins such as sachi Vixen’s Pandora, Ayesha Bisiani’s Saba, Anika and Ahawi and now also Annyka Bekkers Mellie3. Now, that doesn’t mean I am not still in the market for great makeup-free skins, because I most definitely am (especially if they have lips that look naturally quite dark), but it can’t hurt to branch out, right? Other than my Linden balance, of course, and my inventory size.

So, what is today’s makeup temptation? The newest set of four makeups for Mellie3, that’s what it is. And they’re smoking, or at the very least smokey.