The body on Zarya follows in the footsteps of previous skins from Skin Within, but not without some little tweaks here and there (I believe the belly button has been worked on a bit, for example). Like on her Native American skin, Ahawi, there’s enough definition to the stomach that you can’t quite pass for a laid back Aphrodite who lounges about on a bed all day. Instead, you’ll look more like Artemis, a fit goddess of the hunt. The skin is also features glowy highlighting (a little more so, I think, than most of the other recent releases from Skin Within) to complement the muscle tone, and though it may be a matter of preference whether one likes that or not I think it works quite well with Zarya’s skintone.

Speaking of the skintone, Zarya is a mod skin, and it has been modified in these shots to be as dark as possible as well as tweaked a bit in hue as well. As with most Skin Within skins, I think it handles this sort of modification quite well, without looking at all greyed out.

The breast shading on Zarya is quite appealing, looking naturally soft and rounded rather than artificially inflated, and the nipples are of a good size and colour. To continue on the same theme, the natural option for pubic hair is much more to my liking on Zarya compared to Ahawi. There’s also a bare option which features a tiny tuft of hair.

The only bit I am a little dubious about when it comes to the front of the body is the knees, as they look a tiny bit too pinkish/reddish compared to the rest of the skin, but it is a minor issue.

The back shows the same attention to details as the front, and here I believe the spine has been a focus of some additional improvements by Ayesha. The detailing on it is certainly very realistic, and taken together with the details of the shoulder blades and the small of the back it ensures that this is a skin that would look very interesting photographed from the back as well as the front. The little details bring so much extra life to it.

And, of course, the nicely rounded bottom deserves a special mention. Ran, who is quite the connoisseur of bottoms, approves.

Finally, the face. As usual, my first pick from a new skin line is the makeup-free version, so this is the one shown here. But I do have to note that Zarya comes with a large selection of makeups. Specifically, six each in the categories Day, Night, Smoky and Fantasy. They range from quite subtle to very flamboyant, and there are some really striking options. Pallas and Dione, for example, are all about bronze and gold, just what any real goddess needs. And Bia and Ate are two really lovely makeups in the Fantasy range.

But, looking at the skin itself, what sets the face apart? Well, we have a skin that is eminently well suited to a face with high cheekbones, brought out in a lovely way by the blush on the cheeks. Admittedly, I wish the blush had been a little more toned down on the makeup-free option, since it does make it look like there’s some makeup on, but it does suit the skin very well and it looks stunning with the various makeups. The overall look of the face, due to the blush and the way it seems to favour tilted eyes, is quite dramatic and also quite exotic.

I did have to tweak my shape some for it, but that is often the case with a more photoreal and strongly shaded skin, and personally I enjoy the process of fitting the shape to the skin while still retaining the unique characteristics I had created for the shape in question. The lips probably had to change the most, since the lip shape on Zarya is quite distinctive in terms of how the cupid’s bow is done. If you try a demo of the skin on and it doesn’t suit you right off, I would really suggest playing with the lip shape a bit, because it does so much for the final look of the face.