Otherworldly

deviousMind released the fantastic Thyia gacha for the last round of the Fantasy Gacha Carnival. The set has now moved into the deviousMind mainstore for those of you who still have collections to complete. You might not, for example, have some of the gorgeous rares that I am showing in these posts.

Mesh has unbdoubtedly brought a lot of fantastic changes to Second Life and these days I don’t wear much that isn’t mesh. I haven’t purged my inventory of texture clothing (too much nice lingerie) or sculpties (too much nice jewellery) but mostly it is all about mesh. Still, I probably wear less variety of mesh than most as I have not adjusted my shapes to fit the Standard Sizing system. I am simply too wedded to having realistic, well-proportioned shapes with a natural amount of body fat. Fortunately, my staple type of clothing (gowns, glorious gowns) is quite forgiving when it comes to not being perfectly within a particular size, so I have been able to stick to my usual style of shape while still moving into mesh clothing.

Mesh body parts, on the other hand, has been a different story. Oh, the hands and the feet from Slink are of course amazing and they do fit just about any size. And I have enjoyed wearing the Visage mesh head from Slink as well, treating it just like any other face variation (just with a much prettier profile than the regular SL head can manage!) that I might make for a particular skin. But breasts, butts and bodies? None of the ones on the market have appealed to me, being far too exagerrated even at the smallest settings and clearly made to cater to a very particular look (don’t get me started on gigantic butts that require you to have hardly any belly or body fat!).

That is, until today, with the release of Physique from Slink.

The latest release from the Plastik is the Malchia Corsets. I knew I had to have one of these once I saw the unique design and the gorgeous patterns and colours. However, that particular cut of a garment is difficult to work with if you’re not using a standard sized shape. But as the very lovely Aikea offered to upload an unrigged version for me, I took the plunge and picked up the striking Rogue version of the corset. As the whole corset is one mesh, I was able to resize different directions independently and this allowed me to work out a good fit. Of course, the trade off is losing the advantages of rigged garments, but sometimes it is necessary for us “shape non conformists” to make such compromises.

The June round of We Love RolePlay is open and it is, as always, a feast of fantasy garments, accessories, skins, hair and so on. So I thought a little feast of my own would be appropriate, courtesy of the Feast gacha from 22769‘s furnishings line, bauwerk, as well as Leto from Nephilaine Protagonist. But of course I am also showing a selection of We Love RolePlay pieces, from brands such as Kahli Designs (their Exalted line), The Forge, Calico and the Plastik. The final touch is the new roleplay applier for the Taliya skin from Adam n Eve.

Adam n Eve has recently released two new skins with appliers for Slink Visage - Taliya and Shona. The latter is a darker skin and while none of the current heads are made explicitly for a black skin, Shona can still be used on both Emma and Becky with good results. In this case, I am using Shona on the Emma head and I paired the skin with this amazing outfit from Alchemy from the Fantasy Gacha Carnival.

Aisling has not just one but two amazing sets of accessories at the current Fantasy Gacha Festival. The second, Feldream, blends fantasy with rather more science fiction inspired elements, and when I put on the stunning headdress I thought it would go very well with the latest appliers from the Slink Visage heads from Adam n Eve. I also decided to pick up another body suit from Gallactic to finish off the look.

I thought about calling this post “When Events Collide” as it features items from no less than three fantasy-related events opening in May: Enchantment (already open), Fantasy Faire (already open) and Fantasy Gatcha Carnival (opening on the 4th). There was just something about these pieces from Kalopsia, aisling and Sax Shepherd Designs that demanded that they be used together.

Tomorrow, May 1st, the new round of Enchantment opens. The format has been changed since previous rounds - instead of shopping at a central location, each of the participating designers will have new, Enchantment-specific releases available in their main stores. Each time you purchase one of the qualifying releases, you receive a stamp card and here’s were the added fun begins. You see, in addition to the main store releases, each designer has also made an Enchantment-specific prize and these are available at a central location. However, you cannot just go and buy these special prizes. This is where the stamp card comes into the picture. For each prize that you want, you will need a stamp card. Once you have all the stamp cards you want, you visit the main store of each designer to stamp the cards (you can wear all of them at once at this stage). When the cards are full, detach them and visit the prize location. There, you attach one card at a time and start claiming the prizes you want.

So now that you know how it works, what about this rounds theme? It is Sleeping Beauty, and for my first post, I decided to dig deep into the fairy-tale’s origins…

The release of two mesh heads by Siddean Munro of Slink can hardly have passed anyone unnoticed. There is already a wide range of appliers ready from many different skin creators and more will undoubtedly be showing up soon. In this post I will be looking at the Becky head with the Amy applier from Adam n Eve, a Skin Fair exclusive for all those who love freckles. I will also be showing off a brand new release from Convair for the Liaison Collaborative.

Have I mentioned how much I like the skins from the Shops? Actually, I am pretty sure I have, but it bears repeating. Their faces (this is Pixie, which I already owned in a lighter tone but I ended up needing a somewhat darker one for some photos) really stand out from the jungle of similar-looking skins that are out there today and with the cleavage options now included with each skin the bodies have gotten even better. I absolutely adore the natural cleavage since it works so well with smaller breast sizes and in total there’s six cleavage options, counting the default that is on the skin itself.

Trompe Loeil’s first release of the year is the Dragon & Orchid Home Pub for FaMESHed. It comes in a PG and an Adult version (no, the difference isn’t that the PG version only serves soda) and as usual I went with the latter. And then I had the idea of using the Ice Queen’s Coat from Junbug and, well, very little else…

There’s a veritable cornucopia of events going on right now and I have already been treating myself to quite a few early Christmas presents. For example,Junbug’s new release for Genre’s Victorian round, Lady Mistletoe. I really like metallic detailing on this gown, it makes it very festive, though I do have to point out that the red can come out quite different with materials enabled (as in these photos) compared to when not; it all comes down to the light settings used. My favourite part of this ensemble, however, may be that it actually consists of a corset with an add-on skirt, which is a nice way of adding some flexibility into how you can wear your mesh.

It is time for another round of Genre, this time with Steampunk in the focus. My immediate must-have item was this lovely Ada gown from Senzafine. It is available both with a black base and a brown base and I was sorely tempted by both. In the end, the Noir/Crimson version won out since it felt so lovely and gothic and just right for October. Once again, I am quite impressed by the lush and detailed texturing from Senzafine and I love the little red accents against the black.

The lovely Foxxe eye makeup is one of the Plastik’s releases for the Body Modification Expo. I think it really transforms the eye area of my Siobhan skin from Adam n Eve, creating a very different look.

A little less writing with this entry than usual, as my right arm is objecting a touch after doing a bit of sweeping in the yard. But I think the pictures of the elegant Morgana gown from the Plastik do a fine job of speaking for themselves.

It took all of September, but now I have finally given into Autumn, and that set the tone for this post. Our sim remains very much a work in progress, but we’re hoping to find some more time for it soon. To gear myself up towards that goal, I’ve started shopping for various bits and pieces of landscaping. Like many others, I’ve now fallen in love with Studio Skye and I expect that quite a few of their pieces will grace our sim in the future. The same goes for LostAngel, whose inventive pose props always are a pleasure to use.