Otherworldly

This is an exceptionally good month for fantasy events and I can only apologise in advance to all the creators who have sent gorgeous review copies that I may not have time to cover. I want to showcase as many as possible, but work isn’t leaving me time for more than a post or so a day at the moment.

One of the events on the table for May is We Love Role-Play, as always opening on the 4th of each month. The quality has really been on a steady upwards trajectory and the variety across different genres tends to be quite good as well. For this post, I am wearing one of the event gowns from The Muses together with a hair from Calico (also from We Love Role-Play) and jewellery from Sax Shepherd Designs (for the Fantasy Gatcha Carnival).

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…

ieQED has been producing a nice series of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones inspired (but wholly original in design) crowns for various gatchas and for the Secret Affair the set included one called Sunspear. Being the big fan of Dorne that I am, I knew I wanted to feature it, so this look and these photos were largely built around the crown. The other item I really wanted to focus on was this brand-new henna designs from Chandra Masala’s Jalwa brand. It includes both arm and leg designs which you will see in more detail inside the post.

As my blogging of late has no doubt made plain, I love gowns. But sometimes you do need to slip into something more comfortable and practical, and thanks to The Muses latest offering for We Love Role-Play you can now do so in proper fantasy style with the Doronthor outfit (or the corresponding Doronthel, if you happen to be male). Four special colours of these outfits are offered at a discount at the event and will not be available afterwards, so make sure to check them out.

My accessories, the elegantly casual Spring Necklace and Headwrap, are from lassitude & ennui, also for We Love Role-Play, and the same goes for the tied-off pony tail from Epos, who are making their first foray into hair in a very nice way.

Normally, I’d write a fair bit more, but my arms are quite exhausted as I just came in from a riding lesson and Nelson (my horse for the day) was in a very frisky mood and wanted to run a lot more than I was keen on. So this time you’ll have to settle for these (hopefully) pretty pictures.

It has been a while since I tried out a new skin brand. I am pretty picky and I also have tastes that aren’t quite “mainstream” Second Life; in particular, I don’t tend to go for cute all that often. I often look for skins with a bit stronger faces and perhaps more character than classical prettiness or beauty.

When I visited this year’s Skin Fair, I ended up collecting quite a pile of demos, but out of the new-to-me brands I tried only one stood out for me - DeeTaleZ. I tried on several of their faces and found that they had something that interested me. However, none grabbed me strongly enough that I made up my mind (I am indecisive). But I did sign up for their subscriber and started following their Flickr. And then a new face called Shirin was released, catching my attention both with the name (I happen to have a role-play character going by that name) and its appearance. After quite a bit of demoing—I just couldn’t decide which tone to get!—I finally took the plunge yesterday, then immediately set out to create a new shape for the skin. As it happens, I think the look of the skin lends itself quite well to a Dornishwoman, so I made the shape with that in mind and decided to show off another of the Dorne-inspired gowns from The Muses.

Just in time for the start of season four of Game of Thrones, the Muses has released four gowns inspired by Dorne. Dorne happens to be mine and Ran’s favourite region of Westeros and when Nephilaine very kindly asked me to create the posters for these gowns I jumped at the chance. I hope you will love these four gowns as much as I do and as you see by this post I can’t stop playing with them. In this case, I am showing off Shining Sun, but I really can’t pick a favourite out of the four because they’re all stunning. And if Dorne isn’t your thing, then they will work beautifully for other looks as well, both fantasy and (in some cases) more modern.

Life has continued to be more hectic than I would prefer (especially in December!), but I have at least managed a bit of reading lately. One of the books was an ARC of Mark Smylie’s The Barrow, which is quite the old-fashioned Sword & Sorcery adventure. It was just the inspiration I needed to create a look from a couple of the new releases for this round of We Love Role-Play: Jalwa’s Snow Queen skin and ieQED’s antler pauldrons.

Enchantment opens in two days, on November 1st. Not only will you be able to buy exclusive releases inspired by Snow White, but you can also enjoy the scenery on a wintry island with a tall castle just next to the shopping area. Just be careful if you venture there, since you never know when the Raven Queen will be at home.

Long mesh hair is finally getting a bit more curl and bounce and Calico Ingmann of Calico is one designer who is exploring these possibilities. I’ve paired her latest style, Penny, with the Bard top from the Muses for We Love Role-Play.

I can’t resist doing another post about Genre’s September round, this one featuring the lovely Susanna dress from the Muses. Old times indeed, and it goes perfectly with the Akiko hair from Wasabi Pills. I am also wearing the updated mesh hands from Slink; if you already own the hands, make sure to get the update delivered using the terminals in the store, and if you don’t own the hands…well, get that problem taken care of right away. You need them, trust me. There are also male hands out now, so take your partner (or male alt) along as well.

While still in Beta according to their website, The Shops has now been around for a few months. This new brand brings together the brands previously launched by the same team—including stores such as the Abyss and the Body Co—and adds a new store, the Skin Shop. More is supposed to come in the future, but for it is just the skins, though “just” isn’t the right way to put it. Since launching, the Skin Shop has released over a dozen male and female skins, all of the very high quality that Second Life has come to expect from these creators.

Despite being a big fan of the skins from the Abyss and the Body Co, I had actually not picked up a skin from the Skin Shop until yesterday. I’ll get into why in a bit, but for now, lets just say I am very glad I finally did; the Pixie skin was just what this particular shape of mine needed.

For this post I am also wearing a brand-new hair release from Eaters Coma and I am absolutely in love with the soft cascade of hair in front. The waviness is perfectly done and it is so flattering around the face as well. My dress for the first picture is the stunning Margaret dress from the Muses in Purple.

This is one of those days when I am feeling rather jealous of my avatar because she has three new gowns from the Muses to play with and she can dress up like a medieval lady whenever she wants. I suppose I could technically do so in RL too, but gowns aren’t the most practical garments for everyday life. So, Second Life to the rescue.

I am also wearing some new hair styles from Alice Project, Calico and Amacci; changing hair style and hair colour with a couple of click is another of those enviable traits of Second Life.

For the upcoming round of We Love Role-Play (opening later today, the 4th of August), the participating creators have produced some really striking pieces. My instant favourite has to be the Penghel armour from the Muses, but there’s plenty more to choose from when it comes to outfits for both ladies and warrior women.

Of course, the right skin is also a crucial part of a roleplay look, and the Plastik has some great options for fey, otherworldly looks with their Elven skins; my favourite ended up being the Moon tone.

Hair Fair is in full swing. I decided to battle the lag right away and managed to get out alive and with some nice new hair. My very favourite hair will be featured first, the Freya from Calico. And no, I am not just biased because of the name; this style is right up my alley and I don’t think there’s anything quite like it in SL. Such glorious braids. With it I am wearing the latest skin from Adam n Eve, the sultry Marnie, and the backdrop for these photos is a brand new ruined tower set from Botanical, available at this month’s Collabor88. The tower is beautifully crafted and textured and it will be the perfect addition to our plans for the next mini island on our sim. My dress, so perfectly suited to this hair and to the ruined tower, is the lovely Wolf Maid from the Muses.

Siyu Suen of Illusions may be best known for her masks, but she also creates a wide variety of other accessories, from jewellery to elf ears. Most recently, she has released a few designs that started out as commissions, including two different French hoods. Properly, these should be used to fasten a veil or a coif, but I think they look lovely (if not historically accurate) on their own as well. This, the Katarina French Hood, is the more elaborate of the two styles (the Anna French Hood lacks the stones and the outer pearl trim), but both styles are of course scripted for texture changing, allowing for a range of customisation.