“One man’s magic is another man’s engineering. Supernatural is a null word.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein

A fun particle effect toy produced through a collaboration of some of my favorite people, the Spellfire Magic Wand is presented from Trav Rexen’s Script Shanty, Sax Sheperd Designs, and Thirty Loop Animations (all of which just happen to be stores on my Seven Veils SIM).

Before you even start I know I did everything WRONG in the video. I babbled incoherently, I didn’t turn off my interface or my friend notifications and I used my *gasp* camera controls.

I will write on the chalkboard 300 times if it makes you happy.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys:

Spellfire Magic Wand – L$200
The Script Shanty

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seven%20Veils/230/25/21

Marketplace:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Spellfire-Magic-Wand/3081580

“You can never have too much blue eyeshadow.” ~ Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelly DeVoto in My Girl (via Laurice Elehwany)

It may have been the squee heard ’round the grid.

I have been waiting for one of my go-to hair designers to put out a to-die-for piggy buns style. Although I’ve been enjoying the long hair and luscious updos available around the grid, they just didn’t feel like Salome. ETD‘s Patootie was pretty much my trademark for years of blogging and I expect you might as well get used to Truth‘s Velvet as my new default. It’s basically Patootie with loose tendrils, richer textures and color change bows. There is not enough squee in the world.

Truth's Velvet Hairstyle

Velvet, like the over-blouse I’m wearing, is part of the Stumblebum designer group promotion which, if you’ve never heard of before, basically means a bunch of designers get together, put in one item for a modest sale price and cross-pitch each others work. This type of thing is very much in vogue these days and can be quite a boon for both designers and shoppers. Unfortunately, it also means you’re going to see the same handful of items blogged to death because they are high-quality and uber-promoted, but having too much high quality easy-to-locate swag is definitely a problem I’m happy to have.

If the one-two punch of piggy buns with bows is too much for you, the bows can be made invisible with a click — setting phasers to stunning cuteness instead of killing cuteness. They can also be recolored with the same built in menu, of course, or manually tinted. They are L$50 cheaper by the pack than Truth‘s usual pricing structure and available in all the standard colors of his current line.

Over the years a lot of people have asked me why I chose the piggy bun style to latch onto and, well, my reasons were (and remain) both personal and practical. As a blogger, piggy buns rarely get in the way of showcasing products. They don’t stick through your chest in fashion poses and they don’t hide jewelry. Also, I’m a child of the 70s/80s, so like every other girl my age, I wanted to be Princess Leia when I grew up. And part of the joy of playing virtual paper dolls in SL is that I can revisit all my favorite dress-up desires from girlhood. It’s just that simple.

Baby Blue Casual Outfit

Right now, I’m not taking off my SLink Mesh Bare feet because I lurves them; I don’t care how banned I am from the Sim, they feed my inner happy. So while everyone else is buried under coats and scarves I’ve been tossing together casual fare that is barefoot friendly.

***NOTE***
If you’re also an SLink barefoot addict and haven’t been able to match them to your LAQ Ivory skin tone, here’s your settings:
Tattoo/Sock Base – “Light”: 244(r), 224(g), 210(b)
RGB Tint Settings for HUD (again, using the “Light” Base: 243, 223, 210
(Just type “/13 skin 243, 223, 210″ while wearing the HUD)
***NOTE***

As for the rest of the outfit, the over-blouse is the Soft Resolution Top from Kyoot which is also part of the Stumblebum promotion clan. The chemise is part of the Gypsy Chemise set — an oldie from Wisp Jinn of Wishbox. The Kyoot blouse is texture-only with no prim sleeves or collar and comes on all the layers you’d expect. It also comes with a pair of matching knee socks which are too cute for color TV (but would require the removal of my mesh feet). Best of all, it’s mod, so you can tint it (yay). I’m glad to see that some designers are still offering simple well textured fare and not just going mesh crazy. It lends hope that all the tools available will be utilized and not just the latest craze.

The gypsy chemise is a bit trickier. It comes in two packs – the base pack and an add-on. The sleeveless tube top version I’m wearing is in the add-on pack. If you want the prims for the sleeves, etc you’ll have to get the base pack as well. The packs also include skirts and other top options in multi layers but they are no-mod so no tinting. There are good images in the Wishbox shop to help you decide if you want them. I find they are tres delish for mixing and matching like with this outfit, but if you’re not a mixer they might not be worth the sheckles.

The denim mini skirt is from Jane — a store that is putting out a nice selection of template mesh items with great texturing. It’s a sweet little staple item for those of us who have fond memories of denim minis. I will say that the sizing of this product was tricky for me. In order to use the size that fit my hips (petite) I had to scale my leg muscles down about 20 clicks and shave a bit off my bum. The alternative was to have my legs and rear stay the same but use a wider mesh that gave me “ring around the hips.” This is a short-term problem since Qarl is on the case, but it’s worth noting that mesh items like this still require body tinkering to produce their ultimate yummy.

Kosh's Baby Blues & Ennui's Bleeding Heart

The gorgeous eyeshadow is Baby Blue from Kosh‘s Gala series – a lavish eye treatment that shouldn’t just be reserved for glam attire. Lynaja Bade of Kosh has some great cosmetic offerings including alpha and non-alpha eyelashes that I picked up just for a little lash variety (but haven’t had the patience to fit yet).

I was thrilled beyond words to find this necklace and earring set at Lassitude & Ennui. Over the last year, many old standard SL creators have finally thrown in the towel. But Jackal Ennui appears to have found a balance that allows her to still offer a modest library of high quality shoes, boots, jewelry and accessories. This necklace can be worn as a single or double strand and it comes with a low-lag scripted HUD that provides separate tinting of the pearls and metals. I went with the copper (in lieu of silver, gold or gunmetal) and actually tinted the pearls myself to match my outfit. This was something I could do because the jewelry is :::gasp of shock::: MOD.

See, jewelry designers, dogs and cats do not start living together if you allow your customers to MOD their purchases. Just sayin’.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys

Hair: Truth (Truth Hawks)– Velvet – L$200 Color Pack
Eyeshadow: Kosh (Lynaja Bade) – Gala Eyeshadow – L$199

Glasses: K_gs (koguma Kumaki) – Ellipse 1.03 – L$400
Jewelry: Lassitude & Ennui (Jackal Ennui) – Bleeding Heart Jewelry Set- L$390

Over-Blouse: Kyoot (Saeya Nyanda) – Soft Resolution Top – L$125
Chemise: Wishbox (Wisp Jinn) – Gypsy Chemise Add-On Set – L$199
Skirt: Jane (Janie Marlowe) – Mini Skirt Hadlee Denim Classic – L$125

“…most look silly, and others look dumb…”
~ MC Hammer, “Turn This Mutha Out”

Let’s begin this post by stating clearly that I am not opposed to full-figured avatars; I quite like them. Broad hips have been a sign of sensuality and fertility pretty much since the dawn of humankind, and a curvy gal strutting her stuff has my unqualified “you go girl” support. This post is not about projecting a negative body image onto the otherwise hiptastic.

This is not about shape; it’s about style.

I try to keep a sense of humor about some of the trends that pop up in SL “fashion.” When every other blog post in the feeds was some girl sporting elf ears with a hundred piercings, it gave me a chuckle. When the “I’m so hip and urban” kids were constantly wearing their lycan paw boots that make them look like a Budweiser Clydesdale in phat pants, it was a riot. The salvation in those situations that let the amusement flow was the fact that these were niche products by second or third tier designers. No harm. No foul. No need to call in the troops.

However.

When a top designer chases a horrible trend, it stops being funny. Why? Because time wasted making fashion abomination could have gone into something really nummy (like a modern take on Scarlett O’Hara’s beaded burgundy party gown that I’ve been dying for a top quality designer to attempt since…ever!).

So, I have a question. WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? And THIS? And THIS? And THIS?

This is not a celebration of the female form. This is not emphasizing curvy hips. This is not even drop-crotch low hanging grunge / hip hop baggy retro ickiness. This is some sort of conspiracy or social experiment or mad virtual design serial killer gone wild and the grid needs a serious intervention.

Ladies, please take a long look at your avatars. If someone could ride on your ass like a camel hump and/or if you could pass as a stand-in for Grimace in a McDonald’s commercial, you need help. And it’s okay, we’re here for you. The first step is admitting you have a problem, and well, you’ve seen the photos so that should be easy. The second step is to go into your inventory and do a search for “Spirit Store” and just delete anything that comes up. Sure there might be a good item or two in the mix, but you simply cannot take the chance. Next, drop a notecard on ShaySibrian (creator of Celoe’s Nikola Trousers) and explain to them that you have a problem, but you’re in recovery now and they should not waste another MOMENT of their amazing talent on parachute pants. You bought them while under the possession of a fashion demon or something, but you’re doing much better now and they should not use your pre-exorcism purchase to skew their data in regards to user feedback. There isn’t enough mesh on the grid yet for Hammer pants to get a turn. You don’t want to be responsible for this sticking.

Finally, turn to the mirror and repeat to yourself “The walrus was Paul and if he doesn’t dress like one, neither should I.”

Seriously, kids. It’s all fun and games until someone ends up with cement hips and an ass full of Fix-a-Flat.

If you feel yourself slipping remember that all of the below are BAD BAD BAD:

Saggy Bottoms: What Not To Do

And if someone you know is suffering from this affliction, remember: Friends don’t let friends dress like weeble wobbles.

“Things do not change; we change.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Mesh has rekindled my love of shopping for pretty things in SL. Although, as a consumer I am concerned about some of the practices mesh seems to be bringing with it, the quality and performance of the products tickles my pixel vanity in all those yummy little spots that make me squee.

Since mesh clothing cannot currently be fitted, I have been doing a lot of tweaking to my avatar and about two weeks ago I did an evaluation of lil miss Salome. It turned out that I hadn’t made any major adjustments to my shape since May of 2007; I had been wearing the same skin since March of 2009, and I’d been wearing the same textured eyes since July of 2006. I wasn’t using any of the prim or cosmetic enhancement accessories that are available today and my customization of the base of my avatar was downright skimpy.

This was clearly not acceptable.

Partly for fun and partly because prissy girls loathe a rut when they recognize one, I decided to update my shape, my skin, and my “body accessories.”

The Shape

When I first started SL, Salome was much shorter, to reflect my RL height. I spent at least a month tweaking the facial settings the way I wanted them. After getting tired of being asked if I was a hobbit and having trouble fitting my clothing, I adjusted her shape to be taller. Although I kept my face settings, I went to Colette’s Body Shop (Colette Meiji’s store at the time) and let her do the hard work and math regarding the shape and proportions, (to be honest I even tweaked those body sliders so much they had very little in common with what I first purchased). Once Linden Lifestyles got popular and we were getting hundreds of items a day, I tailored my shape to fit the SL shopping norms for quick try-ons and product evaluation. After May of 2007 “Salome” was established and her shape hadn’t really been touched.

Now that I no longer have the obligation to go through hundreds of items per day and I don’t care about taking some extra time to fit things, I feel comfortable going back to a “me” that is shorter than the 6′ tall lanky lass I’ve been wandering about in for so long. I had a friend help me with scaling things like arm length and other math challenged settings. The result was exactly what I wanted and closer to what I’d first created back in my earliest SL days.

The face was a different story. Part of me wanted to keep Salome’s face exactly the same, but for one thing — the mouth. I used to enjoy the toonish mouth with the upturned corner smile lines and thin upper lip. But I created this exaggerated expression during the LL days for a PR purpose; it seemed a good choice for posting my image over and over with my oft-cranky writing. I felt the friendlier avatar would convey that the majority of my grumblings are intended without bite. But I have oft longed for fuller, more realistic, pout-a-lucious lips. It was easier than I had thought (or maybe I’m just getting to that age where having a little work done doesn’t seem like such an offensive idea).

The bottom line: Salome-sized has now become slightly shorter, a tiny bit plumper and, as ever, downright lippy.

Salome-Sized: The New "Me"

The Skin

For reasons no fashion-addicted creature should be able to fathom, I always been inexplicably loyal to certain skin lines. It’s not because of any connection with the creator. For a great deal of my SL life, I wore “Quad Brat” skins and there was certainly no love lost between me and the creator of them — but what I like, I like, and if a creator’s products are high quality I have a hard time accepting less.

I have really only worn three skins long-term in SL:

Celestial Studios (Passport) > Celestial Studios (Vogue) > LAQ (Elin/Fair)

I reviewed skins and would even, on occasion, try an odd one out just to see if I could get used to it. I love Gala/Curio, for example, but they just never felt right on me. And, as much as I have delighted in being an LAQ girl for the last two years, I didn’t want to just accept a new LAQ skin as my only option.

So I flitted around and collected demos for all the pale skins that looked halfway decent in their ads. I went to every store mentioned in the blogs I read and asked friends for their favorites. At the end of the harvest I had just under forty demos. Forty. Fucking. Demos. It took two days to whittle the contestants down, but I had two sets of criteria to help with the culling — the “Non-Negotiable” factors and the “Preferences” factors.

Non-Negotiable:
A. Nice highlight and shading without over-exaggeration or “muddy” shadows;
B. A clean face without heavy make-up;
C. Healthy body definition and details;
D. Professional blending of photo-realism and airbrush without too much of either;
E. Light, creamy, pale shade.

Preferences:
A. Auburn brows and hairbase;
B. Bald kitty without any vulgar emphasis on bits or rough looking bits;
C. Larger, darker areolae.

One by one, demos were deleted. I was surprised at how many skins today still over-glam everything with baked on cosmetics that included exaggerated blush on even more exaggerated cheekbones and hooker-lined fish lips. There is so much tattoo make-up on the grid to help customize; any skin that doesn’t have a clean face “base” version in their packs shouldn’t even be considered by a consumer. Frankly I think skin makers today would be smart to only sell their base skin and then put up a mountain of cosmetic options, but I am not yet queen. Also, the faces on many skins are too tight for my liking; when using their included brow settings, they have that pissed off model look I can’t stand. Other skin makers need to learn that “pale” doesn’t equal “slightly less tan.” Still more had horrible shading on the bum and under-breast areas or that over-airbrushed wet-paint spray-tan look that is too shiny in all the wrong places. A few had great body work, but cringe-worthy facial lighting that seemed like they’d tried to bake on highlights while the model was holding a flashbulb in her teeth.

The list goes on, but at the end of the day I had narrowed it to two: LAQ‘s Ebba in the new Ivory tone option and Gala Phoenix’s Visitor in Moonbeam. I liked the Gala a lot, but I just liked the LAQ slightly more. And, it must be said, that as a consumer, I prefer LAQ‘s pricing practices over Gala‘s (although I disapprove of some of the tactics LAQ employs to make their brows only work on their skins, etc). I think part of it was also that I’ve just been so happy with LAQ for so long that I felt they deserved the extra tilt with everything else being even.

Forty demos. Two days of trying on and looking in different light settings. Still, I ended up where I started – an LAQ skin. Go figure.

Old Sal | New Sal | Newer Sal

Body Accessories

With multiple attach points and tattoo layers, avatar customization in SL is sweeter candy now more than ever for a virtual paper doll addict like me. Why haven’t I been taking advantage of this? No clue. But with my shape and skin decided, I went all happy crazy with accessories.

Eyes. I have love, love, loved my E’s Handpainted eyes, but their quality level is from 2006 and there are oodles of new eyes with more impressive detail work. I switched from brown eyes to grey sometime in 2007 and since then I’ve purchased pretty much every pair of grey eyes I’ve run across just to see if anything would please me. But I’ve found most eyes are too small; I prefer larger irises and pupils. As fate would have it, while at Curio picking up Gala skin demos, I noticed the Tragic eyes. Not only did I fall head over heels for the Light Grey, but I finally found prim eyes that are easy to fit and provide a hint of luster without being too shiny. My peepers are happy campers. You may have heard the squee in your remote corners of the grid.

Hair/Brows. I had already decided to go more auburn than brown, bumping my hair habit from Truth‘s Pecan in the Browns pack to Jupiter in the Gingers pack. LAQ already had brows for Ebba which I snagged and the Red 1 is a nice red brow with a little darker shade than the 2 or 3. Since I don’t care for the Truth hairbases and LAQ didn’t have hers out yet, I scooted over to Amacci and found out their hairbases on tattoo layers are now FREE (Amacci‘s Henna is the counterpart of Truth‘s Jupiter, btw). So full of win. I am a little disappointed that League doesn’t have red hairbases because I really admire their hairbases, but I’ll survive for the time being. Someone eventually has to come out with a nice widow’s peak.

Lashes. As lashes go, I had put off the prim lash revolution for the simple reason that fitting them was, in my experience, a particularly ornery breed of bitch. So I bit the bullet, asked random strangers for their preferences and did some experimentation. What I finally decided was that I wanted to use a combination of both alpha and non-alpha lashes. For alpha lashes, Redgrave has a nice selection and the Luscious lashes were perfect for my needs. They come with an alpha layer that hides your system lashes. Yay. I’ve only been trying to do that since 2005. To those I added the LeLutka “Curl” full prim lashes, and this combo seemed to give me the zazazoo I was going for. I’m still tweaking here and there, but we’re definitely cooking with gas.

Make-Up. There is an obscenely wonderful selection of tattoo cosmetics on the grid. How much do I love not having to buy a new skin every time I want to change my lip stick? Yes. THAT FRAKKIN’ MUCH. First I ran over to PixelDolls which is soon to be no more, and snagged all her L$50 cosmetic eye shadow sets. The one I’m wearing in the far right photo is from the Rocket Fuel pack and the shade I’m wearing is Ashes. Its perfect for a nice, bold, smoky eye. For the lips, I’ve been taking advantage of Hush‘s Juicy lipstick colors, and what you see in the right photo is one of the tattoos from their reds pack. Because I wanted a beauty mark, I did a lot of looking around and finally clicked with a little mouth mole from Launa Fauna. Yes. My tattoo layers have tattoo layers.

The Outfit

I wanted something simple and non mesh for this entry as clothes go. There is still a lot of great stuff on the grid that isn’t mesh, and I think we’re finally to a point in avatar customization where the options for attractive, immersive products are the norm rather than the exception. For dresses, skirts, and body supplements (like toes) it will likely be mesh or nothing, but for tops and pants, there is still a lot that texturing and sculpts have to offer.

Exhibit A. If you do not have this delicately feminine Seashell Blouse from League you need to go now. It is a non-optional necessity which I cannot stop wearing. The whispery nature of this textured on treat is utterly irresistible and comes on all three top layers (as you would expect) in oodles of colors. So often in SL “sexy” is really just “trashy” but this top is sweet and feminine as well as dripping with smexy.

The jeans are my favorite old school staples from Plastik. As far as I know, however, these Vigos are only available on the marketplace in a huge fatpack. You get a baker’s dozen of colors and each of those comes in loose, skinny, capri, shorts, and jean skirt options with prim sculpted cuffs and hobo flares. I know that mesh pants are all the rage just now, but I’m finding most of these first offerings too…rubbery. I still find a lot of value in fabric textured items to mingle with my mesh (at least until mesh pants stop looking like liquid latex).

The shoes are a delightful little pair of cork wedges from Duh!. When you just need a casual kick-around pair of Espadrilles you can’t really knock these for their price. They have their issues out-of-box, but they are mod, include alpha layers for 2.0+ viewers and are cheap cheap cheap, so I won’t pick them apart. They’re darling for what they are.

So if you’re wandering about and you happen to see a shorter, paler, more red-headed version of me, you needn’t worry about virtual alien abduction. I’m still here, I just changed my ribbons an wrapping paper.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys:

Skin: LAQ – Ebba in Ivory 5Pack – L$990 (Brows L$290)
Lashes: Redgrave – Luscious Alpha Lashes (L$90) and LeLutka Curl Prim Lashes (L$180)
Lips: Hush – Juicy Lips Red Pack- L$125
Eyes: Curio – Tragic Eyes in Light Grey – L$125
Eye Liner / Shadow: PixelDolls – Rocket Fuel 8Pack – L$50
Mole: Launa Fauna, Bayonetta – L$7 / L$15
Hair: Truth – Jolie in Jupiter – L$250 (Gingers Color Pack)

Blouse: League – Seashell Blouse – L$115
Jeans: Plastik – Vigos Jeans Fatpack – L$599
Shoes: Duh! - Women’s Espadrilles – L$60 (For the Fat Pack. Not even kidding)

It is about to become a felony to engage in what a big company thinks should be considered copyright infringement. The people who support SOPA insist that the law is not intended to go after small time offenders but there’s nothing in the text of the law to support that. This is the same reasoning that says child porn laws are only about going after the worst criminals. So why do teenagers get busted for sending half-dressed photos of themselves to their boyfriends and girlfriends?

If the middle men at movie and music studios want to bully those outside of US borders, then let them use the billions they’ve made inflating the copyright laws of the US to do it. They don’t need a law that allows them to cry wolf at any search engine or website that links to something they don’t like.

These are people who have been on the wrong side of history for decades. They fought the invention of television and radio. They fought digital goods until they had no choice. These are not the innovators protecting discovery and innovation. These are the old, rich, no-talent middle men who want to drag technology out as long as possible so they can milk the system of every drop because they have no skill except buying talent cheap and selling it at a huge mark up to consumers.

If we give it to them, we’re going to get exactly what we deserve. Their world. Bought and packaged. For them.