Tokyo after Dark

Being still in my dark period, I was in a dark casual mood today πŸ˜‰

I love the “VoDoo” ears so much, I had to do another post with them. I am not a fan of elf ears for everyday looks but sometimes – for what ever reason – I love them not just for a fantasy style.

Today I wanted to showcase one of Ex Machina’s awesome buildings. I rarely saw better structures that are made with more love for the details, than the designs from Hatris Panacek, owner and designer of Ex Machina. It is no secret , that I adore her work, otherwise we never would have asked her to make a custom built store building and most of it’s interior for us. Hattie has amazing skills when it comes to building and as well to texturing. She works so hard to get her realistic looking surfaces done and it pays of every time she does a new release. The “Tokyo after Dark” building is one of her latest creations. On her vendor she states, that his is the first in a set of urban, Japanese, cyberpunk styled buildings. That mean for me we can hope on more of those, which would make me super duper happy, because I LOVE that kind of style πŸ˜‰

For my pictures I used 2 of the buildings and the amazing street components she delivers with the building. I just turned one of the buildings 90 degrees, so I could showcase the front and the backside as well – I really loved the stair case in the back a lot. I snapped over 10 pictures and I liked all of them. Making a decision was really not easy this time. When I started I just wanted to showcase the amazing “VoDoo” ears and the awesome “Tokyo after Dark” building. But the more I was fooling around with a style the more I got my vibe for that dark urban look. I used the amazing “Bella Leather Pants” from [Gos]. I already blogged those before, but in a more sweet casual style and I wanted to try if they do work for some more dark looks as well – They do!

What as well caught my attention a lot was the new tattoo from Mister Razzor. I love when tattoos go up till parts of the head, but not many are really seamless. The “Dante” tattoo, which was released at the Black Fair not too long ago, did not disappoint in that matter πŸ™‚

Again I am wearing my everyday head from LeLutka. I know the “Simone” bento head was one of the first heads, that LeLutka released when the new bento generation of heads came out, but it is still my absolute favorite one, even if I more and more enjoy the new Korina head as well *winks*

The “Simone” head with a skin from the Skinnery became kinda my trademark. When I first put on the “Simone” head, I wasn’t really sold on the first try, as it looked very young with the default skin from Glam Affair. Since I am in Second Life now for over 10 years I wanted a more adult look for my pixels. I did a lot of things and I did grow up lightly too during my Second Life journey. That I wanted to mirror with my avatar as well. I remember very well the moment when I put on “my” skin. As models we all had quite some trouble when the first mesh heads came out and we all looked the same more or less, while we were told ALWAYS, tht our face would be our trademark in the modeling business. But the bento generation changed that “issues” pretty fast, when we were able again to at least customize our heads a little more again. From that moment on I was in love with my “Simone” head. I tried all the new bento heads from various brands but none was able to satisfy my needs as LeLutka did. What I do love the most on the “Simone” head (and as well on the Korina one), that it is not the usual mainstream beauty. It does have edges and give – depending on the skin – a very characteristic look. With my Skinnery skin and some face modifications from Izzie’s, I was completely sold with my new look and never really changed it drastically again – just some minor shape and other changes here and there πŸ˜‰

Clothing

Top: [CX] – “Mucronate Top – Leather” (Maitreya)

Pants: [Gos] – “Bella Leather Pants & Belt” (Maitreya)

Shoes & Leggings: Eudora 3D – “Aerendyl Boots” (Maitreya)

Gloves: Wicca’s Originals – “Roadie Gloves” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Glasses: BONDI – “The Extrovert Sunglasses”

Collar: VOBE – “Stzar Prision Choker”

Piercing: [CX] – “Drop Septum”

Hair & Makeup

Hair: Dura – “Collaboration02_Bob2” (Gacha, Common)

Makeup: Zibska – “Noir Pack 06” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: alaskametro<3 – London” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.3”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Ears: .:E.A.Studio:. (Eclipse Art Studio) – “Ears VoDoo”

Tattoo: Mister Razzor – “Dante” (OMEGA Applier)

Poses & Props

Set: Ex Machina – “Tokyo after Dark – The iKON”

Poses: Foxcity

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

From Russia with Love… maybe not Russia, but with Love ;)

Yesterday we had the first real snow over here, which was on the ground longer than just a few minutes before it did melt again. But it did not survive the night ;(

But while it was snowing big flakes yesterday, I was in such a winter mood, I could not resist to grab the awesome “FRWL” gacha set from Salt & Pepper and play with it a little. What caught my attention was one of the rares. FRWL means From Russia with Love and the set was built for the actual round of Epiphany. What caught my attention, was the way how the coat falls and the incredible texture of the fur. I rarely saw a coat falling so realistic and even moving awesome with all kind of poses. But the texture did really blow me away. Usually if you see fur in Second Life, it is a lot of alpha and some blurry textures to get the feeling of fur and that often gives you a headache with pictures as you have all kind of alpha glitches all over with your background and hair, if you not just use a plain wall.

The cool hair certainly was made by no.match πŸ˜‰ I never made a secret out of the fact, that I am a no.match addicted for hair :p This time it is the release for the actual round of the Tres Chic event. With the curly hair, it gave the whole look a not as strict and classy look and I could use some sexy boots with over-knee socks from Eudora 3d to complete the look.

I was thinking a lot about a background for this look. First I was thinking about an airport scenery, but I could not find any with snow around. Then I tried some kind of shopping mall, but that just did not look right at all. In the end Í decided to look for a sweet winter location, which I found with Luanes Winter World. When I joined the goup wich was for free, I even could rez my pose stand and some extra snow here and there πŸ˜‰ Certainly there is a way, where you can still put stuff around you even if you can’t rez – you simply can attach everything to your body and when you found your pose you can edit it and move it all in place. But just rezzing it is way more easy! When I was done I just explored the sim a little more and found a lot of other corners, which would be great for pictures, so I am sure that was not my last visit there…

Outfit

Coat: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “FRWL Coat RARE” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Dress: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “FRWL Dress Black” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Gloves: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “FRWL Gloves Black” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Shoes: Eudora 3D – “Yana Boots” (Maitreya)

Tights: Izzie’s – “Sheer Tights Basics” (Maitreya Applier)

Accessories

Bag: *{Junbug}* – “Cute Coin Purse Worn” (Gacha)

Glasses: [Steinwerk] – “Aviator Custom”

Necklace: CODEX – “Vintage Time”

Septum: [ kunst ] – “Anuket Septum Ring”

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Body” – NEW @ Tres Chic

Lipstick: alaskametro<3 – “London” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.3”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Poses & Props

Foxcity & Luanes World

Location

Luanes Winter World

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

LOTD 11/28/2016 – Mix & Match with Mesh becomes more and more difficult!

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TUNES

I’m gonna soak up the sun
Gonna tell everyone
To lighten up
I’m gonna tell ’em that
I’ve got no one to blame
For every time I feel lame
I’m looking up
I’m gonna soak up the sun
I’m gonna soak up the sun

[Sheryl Crow]

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Mix & Match… still my favourite way of styling even if mesh makes it more and more hard;)

With the mesh body rigged clothing it is even harder as it already was with standard mesh sizes, but if you try hard enough it still works somehow… mostly :p

Especially if you want to wander around with your mix and match styles in SL and not just do pictures, where you can cheat about poke through or bad back views πŸ˜‰

Sometimes it can help that you combine several parts of one designer, but not always you find what you want by just going through several outfits from one designer – plus I really do love the challenge to combine different creators as well πŸ˜‰

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I had a talk lately with one of my close friends about what is the advantage of standard sizes and mesh body sizes, because many designers do not even offer standard sizes anymore.

Part of that is that the SL community more and more uses the mesh bodies and standard sizes not always do fit on those, even if you can work many especially if you are not going to show too much skin. sometimes it does not matter for a simple pair of jeans, if you can alpha out everything properly what is covered by the jeans, or if you wear a full body suit with long sleeves for arms and legs. The more skin you show the more difficult it becomes because of the default alpha HUD for each mesh body.

But with the bigger usage of mesh bodies, certainly designers will tend towards the appropriate sizes and rigging to those as well. So I guess some when the standard sizes will be gone due the fact that they will not sell to well anymore.

And exactly because of this, I keep some parts even if they are older. I know many laughed when I told about my inventory numbers and called me a fool that needs to rezz forever, but for mix and matches sometimes if you sneak in an older part it can make it interesting again and as well spares you a lot of headaches by fiddling with fitted mesh only πŸ˜‰ (I am not saying i would use my hair from 2008 or really old looking accessories from 2010 all the time, but I do keep some things that are timeless for me and probably useful)

I am looking forward where SecondLife will go and with the new Bento possibilities it will be a new adventure like it was with every new possibility the past years – That keeps SL exciting to me… working out new things and new ways of importing likes and dislikes into a new way of virtual life πŸ˜‰

Maybe in 10 years we laugh about good old times with standard mesh sizes, like we do now about flexible prims and sculpts :p

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Details

Pants: [sys] – “Mellow” NEW @ The Liaison Collaborative

Top: Asteria – “Rhapsody Fringe Top”

Pullover: Asteria – “Michelle-Cardigan Hanging Shoulder”

Waistcorset: Asteria – “Capretto Corset”

Shoes: Glamistry – “Lantana”

Hair: EMO-tions – “Vera”

Necklace: Eudora 3D – “Dream Catcher” – NEW @ Enchantment

Braclet left: Enfant Terrible – “L’odeur du Cuir”

Bracelet right: [kunst] – “Conrad”

Poses: ALIUD

Location: StoryBrooke Gardens

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

We <3 RP meets Skinfair or [sys] meets Elysium?

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Sometimes you have 2 or more items you would like to blog and then you think for a way how you can combine them πŸ˜‰

On the first view they might not look as if they would go together well, but then, if you play around with accessories and scenarios, sometimes you get lucky and the look falls together some when…

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Exactly like this happened to me a few days ago. I put on one of the newest releases of Elysium for the Skin Fair 2016. The “Candice Skin” totally caught my heart. With the cute freckles and the amazing skin tones, I really wanted to blog that wonderful skin. I comes with all kinds of appliers for the mesh heads and bodies, but for my first post with the skin I wanted to use my very own avatar face as the skin looked so cute on it.

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The skin really comes with many different options. you have the choice to use nearly all popular mesh heads, which are compatible with Omega, plus you can choose between a freckled and a non freckled version. What I loved most is that you as well can have an option for no eye brows, since that is my personal trademark for years now πŸ˜‰

What I appreciate a lot, Elysium offers the same skin as well for the default avatar including the head, which is a real rare case lately and the more I ould love to spotlight Elysium skins for that as well.

I was so disappointed when I went to the skin fair and saw nearly only appliers for mesh heads but no default avatar skins anymore. I can see the need for mesh head appliers as many do like to use their mesh heads. But as well I know enough ppl who like to stick to their avatar heads still – or even wanna change around between mesh and default – to keep their uniqueness and personality. I am not saying I hate mesh heads, I just was very disappointed to not being able to look for a new skin, if I do not wear any of those.

Anyways.. that was not the topic I wanted to talk about today :p

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The second item I wanted to talk about is the item, that [sys] has on the actual round of We <3 RP.

The “Nemesis” outfit, is another genius design of the [sys] sisters. It covers all the important parts and still gives enough room to see the “Candice” skin of Elysium πŸ˜‰

The set comes with a HUD to customize colors and fabrics. The basic armor can be changed to 5 different colors of metals and structures. For the light parts you get the choice between teal, rose and silver/gray.

The cool collar and chains as well come from [sys] and were made for the Whore Couture event.

The cool shoulder parts were made by Eudora and totally went with the rest of the look. The extraordinary head-piece was designed by Pure Poison and gave the dot of the “i” in my view πŸ˜‰

All those parts made no sense when I put them first together, but by looking at them more and more an idea for pictures did grow in my mind as well. I wanted something trashy apocalyptic looking to make a contrast to the delicate “Candice” skin and the amazing shining “Nemesis” set. And right there the trouble started. I was roaming around over many sims and places and did not find what I wanted or I could not rezz the cool “Barrel Chair” from 22769, which I liked to much for the idea of my picture. So I ended up with the worst thing I could imagine… I needed to built something myself…

I am everything but a good builder… and usually if I try to set up something it never looks like I want it to. I adore people like Anderian Sugarplum or Daffodil Crimson, who can create amazing scenarios and sets.

So I did know, I wanted the “Barrel Chairs” and something trashy on a sanded base. After I set that up, I opened my inventory and typed “trash” in the search of it and looked what comes up. I found an old bus station and some funny trash bins. A start but far away from what I was looking for :p

I remembered a wall, I recently got off a yard sale from Remarkable Obvilion. It is called “Junkyard Dogs – Corner Wall” and I suppose it came from a Gacha. Given the new term “Junkyard” (yes I am German and sometimes I miss such terms or words…) I made my way to the Marketplace and searched for some more ‘Junk’. I found various parts from Angharad Greggan, wich perfectly went with the idea I was going for. Together with some grass and dead bushes from [we’re CLOSED] and some time of pushing and turning and pulling, I got something I really liked πŸ˜‰

Now just a few interesting poses and then…

SNAP HAPPY!

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Β Details

Outfit: [sys] – “Nemesis” – NEW @ We <3 RP

Skin: Elysium – “Candice” – NEW @ Skinfair 2016

Shoulder Parts: Eudora 3D – “Eir Shoulders” – NEW @ We <3 RP

Collar & Chains: [sys] – “Sade Bodychain” – NEW @ Whore Couture

Headpiece: Pure Poison – “N’aimah Headdress” – NEW @ We <3 RP

Hair: no.match – “No.Call

Mesh Body: Slink – “Physique”

Furniture, Junk & Plants: 22769, Angharad Greggan & [we’re CLOSED]

Model, Photographer & Set: Wicca Merlin

Β sys, elysium 10

GizzA goes Vintage

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I love vintage looks! I always did though and so the “Absinthe” dress in vintage green totally caught my heart πŸ˜‰

The dress comes with the matching necklace and is available in other wonderful vintage and non vintage patterns.

The wonderful floral print adds a lot of sweetness and beauty to the whole look.

To match the dress I certainly wanted a good girl hair and I remembered one of the braided hair styles from EMO-tions, the “Mela” hair.

The shoes, which came in the perfect shade are from Eudora.

Now I needed a place to snap this cute look. Lately Saz did renew the little parcel behind our store to a wonderful summery looking scene. I tried several places and it was really a hard desicion since there are so many nice spots πŸ˜‰

Tadaaaa, that’s my GizzA vintage look for today πŸ˜‰

Gizza 1

Details

Dress & Necklace: GizzA – “Absinthe” [Vintage Green]

Hair: EMO-tions – “Mela”

Shoes: Eudora 3D – “Dahlia Pumps”

Poses: Wicca’s Wardrobe – Poses – “Play the Flowers Set”

Location: Wicca’s Wardrobe (beside the store)

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin