Silent Valentine?

You do not need to be loved, not at the cost of yourself. Of all the people you will know in the lifetime, you are the only one you will never leave or lose.

[Jo Coudert]

Valentine flowers, Valentine cards, Valentine cookies, Valentine this and Valentine that… every where you go, you get it rubbed right in your face wether you like it or not…

But what is with those people who would like to avoid Valentine’s da?

Maybe someone lost a beloved person and does not want to get reminded?

Maybe someone had a bad experience on Valentine’s day and tries to forget?

Maybe some people believe, that Valentine’s day only was made for the retail and do not want to support that?

What ever reason people have, I think that everyone should be able to make their own decisions about if they want to celebrate Valentine’s day or not.

I do not needΒ  a special day to tell those I love how much I love them and I would not just do that on one special day. If I want to make my partner a little present, I do that on any day and as often as I want during the year. Sometimes it is just a little thing, maybe candy or something I saw and thought he would like it,Β  just a gesture or maybe just spend some precious time together. I even think it is the many little things that really show how much you do love someone else and not a huge present on a special day, that you are told by the calendar.

That brought me to today’s post as I wanted to do something different for Valentine’s day, but as well keep the typical red color πŸ˜‰

So many new events started and so many new amazing creations got released, I really had a hard time to decide what I would like to wear and use for todays pictures. I ended up with a huge mix and match for my look and as well for the set.

For the outfit I chose a combination of the new “Diana” outfit from [sYs] and a new lingerie from La Perla. You certainly can wear “Diana” without a lingerie underneath but I thought it does give a nice romantic contrast to do so πŸ˜‰

The awesome bracelets and the very special mask, I found at ROMP. When I tried the “Blinded” mask from Cubic Cherry, it immediately added a very intensive feeling to the whole look. With the metal look and the shaped eye contour, it did remind me on that old Roman theater masks.

The head piece is an art piece itself. It was made by LouLou Teichmann, owner and designer of Bauhaus Movement, and with the amazing details and the super sweet look, it made the perfect contrast to the mask.

I would like to drag your attention onto the hair a little more. Recently I discovered a new hair store. I am super picky with hair, especially with the textures, but when I tried my first Sintiklia Hair I was totally amazed. Not only the textures are awesome, Sintiklia has an amazing way how they create their hair at the base. You do not really need a hairbase with the way they do their end parts that meet the head and there is NO alpha issues at all! On many of their hair styles, they even include a style HUD, so that you can change the look of it and get more than one style with your hair. With the “Salma” hair, that I found at ROMP, you get a style HUD that gives you the possibility of 4 different ways how you can wear your hair! And usually you find a mirrored possibility if you have wisps of hair coming down at the front. So often I was cursing when the pose was not cooperation with my hair and I wished I would have had such an option to just change the side of the wisps. As if that would not be already awesome enough, with many of the Sintiklia hair you will get – besides the usual color HUDs – a tint color picker add-on HUD. With that you even can work on the shades of a certain color to match it perfectly to your skin and as well your look! You really should try some of their demos and see for yourself – I only can highly recommend it!

Another part of my post, which I would like to spotlight a little bit, is the sweet looking ‘daybed’ – if you call those things like that. It is a little stool with sweet ribbons and cute ruffles, that comes with many different textures. On the first view you would never believe what is behind that “cute mask” if you do not realize the little metal rings that are added to all the ribbons! Maybe you will get rough idea, if I tell you that the “Boudoir Bondage Stool” was made by Dictatorshop… ok the name might discover something already as well :p

This sweet little furniture you might imagine in a sweet girls room until you sat on it – and if you are a dork like me you enabled your RLV before as it said something about RLV and capture yourself on it *facepalms* It has a full ‘Dictatorshop known’ engine for all kind of couples and solos and for some poses it does even rezz cuffs and chains! What I liked most, you can pose solo in a non kinky way as well as you can roleplay all kind of scenes with it – private ones, which I resisted making picture of :p You still can get it, if you get you an actual Bound Box with a lot of other goodies in it at the Bound Box HQ!

I hope you enjoyed my little ‘different’ interpretation of my personal Valentine today πŸ˜‰

Happy Valentine’s for all who celebrate it and happy shopping!

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Outfit: [sYs] – “Diane” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Kinky

Lingerie: {La Perla} – “Bela Ensemble” (Maitreya Applier) – NEW @ Enchantment

Shoes: UTOPIA@Design – “Kaliska” (Maitreya)

Mask: [Cubic Cherry] – “Blinded” – NEW @ ROMP

Headpiece: Bauhaus Movement – “Grimhilde Headpiece”

Necklace: [ abrasive ] – “Romance Necklace” – NEW @ Enchantment

Bracelets: NOIR – “Sophia Bracelets” – NEW @ ROMP

Rings: Meva – “Bento Maitreya Rings Gold” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: Sintiklia – “Salma” – NEW @ ROMP

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4,1”

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Tattoo: Redfish – “Beast Tattoo” (Maitreya Applier) – NEW @ Enchantment

Set:

Stool: Dictatorshop – “Boudoir Bondage Stool” – NEW @ Bound Box

Cage: Ama & Nais – “Box Cage” – NEW @ ROMP

Table & Deco: <Heart Homes> – “The Rose Silver Table” & “The Enchanted Rose Red” – NEW @ Enchantment

Wall Art:Β Atelier Visconti – “Vincent Wall Art”

Lamp: Trompe Loeil – “Wiggle Modern Light” (Gacha)

Chains: [Arch] Deco – “Box of Chains”

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

 

 

 

Those Moments…

Sometimes you have something in mind and as much as you try… it won’t look like you first wanted it.

Do you know that feeling? You built a wonderful set, you had all kind of poses in mind to bring your set and vision alive and what ever you try it looks wrong?

Exactly that happened to me today. I was fooling around over 3 hours, stubborn about my first idea and anyways what I tried – pushing furniture around, changing poses, twisting poses and even make poses – nothing worked…

So I gave up on the first idea and since I anyways love playing with poses, I went into my Poseidon poses folder and started going through them. The dress (like dresses always do) limited the possibilities lightly because of the legs movement, but the more I played with them the more I got new courage and new ideas about how todays pictures should look like. I trashed my set and just played with poses, windlights and shadows.

Today my style was based off the amazing “Rihanna” boots from [Gos].

“Step into Rihanna, a sky-high thigh high boot featuring perforation detailed accented by a metal-capped square toe and sculpted-metal stiletto heel.
Rihanna is available in 3 colour HUDs – Boutique, Blueberry, and Metallics – each sold separately or as a collection. The Boutique HUD includes 16 current, in-season colours perfect for any fashionista, the Blueberry HUD includes 20 colours which coordinate with clothing from Blueberry, and the Metallics HUD include 7 metallics which will have your feet shining. Each HUD also includes 5 sole and 3 metal options.” Gospel Voom states and he is not exaggerating!

The boots are skin tight and with the perforation something very special. It as well shows how accurate the boots are made and rigged as you cannot alpha out anything!

The cool dress with the amazing chained bottom part was made by [sYs]. You can have many different colors but since I am a black addicted – I went for black πŸ˜‰

The awesome face decoration I found at Zibska. I adore her for her special sense of art. In every of her designs you see, what a skilled artist she is. Her items are never boring mainstream and always when I use her creations for a style it adds so much character and attitude. The eye decoration I really had to get, when I saw it as it reminded me of seeing many different shades of one thing if you look through all those parts or the imagination of how many you can see in one thing only.

So even if I trashed my set today I hope you nevertheless had fun with my look πŸ˜‰

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Dress: [sYs] – “Ano” (Maitreya)

Shoes: [Gos] – “Rihanna Perforated Boots” (Maitreya)

Gloves: L’Emporio – “Fingerless Gloves” (Maitreya)

Arm Straps right: L’Emporio – “Harness Arm” (Maitreya)

Collar: NOIR – “Mallory Choker”

Fingernails & Rings: Slipper – “Deidra” (Maitreya)

Facedeco: Zibska – “Pari” (with LeLutka Applier)

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: Exile – “Windsong”

Makeup: Zibska – “Razmig”

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Tattoo: Ivory & Rose – “Alexandrina” (Maitreya Applier)

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses: Poseidon

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

Always on the Run

My mama said
That it’s good to be fruitful
But my mama said
Don’t take more than a mouthful
And my mama said
That it’s good to be natural
And my mama said
That it’s good to be factual
But I’m always on the run

[Lenny Kravitz]

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Top: Mowie – “Haramori” (Maitreya)

Jacket: Gabriel – “Long Cardigan” (Maitreya)

Pants: PurpleMoon – “Maise Trousers” (Maitreya)

Shoes: Livalle – “Hax – Combat Boots”

Glasses: HAYSURIZA – “Glasses HipHop”

Necklace: Kunglers – “Sile”

Rings: Slipper – “Laura” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: no.match – “No.Twist”

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses: Wicca’s Wardrobe

Props:

22769 ~ [bauwerk]Β  – “Sinatra Wall Art”

22769 ~ [bauwerk] – “Pallet Wallart Squirrel”

22769 ~ [bauwerk] – “Industrial Endtable”

[NC] – “Colonial Wall Lamp”

[sf] – “Industrial Sofa”

TD – “Mesh Industrial Tray”

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

Pose Studies with HelaMiyo

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

Poses are something very personal and as well to me they are a very important part to my pictures and blogging. We all spend a lot of time to dress up our pixels to get a cool look for our posts. I need the same amount of time as well to find the poses I do want to use for certain outfits. A real cool outfit can be super boring and not exciting at all when you use the wrong poses in my opinion.

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

If you have a wonderful detailed outfit and you just do a standing pose with lots of background and ambience around you, all those pretty little details simply vanish. It took me a long time until I figured out a way for me to keep those details and as well have a cool picture. Poses are very often too underestimated. Sometimes poses that look crazy and weird on the first view, can become very interesting if you play with them, turn them around or just have a crop picture where you only can see certain parts. Maybe that requires more pictures to showcase an outfit properly but I do not mind that at all if I am satisfied with the picture itself.

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

For shoes for example you can do so much more than just have shoes and feet on the picture. Like with the pose I used on the picture above. The shoes are the definite focus in that picture, but I still have nearly my whole avatar shown and the outfit it self as well. The same pose from another angle can showcase something different. So one pose can be used more than once and maybe sometimes you cannot even tell that it was the same pose with a totally different angle on it (at least I could not :p)

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

Sometimes I get asked, why I am doing more than one picture for my blog posts and if one picture would not be enough. Maybe sometimes one would be enough but then, if you style your avatar with time and passion, would you not like to show all the details you styled to it – Maybe a back view or a closeup? For clothing I usually do not have more than 3 to 5 pictures, if I do not have a picture story or something like that. Then I try to have one full body shot, one head shot and maybe one with shoes, nails or a little detail that would be overseen in one of the 2 others. But if I play with poses, I do have more than that. Usually, one pose set has more tha one or 2 poses in it and how I could showcase a pose set with just one picture if I do not wanna stuff all poses into one picture?

HelyMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

If I want to do pose studies with more than one pose set, I have to have more pictures to really showcase the work a pose designer put in to it. To be honest it is as well fun to change poses and angles while you take pictures. I sometimes find angles and crops I never would have thought about, by just turning and rotating my pose stand *giggles*

For this post I had over 80 snapshots and in the end over 20 pictures from them, that I wanted to use. but since 20 pictures is a lot I forced myself to cut it down under 15 for one post and do some more on a second post, so I will not beat you down with too many pictures πŸ˜‰

HelaMiyo – “Our Darkness” Pose Set

For todays post all poses are made by HelaMiyo.

HelaMiyo is not a new pose store. Miyoko Magic entered SL in 2008 and HelaMiyo was born back then as well. Miyoko always had very unique and impressive poses that not just were ‘simple standing’ poses. If you ask her you will find out that all of her poses have a linked story to her RL as she states on her website (http://helamiyo.blogspot.de/) . Maybe that explains as well why all of her poses are so unique πŸ˜‰

HelaMiyo – “Our Darkness” Pose Set

I still remember one of my first pose sets from HelaMiyo from when I started modeling and was working for a store named Staged back in 2009. We were standing on a round platform and we got a puppet hanger to wear so it looked like hanging puppet/string dolls instead of just usual store models – I really loved that idea and I still have those hanger and poses πŸ˜‰

That was the first time when I discovered HelaMiyo poses πŸ™‚

HelaMiyo – “Our Darkness” Pose Set

The more I was happy that now, about 8 years later, I got to know the person behind th poses! I am usually too shy to talk to designers if I am just one of a million customers, because I always think they are so busy with creating and I do not want to bother them with me and my questions πŸ˜‰

The more I was excited that Miyoko IMed me after one of my last posts, where I was talking about the difficulties to do pictures with gowns (https://wiccamerlin.de/i-am-a-pants-person-but-i-am-not-a-gown-enemy/).

She sent me 2 amazing pose sets for gowns (which I still have to post as well, as soon as I find a gown I do like) as she really proved me that there ARE gown poses who are not just boring and without any action πŸ˜‰

HelaMiyo – “Rock” Pose Set

What I do like a lot with the HelaMiyo pose sets is, that you always get a mirrored version of each pose. So you can decide either what direction you want to look at and as well you can do amazing pictures with a mirror or even fake reflection. It is really fun to experiment with that kind of pictures if you have the possibility of a second, mirrored pose.

HelaMiyo – “Contemporary Jump” Pose Set

HelaMiyo – “Contemporary Jump” Pose Set

I really think, that poses are sometimes underestimated and we just use them for the purpose to have a pose for our amazing styles and we rarely see the work and effort that posemakers as well have to do, so that we can shine in our amazing outfits on our pictures and on the virtual fashion runways. Because of that, I like to do the “Pose Studies” posts here and there, where I can mainly focus on the poses and give them the attention and time they really earn.

HelaMiyo – “Contemporary Jump” Pose Set

As well that is a personal challenge as well as you have to find an outfit that cooperates with all the poses no matter what πŸ˜‰ You have to find a look, where the poses come out clean and proper without breaks in the clothing or having your limbs inside your body. Sometimes that even asks for lightly shape changes to make your shape fit the poses as well. I did not have to change my shape for the HelaMiyo poses but the outfit was quite a challenge as I wanted to use some specific poses that have a lot of movement to them.

I hope you enjoyed my little pose journey as much as I did while iI was doing the pictures andΒ  I am sure that will not be my last one as I have a few more amazing HelaMiyo poses left to showcase πŸ˜‰

HelaMiyo – “Ground Sit” Pose Set

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Body & Jacket: [sys] – “Samhain” (Maitreya)

Stockings: .:Avanti:. – “Ripped Nylons” (Maitreya Applier)

Shoes: N-Core – “Ballet” (Maitreya)

Eyepatch: .Shi – “Patch Mechanics 4.1”

Rings: MEVA – “Bento Maitreya Rings Silver” (Maitreya)

Collar: Pure Poison – ” ‘W’ Love Collar”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: Vanity Hair – “Crown Royal-Greedy”

Makeup: Zibska – “Augusta” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Asya” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tatoo:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Facetattoo: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses: HelaMiyo

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

HelaMiyo – “Ground Sit” Pose Set