“Incorrect. I am not an AI… I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information.”

Originally created for AUDAZ – https://audaz-sl.com/

“Life perpetuates itself through diversity, and this includes the ability to sacrifice itself when necessary. Cells repeat the process of degeneration and regeneration until one day they die, obliterating an entire set of memory and information. Only genes remain. Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system.”

[- Puppet Master -]
Clothing

On Her

Top: [CX] – “Sticky Bits Top – Owned” (Maitreya)

Panty 1: [CX] – “Sticky Bits Bottom” (Maitreya)

Panty 2: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – “Crotch Guard (MID)” (Gacha, Rare)

On Him

Outfit: Gild – “Xanadu Gown (for male)” (Gianni)

Accessories

On Her

Face Art 1: Wicca’s Originals – “Edge Implant”

Face Art 2: Wicca’s Originals -Pathfinder Set”

Upper Harness: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – “Harness CM (Black)” (Gacha, Common)

Belly: :::SOLE::: – “SA – armor ST01 (Black EX – Sticker)” (Maitreya)

Back: :::SOLE::: – “SA – SG Pad (Black) Tail”

Upper Legs: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – CLeg (Black)” (Gacha, Common)

On Him

Glasses: Bauhaus – “8 Bits Cyber Shades”

Face Art: {PSYCHO:Byts} – “Cyber Implants”

Hair & Makeup

On Her

Hair: lock&tuft – “stranded (women fit 1)

Lipstick: NOX. – “Incomplete Lip” (Omega Applier)

On Him

Hair: A&Y – “Dext”

Head, Body & Tattoo

On Her

Head: LeLutka – “May 3.4”

Skin: YS&YS – “Pris ELF NOBROWS” (BoM)

Ears: [CX] – “Sceleratis Ears”

Eye Left: [LB Eyes] – “Cybernetic Steel: 8 L Materials” (Mesh)

Eye Right: Madame Noir – [Black Eye R] (Group Gift)

Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3”

Tattoo 1: YS&YS – “Pris Machine Body Effect – Dark” (BoM)

Tattoo 2: ~JJ~ – “Speciality Tattoo (Gynoid/Anroid)” (BoM)

                        Arms: Wicca’s Originals – “Omega Arms” (Maitreya)

On Him

Head: Catwa – “Daniel”

Eyes: Madame Noir – “Snake Eyes”

Body: Signature – “Gianni”

Arms: Wicca’s Originals – “Omega Arms” (Gianni)

Poses, Props & Tools

Pose: [InDiGo] – “Couple Pose – Follow Me” (Bento)

Background: PIRAYA&TROPIX – “Cyber City FATPACK”

Models

Redclaw Inshan & Wicca Merlin

Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Merry Christmas with Blacklace & Glamistry

I never did any Christmas posts with lingerie I guess so I thought, this year I finally could have one :p

Maybe it was not that, but the fact that I am stuck at home with pneumonia till christmas and all of a sudden my day is so long, that I can play around with stylings more than I ever expected right before Christmas 😉

Usually the days before Christmas are very hectic in RL. In school we need to finish the last Christmas presents for the parents, music students want to have a Christmas concert or I need to run for some last-minute presents… that all was wiped out all of a sudden, when I got told “You will stay at home on the couch, no cold air, no huge activities” by the doctor.

I never had pneumonia before and I have to admit it sucks.. all that weird coughing and fever that makes me feel dizzy and tipsy… horrible. I love my work and I enjoy my life! So being stuck on the couch is probably the most ugly thing I can imagine.

I was called a bad patient before, for being not patient enough and just laying down until I am better.. but hey… life is too short for just laying down and doing nothing!

When I saw the amazing group gift with the cute santa hat at Argrace, I did know, I wanna do a sexy Holidays post 😉

I put on the super sexy “Vivian Candy Cane” lingerie from Blacklace, which just was released for Christmas 😉 I always admired the amazing details and filigree textures of Blacklace lingerie and with that sweet ensemble Blacklace reinvented one of their amazing lingerie sets. The awesome shoes are made by Glamistry and with the huge roses on the top of the peep toes it matched perfect in cuteness to the hair and the lingerie 😉

To have some gold added to the holy days.. I used the “Faith” jewelry from EMO-tions, that reminded me of the little Christmas tree balls my grandma always had on her Christmas tree.

The furniture and deco I used for the set I mostly found in my “MadPea Christmas Calendar 2016”. That calendar was so much fun with all the quality gifties in it… I just can recommend it for all for the next year if they do it again 😉

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Details

Lingerie: Blacklace – “Vivian Candy Cane” – NEW (mesh body applier)

Knee Leggins: AviCandy – “Knee Nylons Lace Red” (mesh body applier)

Shoes: Glamistry – “Rose Heels” – NEW

Hair: Argrace – “Santa Hat 2016” (group gift)

Jewelry: EMO-tions – “Faith”

Sofa: [Krescendo] – “The Outside In Chair”

Ladder: Pewpew! – “Ladder Christmas Tree”

Cats: NOMAD – “Kitty Choir” (yes! they are really singing!!!)

Candle on the ladder: *HEXtraordinary* – “Reindeer Antler Candle”

Oven: LAQ Decor – “Iron Stove & Kettle”

Candle on the bookcase: .random.Matter. – “Light Our Way – Candle”

Decor on the bookcase: LAQ Decor – “Angel Chimes”

Book Case: LAQ Decor – “White – Bookcase”

Poses: ALIUD

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

LOTD 08/05/2016 – Yesterday @ GizzA

GizzA 04

Yesterday when I dressed up for my GizzA shift I found myself in a light elegant mood. That for I tried one of the latest releases from GizzA called “Adrianna”. “Adrianna” is a wonderful ensemble of a jacket with a deep neckline and a wonderful short leather skirt. The outfit is available for standard avatars as well as for Slink Physique/Hourglass and Maitreya Lara mesh bodies.

Since GizzA recently started to make appliers for mesh bodies, I could not resist to use the new “Fleur Lace Top” under the “Adrianna” outfit. I made a wonderful addition to the rest of the look 🙂 The “Fleur Lace Top” comes with four appliers (Slink, Belleza, Maitreya & Omega) so you should be able to wear it with all the popular mesh bodies out there. What really caught my attention, the lines are very sharp and crisp and so you could see all the love for the details, Giz put into that wonderful new release. To complete the outfit I put sheer tights from Izzie’s and the wonderful “MeiMei” set made by Meva for the past round of On9, but I am sure you will find it at her main store now 😉

GizzA 01

For the pictures I again found my way to one of the Neva sims. This time it was Saint Pete City. A wonderful designed little city with so many details that I still find some every time I go back there 😉 For these picture series, I walked to the more outsides where you can see the seaside from those lovely benches. That would be as well a wonderful place just to relax and chat and enjoy the waves and birds I guess 😉

GizzA 02

Details

Outfit: GizzA – “Adrianna” – NEW

Shirt: GizzA – “Fleur Lace Top” (Applier) – NEW

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

Hair: enVogue – “Melissa”

Jewelry: Meva – “MeiMei”

Avatar:

Head: CATWA – “Jessica”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Hand & Feet: Slink

Location: Saint Pete City

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

GizzA 03

Lady in Red? Featuring Azul & EMO-tions

Azul 1red

Lady in Red

I’ve never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight
I’ve never seen you shine so bright
I’ve never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance
Looking for a little romance, given half a chance
I have never seen that dress you’re wearing
Or the highlights in your hair that catch your eyes
I have been blind

Azul 2

Lady in red is dancing with me, cheek to cheek
There’s nobody here, it’s just you and me, it’s where I wanna be
But I hardly know this beauty by my side
I’ll never forget, the way you look tonight

I’ve never seen you looking so gorgeous as you did tonight
I’ve never seen you shine so bright, you were amazing
I’ve never seen so many people wanna be there by your side
And when you turned to me and smiled, it took my breath away
I have never had such a feeling
Such a feeling of complete and utter love, as I do tonight

Azul 3

Lady in red is dancing with me, cheek to cheek
There’s nobody here, it’s just you and me, it’s where I wanna be
But I hardly know this beauty by my side
I’ll never forget, the way you look tonight
I never will forget, the way you look tonight

The lady in red
The lady in red
The lady in red
My lady in red (I love you.)

[Chris de Burgh]

Azul 4

Details

Dress (incl Choker): Azul – “Yves” – NEW
Shoes: [MODA] – “Tessa Knee High Boots”
Hair: EMO-tions – MARTINA – NEW @ Hairfair 2016
Bag: 22769 ~ [femme] – “Veronica Handbag”
Glasses: Glamistry – “Sunglasses PU2003”
Ring: alme Jewelry – “Leaves Ring”
Makeup: Veechi – “Sleuth Shadows”
Lipstick: Zibska – “Winterberries”
Poses: Devilish Poses

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Caira [Latex Edition] – NEW @ Wicca’s Wardrobe

Lately I had a long talk with a close friend of mine about latex on fashion runways.

In the end we both agreed that latex can be a very fashionable fabric for clothing and accessories and so the idea of the “Caira” Latex Edition was born.

I know from various talks with other SL models, that many feel uncomphortable with wearing latex or think that latex just belong to others peoples bedrooms.

I never understood that because if you look at RL runways the high fashion designers used latex and vinyl for years. It all always depends on the way of how the latex is used and as well about the presentation.

To me latex always was something that had a very cool look to many different designs. Sometimes you saw very casual clothing shapes totally changed in their attitude with just being made of latex.

When we made the new “Caira” outfit for the store, we first had a Leather Edition, but we wanted to try how it would look in latex or vinyl as well and so we gave it a try. I have to say latex is one of the hardest materials you can try in SL probably as all the shine and lights are not really easy to do.

If you ever saw a latex clothing piece in RL, it basically just has a surface that is very clean, glossy and sleek with nearly no fabric structure. So everything what makes the look of latex is the light of the surrounding, that gets reflected by the clothing piece. That means it never will have the shadows and lights on the same spot, basically they change with every move.

Now try to make some permanent high lights for SL, which donot look like you wouldhave painted on someones body with a wide brush of white wall paint :p

It took some time until we all were satisfied with our version of a latex looking “Caira” but the result now really looks good and I love to wear it myself a lot. Especially becasue iam allergic to latex in RL and can’t do it there at all without getting bad pimples and itchy spots all over my skin *giggles*

In the end I guess everyone needs to decide on their own, if they wanna wear latex or vinyl or not, but I would not ban it from the runways or out of fashion blogs in general 😉 To me they are refreshing and extraordiary plus sometimes.

I had fun doing those pictures, giving them an art touch with different lightnings and crops 😉

Details

Outfit: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Caira Edition” – NEW

Boots: [MODA] – Sakari Strapped Boots”

Collar: Happy Undead – “Charming Collar”

Hair: Tableau Vivant – “LeeJae”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Lipstick: Zibska – “Blacktop Lips”

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

LOTD 04/06/2016 – Modern Chic with Elysium, GizzA & 22769

French Chic 06

Today I was in a sort of chic mode :p

When I today was trying to sort my inventory again (yes, I know, I should do that more often, like I always tell in my classes^^) I found some amazing things. Lately RL was keeping me pretty busy and so I was not able to catch up with all the new releases as I normally do…

But finally, RL gave me enough room to put together a look with some of those incredible releases 😉

French Chic 01

I am still in love with the new “Isabelle” skin from [sys] and I am wearing it for quite some time now. It was released for the Skin Fair 2016, but I am sure now after it is over for some time you will find it at the [sys] main store. AS well from [sys] comes that super sexy top. It was released on the Whore Couture event. The “Freya Bra” has usually matching panties to it, which I did not use this time, but I will do a nother post soon with the whole set 😉 The bra comes in a fitted mesh version, as well as for the Slink and Maitreya mesh bodies.

For the pants I wanted something high waisted and my choice fell on one of my favourite pants in that style – the “High Waist Woolen Pants” from GizzA.

French Chic 04

The cool shoulder parts as well from GizzA and they are part of the “Spiky Fur Top”. Those shoulder parts went amazingly together with the “A Rock in a Heart Place” collar in silver from 22769.

The cute “Sidsel” hat was made by Elysium for the Gacha Guardian. The hat comes as a left and right version in many different colors. As well for Gacha Guardian Elysium made the amazing “Soes” earrings in different awesome colors.

The cool rings were available at one of the last rounds of On9, but i’m pretty sure you will find them at the [Since 1975] main store by now.

The absolute cool hair, which fitted perfectly under the “Sidsel” hat, was made by Mirja Mills, owner & designer of EMO-tions.

French Chic 05

The furniture for today’s set are available at the Tres Chic event. 22769 created a wonderful “Pallet Bedroom” set, that just perfectly fits with a modern loft look for today’s style. The whole set includes the bed (available as PG and adult version), 3 different wall arts, the breeze block with the lamp and a sweet decoration set, where I used the rug, the plant and the magazine from.

French Chic 08

Details

Bra: [sys] – “Freya”

Pants: GizzA – “High Waist Woolen Pants”

Shoulder  Parts: GizzA – Spiky Fur Top” (part of the top only)

Hat: Elysium – “Sidsel Hat” – NEW (Gacha Guardian)

Collar: 22769 – “A Rock in a Heart Place”

Earrings: Elysium – “Soes Earrings” – NEW (Gacha Guardian)

Cuffs: Astralia – “Amarantha”

Rings: [Since 1975] – “Fang Rings”

Hair: EMO-tions – “Alicia”

Skin: [sys] – “Isabelle”

Freckles: Le Forme – “Freckles V2” (Catwa Applier)

Eye Shadow: Slackgirl – “Spring Shadow” (Catwa Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Blacktop” (Catwa Applier)

Eyes: Ikon – “Hope Eyes”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Poses: Corpus

Furniture/Set: 22769 – “Pallet Bedroom! NEW @ Tres Chic

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Bird of Prey – Pose & Picture Processing Studies with DARE Poses

Pose Studies Dare 5

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Collar” (#81)

I more and more find my own fun, in playing and fooling around with poses, experimenting with angles and learn new picture processing techniques…

Pose Studies Dare 8

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 63 – “You Can’t See Me” (#63)

When I started blogging, I always saw the need toa full body shot, a head shot and maybe even some close-ups of certain accessories. Nothing wrong with that, but the longer I was blogging, the more it was kinda boring to do always the same kind of pictures for each post.

What is a very common way of blog pictures – and yes I tried that as well *grins* – is to have one big picture and then include little close up circles or squares for more details. Nothing wrong with that either, but over the time I more and more had the desire of making more artistic looking pictures, which still showcase the designers work properly.

Pose Studies Dare 2

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Imma Burrito” (#82)

If you have a full body shot, often enough the shoes, the jewelry or even nails often enough are too tiny to really showcase them as the full avatar gets kinda tiny when you try to have all of your body on your picture. Mostly I had the feeling then, that I had more ambience and background on my pictures, than the actual items I wanted to showcase. I thought by myself, what would be wrong to have real closeups as a full picture… sometimes maybe my head or face was missing but is that so important, if I want to showcase an item that my face is on the picture as well? Yes and no… certainly you want to show that the pictures are of yourself and brand yourself for marketing purposes, but sometimes you can even show your face in one closeup and have other pictures with certain parts of your body or furniture. I realized, that if I do that, I need to find interesting angles for the pictures, as if I just crop them they can look boring very easy.

Pose Studies Dare 11

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

I already talked about how you can twist and turn poses to weird angles and in the end they turn out as amazing crops or closeups. Some pose stores help with that kind of pictures and ideas, as they make unusual, editorial poses, which sometimes look weird if you see them as a whole or just from the wrong angle. Exactly those poses can be the most interesting if you go for crops, closeups or even interesting angles.

During the last Ferosh Fashion Weekend, I discovered a pose store, which I basically know for a long time but kinda lost out of the view over the time – to be honest I do not really know why…

Chance Greatrex, owner and creator of DARE poses, has a very special vision for his poses. They are really out of the box and different to so many I found on the grid. Just the fact that all his poses have each a unique and story telling name, shows that there is way more behind his poses than just an animation 😉

Pose Studies Dare 1

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 62 – “The Struggle Is Real” (#62)

Lately I got s pose set called “Face Hands”, which probably was made with the intention to feature a hand/face combination for example for makeup and nails, rings or hand jewelry. They re perfect for closeups and different angles and while snapping I even had a hard time to sort out the ones I love the most, since I cannot overload a post with over 20 pictures*snickers*

 Since I wanted to do a pose study, I decided to go for something simple but still with ym personal twist for the outfit. I realized, that La Petite Morte has a sale going on where Voshie gives her skins away for 100 lindens! As I still do experiment with my new Catwa head and do not have much skins for it yet, I TPed over to the La Petite Morte and took a look. I was very surprised as I just expected older skins to be on sale, when I realized there are as well newer ones with appliers for several mesh heads and bodies!

Pose Studies Dare 3

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Bedtime” (#78)

I have to admit, I have a weakness for fantasy skins even if I am not able to use them too often, but for pictures they always add something special to the whole look. When I was looking around – after I found the TP to the sales room… typical me… – I immediately fell in love with the “Belle” skin in diamond. It comes with a Catwa applier and when I tried the demo, it looked so stunning that I could not resist to get me one 😉

The face has a wonderful ornament around the eyes and the lips are one of the most stunning lips I ever saw on the Catwa head. With the light purple/grey touch and a shimmering finish, the skin screamed for something mystical or fantasy looking.

Pose Studies Dare 13

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

To not disturb the view on the body too much I went with the “Siren Set No. 1” by Pixicat. The tight fit on the Slink Physique and the minimal covering of the body was just perfect for a poses and skin showcase. The cool “Bird of Prey” head-piece, we made a little while ago for a themed event, and it just went perfectly with the rest of the look, even if it is a pity that it covers the amazing eye makeup of the skin… that requires another post with this incredible, amazing skin soon I guess :p

Pose Studies Dare 9

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 55 – “Now You See Me” (#55)

The cool finger rings I found at the last round of On9 made by [Since 1975] and I am pretty sure they will be at their main store now.

For the hair I wanted something pulled back, what did not interfere with the head-piece too much and so my choice fell on a ponytail from [taketomi].

Pose Studies Dare 4

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Damn Hot Coffee” (#80)

What as well took me a lot of time lately was polishing my picture procession. I played less with windlights and tried more to work with a graphic program to post process my pictures by painting and drawing certain things like shadows and lights and as well I tired to find new techniques to create certain effects. Fog was something I really wanted to learn for a long time, something that looks realistic and not just painted on and edgy looking. As well, how I can create shadows without using the SL shadows, or my shaky hands to draw fuzzy lines 😉 YouTube has a lot of offers for learning new things and from time to time it is really exciting to test something new, like green screen against white screen shots and the possibilities you have with those kind of photography.

So for this post I mixed clean pose studies with interesting angles and new techniques of picture processing and even if it took me a while it was a very intensive learning time, which I really enjoyed 🙂

Pose Studies Dare 14

..::DARE::.. – Runway pose 18 – “Edgy Leaned Feet Apart” (#18)

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Set No. 1” (Gacha Item at their main store)

Headpiece: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Bird of Prey Mask”

Hair: [taketomi] – “MamiPlared_Bento”

Nails Rings: [Since 1975] – “FangRings”

Shoes: :)(: (Pixelfashion) – “Slavia Shoes” (for Slink high feet)

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Bella”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Poses: ..::DARE::..

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Pose Studies Dare 12a

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 49 – “Floppy Wings” (#49)

Dance with a Fairytale

Enfant 2

I know I had a lot of Unicorn posts lately, but I really do love the theme and the fairytale behind it. This month we have a lot of designs who point towards the novel and on of my favourites comes from Enfant Terrible.

She made a wonderful “Vintage Romance” set, wich is made for the 3 popular mesh bodes of Slink & Maitreya. The set is available in 4 different colors for the outfit and the shoes. Grey, Black, Ivory & Rose.

Maybe the best will be if I add the gacha key so you can see all the options :p

25183339705_37010538d5_o(Picture by Enfant Terrible)

I totally fell in love, when I got the “Vintage Romance” set. First of all the unicorn theme, then the amazing vintage touch with the frills, ruffles and the amazing pastel colors. Last but not least as well the incredible details, which Enfant always puts on her designs.

Enfant 3

The cute hairstyle with the amazing unicorn and the sweet twirled hair was made by Olive for the last round of the Enchantment. You are able to take off the front part with the horn but for this post it was just perfect like it is 😉

Enfant 6

Since I rediscovered DARE poses again, I am really in love with them. They are so incredible dynamic, that they give a certain mood to so many different pictures. They always look, as if they would capture a single moment out of an animation, what makes them look very interesting and always out of the box. On the first view they sometimes look crazy but if you play around with the angles you can have the most amazing captures ever. Certainly it always depends on the subject and what you are going for, but for me DARE poses are perfectly for my pictures and art work and even a few sets are made for runway posing. Their slogan “Poses that will make you stand out” is a real true statement 😉 Soon I will do a nother body studies post with a bunch of newer poses as well 😉

Enfant 1

Now I just had to find a location to shoot this wonderful outfit, together with the amazing poses. I remembered a collective of sims, which I saw when I was doing some sim hopping.

The Ippos Collective. A wonderful collective of 4 different fantasy looking sims, some of them even allow you to rezz a small prop or a poseball. Just make sure you pick it up after you are done, to make sure others can explore the sims and all their beauty as well 😉 Since it is a residential too you will find residents there as well. I guess respect is something that we all should have, to not intrude in their private sphere without their permission 😉

Enfant 5

Details

Outfit (incl Shoes & Collar): .Enfant Terrible. – “Vintage Romance” – NEW Gacha Set @ The Arcade

Hair: .Olive. – “The Twirl Hair”

Head: Catwa – Jessica”

Skin: [sys] – “Isabelle” – NEW for Skin Fair 2016

Eye Makeup: Zibska – “Aless”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Eyes: Ikon – “Hope Eyes”

Poses: ..::DARE::..

Location: The Ippos Collective – Ippos

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Enfant 4

Sunny Day with *agapee* & Eclipse

agapee 1

The sun comes out more and more and I just had to do another Spring post today 😉

I was experimenting some more with my new mesh head I got, but to be honest I did not yet found anything new. So I will focus on the amazing dress, which I got from *agapee* and  the cool boots made by Eclipse.

agapee 5

The amazing “Jean Outfit” is a real spring ensemble. With the sweet long-sleeved top, decorated by that little scarf, and the wonderful belted skirt with the delicate lace part in the front, it is perfect for the first warm sun beams.

The outfit comes with a HUD to change the colors of the short and the scarf to 6 different ones, so that you can customize the whole outfit perfectly to your very own likings.

agapee 2

The super cute hairstyle comes from Truth and was made for the actual round of The Fantasy Collective.

For the pictures, I wanted something sweet and modern, to complement the outfit itself. When I was lately doing some sim hopping, I discovered a residential sim called “Mataiva”. The name for the place is “The Iconic Spell”.

“The Ionic Spell is what remains of a little village devastated by a large solar storm.. For 10 years the people have lived without electricity and looked for ways to restore the light.The community is close and we must stick together to find the answer”

That is the description which I found in the sim description field. On the first view you won’t see the destructions, as most of the sim look like, as if the residents have rebuilt it, but some corners still show the basic idea. It is a fantastic place to walk around and enjoy the love to the detail, the people put in here to create this wonderful little world.

I am sure I will return to this awesome place to discover some more interesting corners for future pics and posts 😉

agapee 4

Details

Outfit: *agapee* – “Jean Outfit”

Boots: Eclipse – “Oh Me”

Hair: Truth – “Tierney” – NEW @ The Fantasy Collective

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Freckles: Le Forme – “Beauty Moles II V3”

Eyes: Ikon – “Hope Eyes”

Poses: Devilish Poses

Location: The Iconic Spell

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

agapee 3

Wastelands – I finally got my first mesh head :p

sys + emotions 5

Today I will have my first post trying out my new mesh head. Before I want to go deeper into my mesh head adventure… I would like to drag your attention on the awesome clothing I chose for this post.

Today I chose a fantastic outfit from [sys], which totally caught my heart. The cool used cargo pants with the huge belt and the grunge looking top, totally would be something I would wear in RL as well.

 The whole “Straps” set comes with a huge HUD to customize fabrics and colors and you as well can choose from 2 different fabrics in each 3 colors for the top. As well you can bus all the parts separate in many different colors at the actual round of Shiny Shabby.

The amazing and cool hair was made by Mirja Mills, owner and designer of EMO-tions. The “Sandrine” hair style totally went with the urban look of the “Straps” outfit from [sys]. The clean sorted and back pulled braids part over the right shoulder, so that you have some in front and some on the back of the shoulder. The perfect rigging makes it possible to move your shoulder and arm what ever direction you can imagine.

sys + emotions 4

The cool “Dagger” boots come from Gizza and originally were made for males. If you know me that is not something that holds me back from trying to wear them as a female as well :p.

Since one of the versions is a non rigged one, I was able to resize them and make them a little smaller to fit my female measures 😉 I did not wanna wear too much jewelry to keep the urban character of the look, but the “Dulce” necklace from Kunglers was a wonderful match to keep the style idea.

sys + emotions 7

But now to the topic of my todays post… my first mesh head.

(My thoughts and opinions are just my very own ones,  for myself and I do NOT mean to attack anyone who has a different opinion about this topic!)

I was against the mesh heads for a very long time as to me personally you can try as much with skins and makeups, you always will look similar to so many others if you wear a mesh head. The probably results out of the fact, that we cannot yet customize the facial features on all of them. some allow at least some stretching to all directions of the whole head, but certain trademarks like the nose, the mouth or the eyes cannot really be customized as much as we are able with our default avatar head.

To me a unique face counts a lot as it makes a huge part of the character of an avatar. If you are in the modeling scene you are taught to make your avatar as unique as possible, to create trademarks that let you standout from many others and to selfbrand yourself. I never was looking too much left and right or tried to copy an already existing model or avatar even if I had seen many faces that I really adore. I more admired them for being how they are as usually they had a very distinctive face, that make them stand out where every they showed up. People like Shena Neox, Vixie Rayna, blackliquid Tokyoska, Absinthe (sintheontherocks), Kay Fairey or Honey Bender – to just name a few – I always was able to recognize on shows, vendors, print  or video productions. And that kinda was my engine from the very beginning, to develop a face for Wicca, that always showed it was her without having her name tag right beside her.

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So you can imagine how I was wondering, when the first mesh heads came out and so many ppl ran like crazy for them. All of a sudden many people looked similar and after a while, it was even possible to name the heads and where they are coming from, anyways who was wearing them and what kind of skin they applied to it. I always questioned myself where the uniqueness was going with the lauch of the new aera of mesh attachments. I always tried the demos of the new mesh heads, anyways of which brand. Popular ones and as well the ones of the under dogs. More and more different heads came out but always when I tried them with several different skins, I never lost the feeling of loosing my own face by wearing one of the mesh heads.

For a while I skipped the idea of a mesh head for myself until about a week ago when the Skin Fair 2016 opened. As usual I went there to see if I could find a new skin for myself. I was surprised and disappointed as it seemed, that so many popular skin labels only made appliers for all kind of mesh heads but none anymore bothered with skins for the default avatar head. I left the fair after a short while and back at home the mesh heads came back to my mind and I again ran around and collected demos from all over the place.

After a few days of trying, I found one head that looked not too bad. The “Jessica” head from Catwa. It did not have those huge kissy lips that stuck out from the face and the nose was not as tiny as for the most I tried before. I thought I could give it a try and got it.

On the first day, when I did not yet bother too much about makeups yet, I just go me some freckles, as Wicca has freckles for years now. Together with the new “Isabelle” skin from [sys] I started my first mesh head adventure…

Since I was wearing a [sys] skin before I was lucky with all my other mesh body attachments like my Slink hands & feet or my Physique body, as I could use all my already existing appliers. On the first view I really did like the new “Jessica” head, even though it was not Wicca anymore. There are pros about a mesh head, that I really can see, as you do not have any angles or shadows on spots, where they do not belong, like we have them on our default avatar faces around the nose, on the forehead or around the chin. The head and face just look realistic and smooth. On the other hand, taking pictures is so much more easy as you do not have a lot of post processing in graphic programs anymore.

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The day after I started to fool around with makeups. I was told with the new Omega system it would be so easy to customize the face and make it my own, since you can use a variety of different makeups and face art. So I went for some Catwa – Omega makeup shopping…

Back home I unpacked them all and started testing… And ther the first huge disappointment came up…

The head limits a lot in using makeups or combine makeups in a way so that you do not see any seams. When I applied the first eye shadow it took off my freckles and when I tried to reapply the freckles parts of the eyeshadow were gone. So first of all for some makeups I have to make a decision if I want to take my freckles off or not. If you wanna achieve a realistic look as blogger and model, in my opinion you cannot have freckles on one day and none on the other as freckles as well are part of the character that you try to create. I can see that if you do not play too much with makeups and wear more of an everyday look with not too heavy makeups it might work perfectly well. But for the work of a model and blogger you usually play around with makeups a lot and the mesh head limits you in that like crazy, especially if you are an addicted to extraordinary, huge or mixed makeups. Mixing makeups, like adding up layers and create unique looks anyways does not work at all.

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My overall resume is not totally against mesh heads, as I can see the usage in some cases. For myself, I decided, that the mesh head might be fun for some pictures or art work, or even for vendor pictures sometimes, but not something I would wear in general as I would loose to much of Wicca and myself.

I am looking forward to the time when SL will add some more bones for the head creators, so we maybe can really customize the mesh heads with the sliders, like we used to with our default avatar faces 😉

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Details

Outfit: [sys] – “Straps” – NEW @ Shiny Shabby

Hair: EMO-tions – “Sandrine” – NEW @ We <3 RP

Shoes: GizzA – “Dagger Boots”

Necklace: Kunglers Extra – “Dulce Necklace”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Skin: [sys] – “Isabelle” – NEW @ Skin Fair 2016

Freckles: LE FORME – “Beauty Moles II V3”

Eyes: Ikon – “Hope Eyes”

Body: Slink – Physique

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin (yes it is really me 😉 )