Tag Archives: Mea Carnell

Waiting sometimes is so worth it…

by

Today I do have a premiere on my blog… It is the first post as a LeLutka blogger! For years I felt not confident with applying for LeLutka, I always felt like I am not yet there where I would stand behind myself enough to dare to apply for a blogger position for LeLutka. I do not know how to explain, it was just a feeling. Then I saw a picture of Mavi Beck – I know her a long time already… we met at AVENUE years ago –  on Flickr. I adore her art work, she has a very special feeling for shadow and lights in my view. When I looked at her stream again, I remembered that she is a LeLutka CSR and again the blogging desire for LeLutka came up to my mind. In her profile she as well stated she is a LeLutka Blogger Manager and so I went to my flickr, looked over my recent pictures, took a deep breath and dared to ask her what the conditions for blogging would be. As always she was super kind and nice – I do not remember that I saw her mad EVER – and told me, that LeLutka does work with Blogotex now too and that I could always fill in an application at the access point at the main store. Driven by my desire to blog for LeLutka, I TPed to their main store and while I was rezzing and looking for the access point sign, my doubts again fell back on me and I became a chicken again and TPed back home. I have no clue, why I feel that way when it comes to LeLutka, but I remember LeLutka always as one of the top stores of SL. Back when I started modeling, we had no mesh heads or bento or all that stuff and LeLutka was one of the most high class fashion brand with the top notch fashion ideas and not only for casual desires. Even back then I loved their creations already and blogged them a few times, when I was able to afford their designs (https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccamerlin/4261277578/in/dateposted-public/ or https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccamerlin/4449981194/in/dateposted-public/) Back I would not even dared to think about being a blogger for LeLutka, because I just started blogging and they only had super models and awesome graphical artists in their blogger group, but it always was a dream of mine…

Ok… back to the present 😉 So I was at home again thinking about, if I would bee good enough to apply for the blogger position at LeLutka. I guess it is the high respect I do have for the designers skills and the fact that LeLutka plays in the designer circle for so long and all of my old idols and icons of the modeling world back then did blog for them, made me judge about myself so hard. But after a few days of thinking about it, I thought that I would have nothing to loose by trying. Either they like my work or they don’t and so I went back to the LeLutka main store, hit the access button and filled the application. They already asked for a certain time period to allow them to review my application and so I forced myself to not look up Blogotex every 15 minutes, because iI was so nervous *blushes*

Even if they already asked for a certain period of time the longer I had to wait the more my doubts had party in my brain again… so when they pop-up in Second Life went up with a notification and the black letters on the blue background with the “Accepted” sentence, I jumped in my chair and started squealing, my partner asked me “If I would not have all the cups in the cupboard anymore” (a German quote – I don’t know if that would make much sense in English. When I put it into the translator I got “to have lost one’s marbles”). I really was uber happy and it was hard to calm down for me. I have no idea, I am not a child anymore, but in that moment I felt like one again. That again shows me, sometimes it is worth waiting until the time is right 🙂

I guess it is a no brainer to mention I had to start instant to work on the pictures for my first blog post. I chose “Korina” to be my first official LeLutka post. “Korina was the latest release for the Skin Fair this year and so I started to work on a shape first and then the hard choice of a skin came up. First I thought I would use the original skin, but the I thought, the original skin already is shown on the vendor and I have to be a little more creative and make ‘my’ Korina. To me “Korina” did not appear like a princess, more like a strong adult female with attitude and so I tried to bring Wicca to “Korina”, but not making her a sister… if that makes sense.

The head comes with the usual great quality standard HUD that LeLutka always provides, but you get something new with “Korina” as well. The HUD has now 2 different hair bases to chose from, based on the default SL UV maps. I will cross my fingers that maybe the older heads will get updated with that too, because I really love that feature 🙂

I will play now a littlemore with my new “Korina” head and who knows.. maybe we have another side of “Korina” here soon *winks*

Clothing

Top: Meva – “Alexis”

Pants: adorsy – “Rihanna Jeans Shorts” (Maitreya)

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

Accessories

Earrings: Aurealis – “Statement Earrings”

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

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Commitment”

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

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

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Korina 3.3.1”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Skin: YS&YS – “Petal Tone 02” (LeLutka & Maitreya Applier)

Tattoo: BODY MOD – “Memories” (OMEGA Applier) Store Closed

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Backdrop: Pseudo “Paul T Scene Backdrop” (Gacha, Rare)

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Dr. Stein grows funny Creatures

by

TUNES

Once they killed his monster when it went into a trap
Now he’s making better ones on a higher step
[Helloween]

It is not a secret, that this time of the year is my personal favorite. The weather becomes bearable, the sun is not burning down like crazy anymore, the days become shorter – I always was more a creature of the night and certainly the spooky times arrived 😉 Now I can do weird, crazy and morbid stuff without being asked if I am alright 😉

What inspired me a lot for this post, was the actual hunt and the latest releases from DRD as well as the amazing group gift from CURELESS [+]. I got kinda an addiction to the incredible detailed torsos from CURELESS [+ ], that they have in various releases, which I showed already in previous posts. When I saw that they even released one of those as a group gift I first could not believe it. It was one of the best group gifts I ever got! Speaking of kick ass cool group gifts – the hair I am wearing as well is a group gift coming from no.match. You can wear it with and without the hat!

There is 2 events going on at the moment that really got me excited and after completing both of them I am kinda sad that it is already over… such things  I could do forever 😉 . The fist one would be the Ironwood Hills event called Haunting 2018. It is the 3rd event in a row – and all 3 belong to each other – and I immensely enjoyed them all. While we hunted for little charms for a charm bracelet laying inside a book, this time we got a tablet, that guided us through the whole story and hunt. You do not need to collect something this time you just need to find the right people one after another and solve their riddles. It is a great way to explore the sim as well if you did not do that before as it drags you across the whole sim. As if that would not be already enough for amusement, you get as reward over 40 gifts from the best designers on the grid. All of them as well made special Exclusives, scary, spooky themed for the event – It is a shopping paradise for all those who love the darker side of life 😉

Speaking of the best designers on the grid, I cannot miss DRD. Deathrow Designs, is one of my all time favorites anyways if it is clothing, accessories or structures/buildings. They have a certain way of their designing and texturing, you would discover them under a million of other designers. The skills of the whole team is incredibly amazing and incomparable. They as well are part of the Ironwood Hills event with their mega amazing Reanimator Gacha – you can gamble for it or just buy the whole set. The whole set screams Dr. Stein with the tower and it’s furniture as well as the reward gift for completing the Ironwood Hills hunt. Last year round about the same time they introduced their Shadow Box. A monthly subscription box over 6 month with a final reward gift if you bought all 6 of them. My today background is exactly that final gift with various furniture items that were in the shadow boxes. Obviously I used the dark version – for the Shadow boxes you always got one light and one dark version.

DRD has as well an event going on, the Reanimator Hunt. You just have to grab the hunt HUD at the landing point and roam around the DRD sim along a path they mentioned in the NC. While walking around, you will find little skulls and just by clicking them you will get your hunt items until you collected all and can grab your final 10th gift back at the landing point. What I loved is that the skulls are not permanent. As soon as you lick them they vanish and spawn somewhere else randomly. That makes sure everyone has the same hunting experience 🙂

As a little plus and for all that love to collect things they have a neat addition to the hunt The Steins – 11 unique, in character dressed avatars of their staff – appear randomly on the sim and you have to ask them a specific question (you find that one in the DRD group notices). If you asked the right question each of them will hand you a unique, personalized journal – I still miss 3 of them but I will keep hunting them down 😉

Don’t miss either Ironwood Hills or the Reanimator Hunt @ DRD, before October is over – There is not many chances for free hunts and games in such an amazing quality!

Outfit & Accessories

Torso: CURELESS [+] – “Cadavre Exquis” (Maitreya) – NEW Group Gift

Panty: CURELESS [+] – “Anatomic Doll / Skeletal System / Panty / RARE” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Collar: Asteroid Box – “Caelum Collar” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Red Light District

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

Bracers: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Trinity Bracers [Black]” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Bracelets (Incl. Blood Tattoo): CURELESS [+] – “Barbedwire Cuffs”

Nails: Meva – “Bento Claws Dark” (Maitreya)

Bunnies: CURELESS [+] – “Bunny Dool” (Group Gift)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Scary” – NEW Group Gift

Makeup: CURELESS [+] – “Undereye Lines & Eyeliner” (Omega Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Folia Lips” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Eye: Clemmm – “I’m Tired / Red Bloodshot” – NEW @ Ironwood Hills (Gift)

Ears: .:E.A:. Studio – “Elf Dior Ears”

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Set: DRD – “Shadow Mansion  – Furnished- Dark” (Shadow Box Bonus Item)

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Into the Underground – Composition can be frustrating sometimes!

by

Lately I got really frustrated about picture composition and why sometimes things work and if you try to do the same thing exactly as before it won’t work anymore.

Did you ever come across such as well?

You know you have the basic rules for picture composition down, you do as you learned over years how to align things and items and set your avatar in place and still you miss the “wow” on the picture? Then you start playing with lights and shadows, push around prims, add more lights and delete them again, change the angles and anyways what you do always looks ‘ok’ but not that you would like to work on the picture more?

This time I forced myself to work on all of the pictures, anyways if I do like it or not. The purpose was to do a Visionaire homework and I wanted to discover why I feel so different or see different things in pictures. As well to see if all the popular art rules would go over my personal liking in picture composition.

I adore people who know how to place things for sets, it looks so easy and consistent while there is so much thinking behind it.  I only can imagine how long you have to play ‘prim nudger’ until you have everything in place for a huge complete scenery. I only do little sets, with a few selected props usually and that already feels like it would take forever. I do not mean to feel like a whiney but I really pulled my hair over that the past weeks and if you have a solution, you are more than welcome to put it in the comments – I would highly appreciate that :).

Now, more about my todays look…

It was time fo contrasts again for me. I went for a black and red look and wanted to combine it with a blue/black background, that I was eying quite a while already and never had any ideas what I could do with it.

When I saw the “Maggie” pants from Salt & Pepper, I immediately fell in love with them. They do have an amazing color HUD as well, but when I saw the black and red I was sold :p

I just had to find a jacket, that goes with the whole idea and that I found in the “Bubble Crop Jacket” made by Sabotage. Since I do have an addiction for tattoos – I always had – The amazing blank belly was able to be tattooed with one of the amazing creations of White Widow.

With that strong styling and as well the contrast I chose by using a blue/black background to my red/black style, I needed a strong makeup, too. And yes – you can make a guess – it comes from Zibska :p It is not a secret how much I do love Zib Sgaggs designs and the more I am happy, that I can showcase another amazing Makeup/Lipstick combo named “Ventura”.

I enjoyed playing with artistic rules in mind like ‘Lines & Diagonals’, ‘Repetition or the ‘Rule of Thirds’. For some I even found the Fibonacci sequence applying – can you guess which ones?

Outfit & Accessories

Jacket: ..S.. – “Bubble Crop Jacket – Red” (Maitreya)
Pants: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Maggie” (Maitreya)
Shoes: PHEDORA – “Abby Heels” (Maitreya)
Face: +XAnSA+ – “JianDi Face Straps”
Piercings: Meva – “Bento Hand Piercings 2” (Maitreya)
Rings: Meva – “Bento Nails 3” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: .shi – “Hearken”
Makeup & Lipstick: Zibska – “Ventura” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”
Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”
Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)
Tattoo: [White~Widow] – “Dead Man” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props

Background: Mesh India – “Bon Voyage Escalator Background”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Pastel Goth

by

VERSUS MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2018 : https://issuu.com/versus.sl.magazine/docs/versus_magazine_spring-summer_2018_

Pastel Goth (not to be confused with creepy cute, nu goth, or soft grunge) is a fashion and aesthetic that originated on tumblr in late 2010. The fashion entails taking the basic elements of dark goth style and mixing it with pastel colors.

[Quoted]

Outfit & Accessories

Top: [89Hz] – “Catty Knit Sweater” (Maitreya)

Pants: Dirty Princess – “Slick Moves Princess” (Maitreya)

Leggings: Dragonfly – “Omu Leggings” (Maitreya)

Shoes: Curio Obscura – “Abomination Bitey Spat Boots”

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

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

Glasses: [URIZASK] – “Vintage Silver Bike”

Nails: Slackgirl – “CrossNail”

Hair & Makeup

Hair & Headpiece: Ayashi – “Enya”

Lipstick: Zibska – “Blacktop” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

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

Tattoo: White Widow – “Hanabi” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props

Poses & Phone: {.:exposeur:.} – “Pin Up Cell 4”

Backdrop: Vibes – “The Girls Room – Pink”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Envy and Jealousy are incurable diseases…

by

Those who enjoy their own emotionally bad health and who habitually fill their own minds with the rank poisons of suspicion, jealousy and hatred, as a rule take umbrage at those who refuse to do likewise, and they find a perverted relief in trying to denigrate them.

[Johannes Brahms]

It never stops to make me sad to see how some people try to make others life miserable for no reason. Not that I would not know it does exist but that does not mean I do understand it. The world is so huge and there is place for each and everyone. Some humans seem to believe, they do have to try to make others look bad and it does not want to get into my brain why. Do they feel better as others? Does it give them a “I am the better one” feeling? Does it give them any kind of satisfaction? Do they get up in the morning and the first thought is who they could trash today? If it would not be such a bad thing I would say I feel pity for those who cannot just enjoy their life by using all energy to make something out of themselves. But since it always involves that others get hurt by that, I can’t feel pity at all. I always try to figure out what kind of people that are. It cannot be successful ones as those would not need to put a bad light on others. They cannot be very self esteemed, as they probably suck all their power from others pain and sadness. They cannot be very creative as then they would use their energy to do something. They always try to justify their doing with the try to convince someone that they do it for law and order, while they are just doing it to feed their sick addiction of enjoying the sadness and pain they cause for others. There is even no way you could tell such people that they are wrong as they are so deeply caught in their addiction – like drug addicts, they never would admit they are addicted until they have serious physical problems.
Since we cannot do anything against it, the big question is how we deal with it… I guess there is no general way how to deal with it and everyone has to decide personally about how to handle it. First of all you have to find a way to not let to close to you. That is probably the hardest part as we are all humans and if we get attacked, it hurts. But that is exactly what those folks want and what we should not give them. It is only human nature that you instantly think you have to justify yourself, but you do not – especially if you did nothing wrong! It seriously is senseless to respond to such tries, as you never will get down a point against those trolls – they simply cannot see it (remember… addicts!) They will twist every word you say into something that works for them and against you. Anyways how you react or what you will do – it is just pointless.
The best is just to ignore and forget about them… in the end you must have done something right or spectacular, otherwise those people would not have tried to come after you.
After venting, I would love now to get a closer view on my todays look 😉

Today I do not have one special item to focus on, it again was one of those lucky days where different things all of a sudden resulted in a whole.

[Gos] released an amazing combination of leather pants and funky ankle boots for the current round of UBER & FaMESHed. The “Liz” ankle boots (UBER) and leather pants (FaMESHed)!

Again Gospel Voom amazed me with his design and texture skills on both creations. The leather pants have a perfect shine if you use the materials version and the booties fit perfect with the leather pants. It is always hard to find matching shoes for long pants without getting any mesh clipping problems. I chose black for both “Liz” creations, because they reflected the light so amazingly.

Shoes often do not ge the spotlight they deserve and that is why I included a close up with different colors, just in case the dark green swallows too much of the shoes 😉 The shoes again come in all popular body sizes and with the 3 amazing HUD options that lately are standard for [Gos]. The Boutique, the Blueberry and the Metallic HUD. AS well you have the choice for a materials enabled version and one without.

First I thought, To wear some gloves but then I found the amazing “Rallen” set that has makeup, lipstick and that amazing arms applier. That worked so much better than any gloves I found 😉

The cool and funky necklace was made by Zib Scaggs as well. I really do love her crazy and funky designs as they always ad a extravagant touch to every style.

The amazing veil, was made by a very dear friend of mine. She does create for quite some time now and it is amazing to see what fierce ideas she comes up with. Anyways if makeup, headpieces or accessories, she has that little ‘something’ that make her creations very special. The “Shell Veil” comes with a huge HUD for the veil itself and the ruffled flowers on the top of the head. You get all kind of color and texture options with that 🙂

I hope after my little venting at the top, I could do satisfaction to all those creations 😉

Thanks a lot for reading and maybe you have your own experiences and ways, how you deal with trolls and all those who try to make others look bad and want to share that in the comments 😉 Have a wonderful time and enjoy the happy side of life!

 

Outfit & Accessories:

Top: .:PULSE:. – “Proclivity Top” (Maitreya)

Staps: ::GB:: – “Body Belt” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Pants: [Gos] – “Liz Leather Pants” (Maitreya) – NEW @ FaMESHed

Shoes: [Gos] – “Liz Ankle Boots” (Maitreya) – NEW @ UBER

Rings: Meva – “Victorian Bento Rings” (Maitreya)

Headpiece: Spartin Parx – “Shell Veil”

Necklace: Zibska – “Syra”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: Opale – “Yunjin”

Makeup 1: .AiShA. – “Be Dramatic Eyeshadow 3” (LeLutka Applier)

Makeup 2: Zibska – “Rallen Makeup” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Rallen Lips” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Arms: Zibska – “Rallen” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses: Poseidon

Signs: *paper moon* – “City Ord. Signs”

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

“I don’t use a hat as a prop. I use it as a part of me.”

by

How a hat makes you feel is what a hat is all about.
[Philip Treacy]

Do you know the feeling if you get something to blog and it even comes from a long time friend? Exactly that happened to me with Spartin Parx. Spartin and me go way back and I even remember one of our first shoots. The more I got excited when I saw the box with her name on it 😉 When I opened the box, I found 2 amazing hats in there and you all know how much I do love extraordinary, huge headpieces :p

I wanted to give each hat the spotlight that it deserves and that is why I only will have one of the hats for today 🙂

The “Izumi Kasa” hat was my first choice as it instantly gave me a vision for a picture.

The huge hat covers most of your head and face and a long lace hangs down from your chin. A HUD provides you many options for the top of the hat and as well for the huge round part with different colors and patterns.

What else you can wear to such a great hat than a little bot of nothing?*grins*

But if it is a little bot of nothing, it has to be a great one 😉 The amazing detailed harness from Salt & Pepper is a perfect example how strong little things can be. Together with a bra from Devious Mind and sexy panties from Opium’s addiction it makes the perfect outfit for the huge hat.

To get even more focus on the hat and the shoes, I decided to go with a black and red contrast. I love to have a single color to pop out and red against black is something that is not very rare, but it always works 😉

The cool shoes I am wearing are from UTOPIA@Design. Elisabetta Hyun never stops to surprise me with her shoe designs. Always when you think THAT is the best shoe I ever saw, her next release tops it again. Exactly that happened with the “Zafira” boots again. The cool front, which is highly decorated with straps and buckles gives a wonderful opposite to the clean backside.

The shoes have the awesome HUD, that comes with all the UTOPIA@Design shoes. With 9 presets you can have a quick fit and with the Multi texture HUD you can change several parts of the boots. The special again are the 5 different glossiness levels you can choose from if you have advanced lightning enabled. The boots come with fits for Maitreya, both Slink and all 3 Belleza sizes.

It is really interesting to base styles on certain accessories – It always feels like an adventure, where I never know what I will end up with when I start it 😉 You really should try that sometimes – just pick one accessory that you stuck to and see what happens if you add certain things 😉

Outfit & Accessories:

Bra: !dM – “Lara BondageBra” (Maitreya)

Panties: Opiums’s Addiction – “Alexa” (Maitreya)

Harness: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Tam” (Maitreya)

Shoes: **UTOPIA@Design** – “Zafira” (Maitreya)

Hat: Parx Design – “Izumi Kasa Hat” – NEW@NEO Japan

Bracelet and Rings: Codex – “Maristel” (Maitreya, Bento)

Nails: Meva – “Bento Nails 3” (Maitreya, Bento) – NEW@Easter Egg Hunt

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

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

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

Silent Valentine?

by

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 need  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,  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 😉

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 😉

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 😉

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: Atelier Visconti – “Vincent Wall Art”

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

Chains: [Arch] Deco – “Box of Chains”

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

 

 

 

Dark Style Christmas

by

Finally I can post again!

After having my website hacked for nearly a month, we were able to solve the problem. I never would have thought, that the jetpack plugin from wordpress would be an open entrance for bot and hacker attacks… Everytime when I thought we fixed it, I wanted to log in the next day and same cryptic dashoard grinned at me and my own website was telling me I would want to cheat, when I tried to post something as I would not have the permissions to do so.

Lesson learned, jetpack plugin deleted!

Thank you to all of you, who had  patience with me for not being able to post something.

So I am actually a little behind on things, that I wanted to post over all that time and I would like to start the wrap up with one of the styles I made during the Dark Style Fair. I just re-did the pictures and added some newer things to it to make it some more ‘festive’ loooking for the upcoming season 😉

I am not too much of a Christmas fan in general… I do like snow, I like red and black, but all the Jingle Bells music and always when I hear the “All I want for Christmas is You” yelping on the radio I just wanna throw up :p

I have my own Christmas feelings and likings and so I wanted to make a look with some twist on it for my own personal mix of dark style and Christmas :p

I used a lot of different parts to mix and match my todays look. The jacket I found at COCO, the top is from Scandalize, the corset with the cool warp around and ribbon I found at Paperdoll’s, while the pants are a part of the amazing “Y6” collection from [sYs].

I do love mix and match a lot, even if it became significantly harder, since mesh is on the grid as layering different designers can be a real hard challenge if the clothing is not meant to go with each other.

The “Leisha” choker from Salt & Pepper ran right in to my heart when I saw it :p I love the look of the 2 skeleton hands, that wrap their bony fingers around your neck 😉 While I went through my headpiece & hats folder I came across the “Dia De Los Muertos Hat” from .AiShA. with the same cool grabby bone fingers holding the top of the hat!

If I would wash off the blood from my top and take off the eye patch, I really could see me going out on a christmas party *snickers*

What I really had to do for this post, is a close up for the shoes… I LOVE the eye for details, that UTOPIA puts on their designs. You can see every seam, every fold and the typical used spots that you get with leather shoes usually. I just could sit and stare at the shoes for hours and discover all their love to the realistic scale and details. Since the other pics did not show even a hint of the shoes I thought they deserve a close view 😉

I hope you had fun with my first ‘catch up post’, there will be more over the next days 😉

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Jacket: *COCO* – “Jacket Over Shoulders”

Pants: [sYs] – “Y6 Pants” (Maitreya)

Top: Scandalize – “Good Night”

Corset & Bracers: …:PD:… – “Cadaveric Doll” (Maitreya)

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

Hat: .AiShA. – “Dia De Los Muertos Hat Red Moon”

Eyepatch: *elise* – “Chiara”

Bracelet: BEO – “Day of the Dead”

Rings: V.R. – “Dia De Los Muertos Rings” (Maitreya)

Nails/Claws: MEVA – “Bento Claws” (Maitreya)

Choker: Salt & Pepper – “Lisha” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: EMO-tions – “Thea”

Face Art: .ARISE. – “Death Mask” (Omega Applier)

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Tattoo: PICHI – “Mexicannos Tattoo” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses:

Wicca’s Wardrobe

Props:

Curtain: [Cb] – “Cornice Drapes Free Hanging Closed Satin”

Skull & Candles: Ariskea – “Muertos Skull Candle & Flower”

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

Pose Studies with HelaMiyo

by

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 😉

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 😉

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 😉

That was the first time when I discovered HelaMiyo poses 🙂

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 😉

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 😉

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 😉 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 and  I am sure that will not be my last one as I have a few more amazing HelaMiyo poses left to showcase 😉

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

 

Punk’s not Dead!

by

Look 1

 

Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewellery, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited to the dressed-down look of North American hardcore. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including glam rock, skinheads, rude boys, greasers, and mods have influenced punk fashion. Punk fashion has likewise influenced the styles of these groups, as well as those of popular culture. Many punks use clothing as a way of making a statement.

Punk fashion has been extremely commercialized at various times, and many well-established fashion designers – such as Anna Sui, Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier – have used punk elements in their production. Punk clothing, which was initially handmade, became mass-produced and sold in record stores and some smaller specialty clothing stores by the 1980s. Many fashion magazines and other glamour-oriented media have featured classic punk hairstyles and punk-influenced clothing.

There is a wide range of punk fashion, in terms of clothing (including deliberately offensive T-shirts, leather jackets, Doc Marten boots, etc.), hairstyles (including brightly colored hair, spiked hair, mohawks, etc.), cosmetics, tattoos, jewelery and body modification. Early punk fashion adapted everyday objects for aesthetic effect, such as T-shirts, leather jackets (which are often decorated with painted band logos, pins and buttons, and metal studs or spikes), and footwear such as Converse sneakers, skate shoes, brothel creepers, or Dr. Martens boots. Hardcore punk fans adopted a dressed-down style of T-shirts, jeans, combat boots or sneakers and crewcut-style haircuts. Women in the hardcore scene typically wore masculine clothing.

One part of punk was creating explicitly outward identities of sexuality. Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front, both literally and figuratively.

[Wikipedia]

Look 2

When Shena gave me my trend for the last issue of the VERSUS Magazine, my heart jumped – Punk!!!

(Read the full Magazine HERE)

Being a punk myself and expressing that during my youth with cool and ‘weird’ clothing and all kind of colorful hair and crazy cuts, that was right along my alley. Certainly SL gives you even some more freedom to be crazy but in general punk is a certain lifestyle and even if you become more calm with your looks when you get older, the attitude will never completely vanish I guess – at least it never did for me.

But what does punk mean for the most of the people? For many it might only be a fashion trend but for some it goes way deeper and becomes a life philosophy.

Punk or Punkrock was born in the mid 70s in the UK. From there it started to grow over the USA and Germany and finally was known worldwide. It was kinda an offspring of the Glamrock and the opposite to the quixotic Progressive Rock. Later, genres like New Wave, independent and Post-Punk developed from it.

In the 70s, big bands like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd became unreachable and evicted from their audiences while the economy in the UK went more and more down. Many teenagers could not find work after school and there was no social care system to take care of them so they ended up on the streets. They developed hate against the system and the slogan “No Future” became their life motto.

They started to dress up shabby and their hair turned into colorful weird and funky art pieces as a provocation against the system and society and to shock their parents and grandparents.

Punk politics cover the entire political spectrum. Mostly they are concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views. They as well include anti-authoritarianism and non-conformity.

To break it down, Punk for the most people is some kind of revolution, provocation and rebellion against the mainstream or the actual situation and society they life in. They want to make a statement with their looks and get attention for their views, interests and desires.

Look 3

To me it was the music first, that brought me to the punk genre. When I was younger, round about 14, my older cousin heard all kind of punk rock music from the Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Clash, NOFX , Slime and some German ones. Influenced by that I started early changing my clothes towards my ‘idols’ and with 15 I was allowed to dye my hair. I remember very well my first red and blue streaks 😉 The more I did it the more my mom allowed me to ‘play’ with my hair and side – or under cuts were not far away :p

With growing up I started to understand the philosophy of punk and the more I did know the more I felt that is my genre. I never was a mainstream person and being called a freak or an ‘outsider’ because of my hair and looks, it was easy to turn more and more into being a punk and rebel. I really felt good to not look like anyone else and to provocate with my opinions and views about things. I never took anything as a given and questioned nearly everything what I was told. On one side it gave me a lot of knowledge about certain things but on the other side, it was hard to find friends especially in school. Outside of school it was never a problem, but the people in my class were all kids of doctors, lawyers and high society people. Probably that was the reason why I was getting in to the music scene very early and a long time I was the youngest. that had some advantages as well 😉 I finished my school and as well studied, to become a teacher myself but right after exams, I had the great opportunity to get a record label contract with one of my bands. I did not continue with becoming a teacher and decided to live a musicians life for over 20 years, before I went back to the roots and to teaching at a school 😉 I might have grown out of the uber shabby looks and the ultra colored hair, but there is a little punk, a sweet rebel still inside of me and that probably will never change. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed the styling for my VERSUS Magazine trends so much as they brought back good old times and memories 😉

Look 4

Details

Look 1:

Clothing & Accessories:

Dress: .:EC:. – “Norena” (Maitreya)

Jacket: Aleutia – “Nova” (Maitreya)

Tights: Nanika – “Alina” (Maitreya Applier)

Shoes: Ducknipple – “Docs vs1” (Maitreya)

Headphones: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Miwa Headphones”

Glasses: ANE – “Tehe Sunglasses”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: KoKoLoReS – “Val”

Lipstick: [LB Lips] – “Eve Set 3” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Poses & Props:

Background Prop: anxiety – “%83”

Pose: Foxcity

Look 2:

Clothing & Accessories:

Coat: [sys] – “Carmen” ( Maitreya)

Top: Eclipse Design – “Belial” (Maitreya)

Skirt: GizzA – “Tartan Mini Skirt”

Tights: Nanika – “Alina” (Maitreya Applier)

Septum: [Since1975] – “Horn Septum”

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

Piercings (Hand & Cleavage): MEVA – “Bento Hand Piercing 2” (Maitreya) & “Cleavage & Collarbone Piercing”

Nail Polish: DMZ – “Vinyl” (Maitreya Applier)

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: KoKoLoReS – “Leighton”

Makeup: Zibska – “Hecate” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Tattoo: [White~Widow] – “Inferno” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props:

Background Prop: -VIXX- – “Mesh backdrop Harder”

Pose: Foxcity

Look 3:

Clothing & Accessories:

Top & Jacket: GizzA – “Vixie Leather Jacket Set” (Maitreya)

Skirt: Paperbag – “Red Tartan Skater Skirt” (Size 3)

Shoes: L&B – “Gothic Platforms”

Tights: Nanika – “Alina” (Maitreya Applier)

Collar: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Asema”

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

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: RAW HOUSE – “Sice”

Makeup: Zibska – “Envy” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Tattoo: [White~Widow] – “Vertigo” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props:

Background Prop: anxiety – “%frostbite”

Pose: Foxity

Look 4:

Clothing & Accessories:

Coat: Asteria – “Anna” (Maitreya)

Top: Asteria – “Anna” (Maitreya)

Corset: Asteria – “Capretto” (Maitreya)

Skirt: [sys] – “Khan” (Maitreya)

Tights: Nanika – “Alina” (Maitreya Applier)

Shoes: **RE** – “Jassy Boots” (Maitreya)

Choker: [[RH]] – “Zipped”

Piercing – [CX] – “Drop Septum”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: no.match – “No.More”

Makeup: alaskametro<3 – “Molten” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Tattoo: [White +Widow] – “Spotlight”

Poses & Props:

Background Prop: anxiety – “%nightvision”

Pose: Wicca’s Wardrobe

Model, Stylist & Photographer on all 4:

Wicca Merlin