Tag Archives: Utopia shoes

Are you ready?

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TUNES

Are you ready for a good time
Then get ready for the night line

[AC/DC]

Outfit & Accessories

Coat: A&Y – “Flash Cyber Coat” (Maitreya)

Dress: A&Y – “Lexa Latex Dress” (Maitreya)

Gloves: A&Y  – “Lorna Armwarmers” (Maitreya)

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

Headpiece: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Kanjiro”

Rings: :Moon Amore: – “Arcano Rings” (Maitreya, Bento)

Nails: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Obsess Claws” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: -FABIA- Mesh Hair – “Saura”

Makeup: .ARISE. – “Crackling Mask / 2” (Omega Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Hildis” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Ears: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Meraxes”

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Backdrop: .:Joplino:. – “Backdrop Shrine”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Into the Groove

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TUNES

Music can be such a revelation
Dancing around you feel the sweet sensation
We might be lovers if the rhythm’s right
I hope this feeling never ends tonight
[Madonna]

I am a kid of the 80s. Music, fashion and the whole lifestyle is something, I was not really able to enjoy when it happened, as I really was a kid in the 80s and sometimes I wish, I just would have been born a little bit earlier 😉

The 80s fashion did not last too long but it did and as well does influence the fashion trends a lot. The 80s was the time of big fashion icons like Lady Di, Madonna, Cher, Grace Jones and many more big names. Certainly most of the ones I called by name are musicians – I am a musician myself in RL, so that is my personal favorites not only for fashion.

The 80s brought out some really avant garde models and creations. Even today if you ask people – young and old – they remember leggings, shoulder pads, stretch dresses and skirts, leg warmers, graphic tees and certainly vibrant and neon colors. The other side of the coin for the more cool kids was the vinyl, latex, denim, fingerless gloves or oversized top looks.

 

Even if my style would have been a bit darker, more towards the rocker styles of the 80s, when I saw the “Chala Ice Cream” dress, made by Rosary, I immediately wanted to do a color pop style. I had no idea for along time how to illustrate the look I had in my mind, but when I saw the “Debbie” poses from BellePoses with those huge records – I had what it needed 😉

When I was styling and snapping the pics I heard a lot of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper to get the right mood and groove. The last one even wore this kind of colorful stuff mostly paired with waist corsets.

Certainly according to Grace Jones stylings, I had to find some really vibrant and colorful makeup. What better place I could have thought of that Zibska. Zib ha a great sense for strong and bold colors and how to bring them on your face as an incredible makeup.

I am really curious what else will be brought back from the 80s besides leggings and white jeans and some more we already had in summer. The fashion industry already released some A/W 2018 fashion trends and I saw animal prints, western styles with cowboy boots and sequins coming back – lets see what else they will bring back! I am crossing my fingers for some rock or gothic creations *searches for her ripped fingerless gloves*

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: Rosary – “Chala Ice Cream” (Maitreya)

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

Earrings: Ticky Tacky – “Lick Me!” (store no longer existing)

Headpiece: :Z.S: – “Retro Headband”

Bangles: :Z.S: – “Cheer Bangles”

Nails: Pink Hustler (*PL*) – “Nail #27” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: Sintiklia – “Mbali”

Makeup: Zibska – “Yumi” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Peake” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

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

Tattoo: Redfish – “Wonderland” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props

Poses & Records: BellePoses – “Debbie” (BEnto)

Backdrop: MINIMAL – “KPOP Garage”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Cheeky Bunny

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I do not know what it is, but something changed in the past month for me when it comes to taking pictures. I worry about a lot of things, I never thought about before, I do like playing with lights, projectors and “no light” or “low light” windlight settings. The less light you have around you, the more control you get about the lights around you. In the past I first chose my windlight and then added one or two lights or projectors – lately I do it the other way round. I first set up my lights and then look for a windlight, that supports my idea. In the beginning it felt weird to set up out of the darkness, but it becomes better with each try. As well I discovered different desires, which I would like to have for my pictures and so I started a few new “learning projects”. I watched a lot of tutorials, practiced a lot and learned many new things.

One project that started – I tried to start that, since my vacation had begun – was to paint hair. I do have a graphic tablet forever but besides using it for textures I never touched it for pictures, as my mouse felt so much better with that. But try to paint hair with your mouse.. even if you really think you can control your mouse perfectly, but things like the pen pressure, I only get with the tablet. I forced myself to play with it and watched many tutorials. Slowly it starts working, but it really needs a lot of practice and I am not yet ready to show it off  more than a few strands of hair 😉

To not loose my motivation, I started to play with some ready made hair strands and wisps as well as hair brushes for Photoshop, as those as well helped me a lot to understand the basic hair drawing. When I found the strands from Rayne Morgan, I was completely speechless. I rarely saw such a well drawn hair in all it’s details and if you are willing to credit her work, she even offers a few free downloads on her Deviantart site (https://www.deviantart.com/raynemorgan).

There I found some interesting ready made hair as well for instant use. I always had wondered, how some photographers were able to paint or photograph hair and have such amazing results on Flickr. When I saw the website of Rayne Morgan… I immediately did know how a few did that 😉

It is really breathtaking how that hair can change a Second Life picture like it did for the closeup above. You get the hair as a PSD file. You are able to color and as well warp it, until it matches your Second Life snapshot. I could not resist, to even work on that one by adding some more wisps and paint some little strands myself. It is not the end of my hair-paint experiences, as I really want to archive painting my own hair completely one day, but I wanted to share the progress and as well the way of keeping up my motivation to do so 🙂

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: //Ascend// – “Diora” (Maitreya) – NEW @ The Fetish Fair 2018 – 2nd Edition

Panty: .:Avanti:. – “Adara Panty” (Maitreya)

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

Hand & Rings: [Since1975] – “No Mercy Rings” (Maitreya, Bento)

Mask: FnH – “Bunny Mask”

Earrings: Elle Boutique – “Jaclyn Earring”

Hair & Makeup

Hair: Besom – “Piggy Bank”

Makeup: Zibska – “Radi Eyemakeup” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Izzie’s – “Metallic Lipsticks” (LeLutka Applier)

Hair for Closeup: Rayne Morgan

Head & Body

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

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

Legs: Zibska – “Wild Thang” (Maitreya Applier) – NEW @ TheSecret Affair

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Set:

Couch: [Ds] – “Contempo Ladies Chaise” – NEW @ The Fetish Fair 2018 – 2nd Edition

Lamp: Trompe Loeil – “Wiggle Modern Light”

Statue: NOMAD – “Bright Headed Mannequin C”

Mirror: [Figure 8] – “Narcissus Mirror Silver”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Fantasy is Escapist, and that is its Glory

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“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
[J.R.R. Tolkien]

Isn’t Second Life a place where we can escape reality? Isn’t Second Life a place to experiment and live visions and dreams? – To me it is!

I am not saying my way is the best or the only one, as Second Life is a platform where everyone can do and life what ever they want. It should be a place where you can do everything that you can imagine and dream of for yourself. As kids we played Barbie or enjoyed various roleplay like Cowboy and Indian, Robin Hood and the Lady Marian or what ever we wanted. To me Second Life is just an extension of that.

I can dress up with everything my mood is leading me to. Mostly it is something I could not wear in RL. Sometimes it can be casual as well but usually it has some twist on it to make it my own. Often I was told, you need to decide to a certain direction to set a trademark or make yourself a brand – I never could decide for one and why should I in a world that gives you like nearly unlimited options? I thought by myself if it could not be my trademark to not have a certain look or style 😉

Since I decided about that, I felt so much more free to experiment and play with all kind of things. There is only a few things, I set as my own limits to myself. I never would do porn, as I personally think there is no need to do that on a virtual fashion blog, as you can do so much more with nudity or semi nudity in an artistic way and it is nothing that I would like to share with a wide range of people anyways. As well i never would touch any illegal things, that go against common sense or the law, I never felt the desire to do such at all. That said, I just have fun playing with several things and lately I do love creating my own sceneries and backgrounds or add something personal to places I do love to snap at.

One of my favorite sim collectives for fantasy themed pictures is the Ippos Collective. A consortium of 4 sims. Sylpha, Nymphai, Ippos and Pegasoi. Each sim has a certain theme to it and all of them are decorated in an amazing way with much love to the details. All of them are changing their seasons, which always gives new things and settings to discover. There are a few parcels that are rented, but as long as you respect their privacy you can even rezz some props and pose stands to make your perfect shot. The owners are extremely sweet and kind and always have an open ear if you need help or advice. Most of them do amazing pictures like for example Duchess Flux. I am very happy to be allowed to call her a friend. She was there, backed me up and trusted me in some of the darkest hours of my SL. I won’t ever forget that – Thank you Duchie ♥

I only can give a rough view of the sims as no words I know would satisfy the beauty of those very special places. You need to wander all across the collective and even then you won’t see everything on your first walk 😉

Ippos is mostly a residential sim. It has a beautiful landscape of a fantasy world, like a hidden treasure in the middle of a forest. No wonder that it is built in such an beautiful way, since well known SL bloggers and photographers call that palce their home and the parcels are really desired and not often open for new rentals.

On Nymphai you will find all the amazing events like the Enchantment or the Secret Affair as well as some main stores of fantastic and creative designers.

Pegasoi to me looks more like the romantic and sweet fantasy part of the group. You will find the Lady Garden Cabaret there, which shows monthly shows of amazing and creative artists.

Last but not least we have Sylpha, the water sim. Any desire you have for water based pictures you will find there. Weather you would like to do some peaceful island pictures or you actually would like to really swim in Linden water together with fishes and dolphins – everything is possible!

If you like more and detailed info about the Ippos Collective just take a look at https://threadsandtuneage.com/ippos/

If you are in such an amazing fantasy environment you have to dress up to fit in there 😉 This time I wanted to showcase one of the amazing hats from Spartin Parx. The “Milli” hat comes with a huge HUD. You can change the base to 6 different colors and the sweet roses on the top have a variety of 9 colors to chose from.

I thought a long time about how I could style it to not loose the focus on the hat but as well have a cute fantasy look. First I thought about something uniform based, I do not know why and I discovered very fast that this was not the way it would work out. The hat had a Victorian touch to me and finally I found a sweet doll looking outfit that just did the trick 😉 For the boots I went with the “Kora” boots form UTOPIA@Design. I do have an addiction to over-knee boots, maybe because I do not often have the opportunity to wear them RL, as they would not fit into my everyday job most of the time ;). With the laces in the front, they totally matched the Victorian look, while the steel caps in the front added some strong, modern feelings to the whole look, which i loved a lot for the whole photo composition.

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: Violent Seduction – “Madame Chevaliere” (Maitreya,Gacha – Bra, Corset, Paudrons & Skirt)

Gloves: Maddict – “Starlet Gloves” (Maitreya)

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

Hat: Spartin Parx – “Millie”

Collar: Zombie Suicide – “Willow Collar”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: No.Match – “No.Call”

Makeup: Slackgirl – “Kam” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Chooli” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

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

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Props: JIAN – “Wolf Pack & Companion” & Moon_Sha – “Cinderella’s Pumpkins” (Gacha, Ultrarare)

Location

The Ippos Collective

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

 

 

 

 

First Snow! – Winter Trend 2017

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Matching the actual season the Winter Trend Fair 2017 is going on on the grid.

Amazing winter designs, that put you in a snow mood even if RL is not yet willing to gives snow yet 😉

SL’s best designers again digged deep in their creativity sources to bring us amazing winter designs, certainly Utopia cannot be missed at such a great event!

Today the amazing “Wania” boots, made for the Winter Trend 2017, were the basic for my todays post and pictures. I always adored Utopia.. their shoes are one of the most stunning and realistic designs on the grid. The awesome high heels go up to the knee, while the bottom has some sexy toes peeping out 😉 The fatpack or multi HUD has amazing features. You get 9 presets, which you can apply quickly and you have 5 options to raise the glossiness of the fabric. That comes in very handy depending, what kind of outfit you have on. If you tick the second tab of the HUD you get very detailed texture changing options. 6 different parts of the shoes can be color changed to 8 different colors! Can you just imagine how many possibilities that are? What more you can ask of such an awesome and sexy high heeled boot?

The cute knitted knee warmers and the cardigan with the fur collar, I found as well at the Winter Trend 2017 – I am sure no pixel animal has to loose its skin for that amazing design 😉 The sleeves are an old favorite of mine from a store that sadly already closed years ago. For the basic outfit I used the Lyra outfit from Wicca’s Wardrobe. With the awesome ruffled top and skirt and some tights, it made a perfect match for a cool winter look! “Lyra” as well comes with a huge HUD to customize many single parts of the outfit and so it was easy to match the incredible “Wania” boots from Utopia.

The amazing simple but stunning makeup I found at On9. Alaskametro<3 did an amazing job with the “Soiree” eyeshadow, the shimmer metallics are a perfect choice for a everyday look and as well work for an evening party look. The “Fay” lipgloss with its sheer colors and the little flecks of glitter  are perfect for a pixie-perfect lipstick!

With all the fur I needed a winter scenery and so I thought it is time to get some winter on the parcel beside our store and India helped me with some Christmas decoration… I am not THAT much of a Christmas person, so I just added the amazing wolves and cat from Jian to get some sweet and cozy winter feelings 😉

One more week to go until Christmas… and I still need some presents – like every year I again did not make it to have all together one week before Christmas*snickers*

I hope you already have yours and can have a relaxed week to prepare your apartment/house like you want it for Christmas!

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Coat: Kaithleen’s – “Winter Cardigan & Fur” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Winter Trend 2017

Top & Skirt: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Lyra” (Maitreya)

Sleeves: Cashmere – “Fur Sleeves” (store closed)

Knee: .:Avanti:. – “Knit Knee Warmers” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Winter Trend 2017

Shoes: Utopia@Design – “Wania” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Winter Trend 2017

Necklace: Kunglers – “Sabrina Necklace”

Rings: Slipper – “Cadence Rings” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: no.match – “No.Boarder”

Makeup: alaskametro<3 – “Soiree” (LeLutka Applier) – NEW @ On9

Lipstick: alaskametro<3 – “Fey” (LeLutka Applier) – NEW @ On9

Body & Tattoo:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Poses & Props:

.Focus Poses. – “Sexy Country Fence”

Location:

Wicca’s Wardrobe (@ parcel left side of the store)

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin