Posted in Fashion, Second Life, Shopping

Mesh Thong at Insanya

Thong at Insanya

L$75 in The Saturday Sale, which I bought using Store Credit

For each body type there is a “female” and “bulge” version, and also a “pulled”, which is pulled down.

The UI for pulling down is a little clunky. To pull down your panties you need to be wearing both the pulled up version (“female” or “bulge”) and the “pulled” version, then you go to the “hide” menu on the HUD, then click “show/hide panties” to hide the pulled-up panties, then click “show/hide pulled” to show the pulled down version.

The HUD gives 30 solids and 15 patterns.

There’s no ability to mix & match on the string / edging, and the main colour. Instead, each option on the HUD is a preconfigured permutation. So row 2, column 5, is red string & edging and black material, whilst row 2, column 2 is white string & edging, and red material.

If there is a colour combination that you want, and isn’t there, then the panties are modifiable. Although I haven’t played around with that yet.

Taxi: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Badlands/197/80/26

Posted in Fashion, Second Life, Shopping

Le Phenix by Azoury

Typically bonkers footwear by Azoury, currently at FaMESHed.

Obviously I had to buy it. I absolutely love how “out there” Azoury is and often purchase their stuff. This included.

L$419 which includes both Gold and Silver metal versions as separate objects (no HUD). In fact you could wear silver on one foot and gold on the other, should you wish.

Versions for LaraX, Legacy, Inithium: Kupra, Kalhene: Erika, eBody: Reborn, and Belleza: GenX Female Curvy. You get all versions and both metals for your L$419

The LaraX version (which is the only one I tested) does not auto-hide and you must either hide your feet or else wear the supplied BoM alpha.

Posted in Opinion, Second Life

Maitreya Lara X

There is a lot of excited chatter about the upcoming Maitreya Lara X body, and also some concern, and also a lot of misinformation.

Let’s get the key information out of the way first – it is going to be a free upgrade, and Maitreya are going to continue to support Lara.

I confess that when I first heard about Lara X I thought it was a crazy idea. Lara is starting to lose market share, and more and more designers are starting to drop support for it. And there has been a proliferation of new mesh bods too. My opinion was that the last thing Maitreya needed was to fragment the market still further.

However, that changed when I learned it would be a free upgrade and that Lara would continue to be supported.

As I understand it, the reason that some designers are dropping Lara support is because it is is too much of a hassle to rig for. And Lara X is going to be much easier to rig for. So with any luck, these designers will start rigging for Lara X as well as just Legacy / Reborn (which is what they seem to be favouring).

Also, Lara X is going to allow us to be more curvy if we want to be, but will not force us to be if we don’t.

Although Lara X will be incompatible with Lara, Maitreya will (as I mentioned) continue to support Lara. So what I foresee happening is that we will run two bodies for the time being. If you buy something for Lara X you wear your Lara X and if you buy something for Lara you wear your Lara. For those of us who use Outfits extensively this won’t be an issue as it will just be part of the Outfit. For those who do their outfits on the fly, it could be an irritation perhaps.

I think, looking further into the future, what will happen is old Lara will start to go away. Maybe it will become something we start to see on only cheaper or older stuff. But you will still be able to wear it so long as you wear your Lara body.

Overall it seems like a good idea and a good way forward. But only because of the free upgrade. I think if it had been something you had to buy into then I would be less positive. Not because I begrudge Maitreya money, but because I think it would have lost them traction and it would have been just another new body with no incentive to adopt.


On a more personal note, what I need now is to find a BoM skin that I really like because I am still wearing an ancient Laqroki skin that I adore, but which suffers from the dreaded fingernail / toenail issue of pre-BoM skins, so I have to use it in Maitreya Applier mode (it works fine in BoM mode on my head though) but that denies me the advantages of BoM on body. And I am not sure if Lara X is going to support Lara Appliers (although what I have read suggests that it will).

Sadly Laqroki aren’t interested in revisiting old skins which is a pity as if they could just do me a BoM version of my skin I would be so happy.

 

Posted in General, Site News

Broken links and empty bank accounts

Two minor items of news

Ever since migrating to a new web host, I have been noticing broken picture links on my blog posts. Turns out that this was due to JetPack’s Site Performance tools trying (and failing) to cache photos resulting in broken links

Turning that off means that all pics are served properly and are no longer broken.

The other bit of news is that I have finally given in and paid for Flickr Pro. This is mainly because Flickr were running a promo of 20% off on either annual or 2-year subscriptions, to celebrate Second Life’s 20th anniversary.

I sort of have mixed feelings on this for the reasons I outlined in a previous post, but I thought the discount made it worth doing. It also allows me to be less worried about reaching that 1000 limit again, and allows me to post racier pics again.

 

Posted in Fashion, Reviews, Second Life, Shopping

Akira by PlayDevil @ Access

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ACCESS/199/182/22

PlayDevil @ Access
PlayDevil @ Access

I love a Cheongsam / Qipao and own many, despite having a constant worry that my love is Cultural Appropriation.

This offering is currently available at Access

L$270 a pop
Fatpack L$1,100 (breakeven 4.07)
Megapack (including all shoes and fans) L$2,700

 

Ooh!
Ooh!

 

Mmmm!
Mmmm!

 

Clipping
Clipping

I was only really interested in the dragon patterns. So I took a punt on the dark pink.

NOTE: No demo HUD so I was buying semi-blind. However, pics of the HUD suggest there is no mix & match other than unicolour on the dress & thong. I can see no options for colouring the edging.

One thing I did not notice on the demo is a major alpha issue on the shoulders for Maitreya Lara

Unfortunately this cannot be mitigated with alpha cuts unless for static photography (ie. mask the front and you get invisiareas at the back, solve that and you get pokethrough at the front)

Also there is no BoM alpha supplied.

Frankly I had my reservations when I saw the demo was called “Object”

Posted in Fashion, Photography, Second Life, Shopping

Creuza Lingerie by Uccman

Outfit – Creuza Lingerie by Uccman
Jewellery – Butterflies by Avaway
Hair – Ivy by Kuni

The lingerie is currently L$60 for a fatpack which gives a choice of 9 colours (as seen in the background).

There are separate HUDs for colouring the top and the bottom, but no ability to colour the harness parts separately from the non-harness parts, which is a shame.
Likewise the cute bows on the panties cannot be coloured separately, which is a pity as I often like to do a black & red combo with things like these.

There is also a separate HUD labelled “Garter” but this is actually for changing the metals between gold and silver.

There is a string of pearls along the perineum (ie. between the legs), that cannot be re-coloured or hidden.

The heart cut-out on the panties is very cute. However, there is no option to show / hide this. Likewise there is no option to show / hide the ribbons that cover the nipples.

Overall, this is excellent value for money but is really let down by its HUD. It would benefit from a much more fully-realised HUD and feels like rather a missed opportunity as a result.

Posted in Exploring, Fashion, Photography, Second Life

Velocipedestrienne

Apricot Paws at The Engine Room

Recently I bought a lovely vintage cycling outfit called “Velocipedestrienne” by Apricot Paws at The Engine Room event.

(Edit: Tipped off by my friend CC, who is demanding credit. LOL)

Initially I bought the white blouse for L$124 (fatpack was L$414), and the bloomers in burgundy also for L$124, and I also picked up the blouse in wine as a free gift at their mainstore.

However, afterwards I realised that I liked several colours of the bloomers, and contacted Zii Minotaur (the owner of Apricot Paws) and they were more than happy for me to buy the bloomers fatpack at L$414 and to refund me the L$124 that I had spent on the single pack, which was absolutely wonderful of them.

I also wanted some boots to go with the outfit, and I already owned Solvej by Ingenue in Noir, Oxblood, and Walnut, which had cost L$295 each, and I had written myself a notecard at the time saying that I had decided to buy single colours because the fatpack was L$1,500 (a breakeven of 5.02) and that the only other colour I could see myself wanting was Saddle. The Walnut looked too dark (although perhaps might have sufficed) and I thought that I did indeed need the Saddle so bought that.

I also wanted some hair to go with the outfit and, as luck would have it, the ideal hair was right there at The Engine Room

F191 by KMH

The hair was L$325 for the Natural pack. It is Rigged in two sizes, and also comes with three separate Unrigged bangs, and also the HUD allows 4 different style variants. I’m wearing Bangs2 in the pic, and Bangs3 is a wider version, whilst Bangs1 is a straight fringe.

So, with the outfit all done, it was time to look for location and a bicycle.

My first idea was to find a nice sim which had free bicycle rezzers, and the first place I found was Calas Galadhon Park. Whilst it is a lovely sim I wasn’t happy with the sizing of the bicycle (it came in fixed sizes, and I was between sizes) nor was I happy how totally uncontrollable the vehicle-based bicycle was, with it being way too oversensitive.

Taken at Calas Galadhon Park

The picture was fair, and frankly I could have left it there, but I went looking further.

The next place I found was a delightful bicycle-themed cafe called Java Sprockets which has a vendor board giving free “Java Cruiser” ladies bikes.

Java Sprockets

For a freebie, this was actually pretty nice. You rezz it, and then it automatically attaches to you. It rides fairly well, but has fairly poor anims. It has a script which allows you to recolour with a choice of “Cherry Red”, “Lemon Yellow”, “New SL Blue”, “Coffee”, and “Old SL Green”. It also allows for resizing.

With hindsight, a few mins with AnyPose would have come up with a half-decent pose (this is what I managed in 30 secs).

Java Cruiser

Finally I bought the Sonoma bicycle by {what next}, which actually turns out to be who makes the rezzer that I found at Cala Galadhon, only this version you wear as an attachment and it acts like an AO, meaning you can ride it anywhere. It sells for L$249 for a single colour, but I noticed that it is copy-mod so I bought it in Cream and then retextured it to a lovely Bugatti Blue and also made the flowers in the basket transparent because I felt it suited the type of picture I wanted to take rather better.

Where to go for a backdrop? My first thought was the Paris 1900 sim, even though the bicycle is more of a 1950’s style, although I would say the outfit is much earlier. I chose the famous Moulin Rouge as the backdrop.

Taken at Paris 1900

I sent the pic to my sis, Karen, who I know loves that sim, and she suggested that I might like to try Soul2Soul River, which is a gorgeous quintessentially English village, and it was a good suggestion.

 

Final picture, as published to Flickr

This is the picture I finally settled on because I had to stop somewhere.

 


Summary:

Outfit: Velocipedestrienne by Apricot Paws (at The Engine Room event)
Boots: Solvej by Ingenue
Hair: F191 by KMH (at The Engine Room event)
Bicycle: Sonoma bicycle by {what next}