Amore hair by Wasabi.
Currently L$50 in the Fifty Linden Fridays sale.
Unrigged & resizable, with loads of colour options (see below).
Taxi: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coraline/206/135/53
Here are all the HUD panels:
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
Pamela Panties at Beauty Factory
Cute skimpy little thong panties at The Beauty Factory, currently L$100 in The Saturday Sale (TSS).
Very skimpy, and show your pubes (if you have them).
HUD gives 33 solids on each of base, edges, and bow, plus 5 metals.
Taxi: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beauty%20Factory/121/128/21
Cute dress at Artlos Afterlife
Cute dress at Artlos Afterlife
Singles L$75 (choice of eight) or L$275 for the fatpack (breakeven 4.67)
Annoyingly, only for Legacy / Reborn. Get with the programme and add LaraX so that I can buy it! Grrrrrrrrr.
Taxi: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Sign%20II/41/208/21
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.
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.
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.
Akira by PlayDevil @ Access
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ACCESS/199/182/22
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
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”
New eyes
Finally updated my eyes after something like 14 years.
Thank goodness for Firestorm’s “Replace Links”!
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.
