Otherworldly

Alaskametro recently released an update to her current body skin, the “Fit” series, which includes updated shading and a materials applier. If you have bought the skin previously, you can get a redelivery of this new version. I was excited to try it out and see how the materials would look, which meant a good opportunity to get (nearly) naked. And I don’t pass those up in SL!

I opted for the Slink Physique Original body (my favourite by far) for showing the skin on; the body jewellery is an older set by Voluptas Virtualis from when they were still releasing items for this body. The head is also by Slink, the lovely Ashlynn head which looks really stunning paired with the Abigail skin from alaskametro. Having the face framed by the most recent release from Stealthic, the gorgeous Metropolis hair, certainly doesn’t hurt either. The curl textures of this one are to die for. This hair also represents a big update for Stealthic that includes new colors, new sizes and new pricing.

The poses are also from the depths of my inventory, a set by HopScotch which features some very classic water bearing poses. So much more interesting to photo these than regular modelling poses, props don’t have to be complicated to add a sense of story to a pose.

The first of the month means a new round of FaMESHed in a few hours. There you will find, among other things, a charming new cottage from Dutchie. I had originally planned to show it at my own sim, but I realised that the beach I have setup wouldn’t do it justice. Then the idea came to be to borrow the beautiful St. Kilda sim that Fanatik setup to show off their latest landscaping products. And what a lovely combination it ended up being, especially together with an EEP setting from Stevie Davros Custom Skies.

I had meant to make this post yesterday, but I ran out of time. By now I believe the Skin Fair and possibly also the March round of We Love Role-Play has concluded, so it may be a day or two before some of the items shown appear in the mainstores of Sköll, the Rotten Lab and Faida & Velvet Whip. The magic crystal is from an earlier We Love Role-Play round, so I think you will be able to find that at Roawenwood already.

I admit it, I have a thing for big swords. Well, any swords, really. It just looks so cool to be carrying one around and you always look great when posing with one. So when ContraptioN released the Mercenary’s Flambard for the Warehouse Sale, I went right over to grab it and insisted that Ran do the same. After all, while you can pose alone and look cool, a duel looks even cooler. Of course, we needed to dress right too. For Ran’s part that meant a trip to the Engine Room to pick up the amazing Bloodlust outfit from toksik whereas I received a review copy of the Aeon gacha from deviousMind, a very cool steam punk outfit that also is available at the Engine Room.

You still have a few days to visit the current round of We Love Role-Play, where—among many other things—you can find the Evrim outfit from the Annex. I knew I wanted that one in gold as soon as I saw it (it also includes a sheer version, btw) but then Skin Fair came between me and setting up a desert scene for photoing it. When I finally did get around to it, I had picked up a couple of more things for the scene such as the beautiful lantern from the Dreaming Thicket and the ornate tack set by Cheval D’or.

NeXus is CheerNo’s brand for skins and related items and they have three new releases at Skin Fair: the Icon body skin, the Theo face skin and the Elio eyes. Ran decided to try out one of the shapes we released for Skin Fair (check it out here) with NeXus Icon and NeXus Theo on the Legacy body and LeLutka Connor head. A pretty nice combination, I think!

Poema is a skin brand that I been eyeing for a while. Their skins have always been quite varied and had a lot of character, but they have primarily been focused on skins for a more mature look. Nothing wrong with that, but it has not been quite what I have been looking for. For this year’s Skin Fair, poema has launched a brand within the brand called Rahra which will focus on younger looks, but still with plenty of character. There are three skins out at the Skin Fair and I have chosen to feature Bamby.

We’re now heading into the final week of the Home & Garden Expo so I wanted to remind everyone that Teegle has two new Teeglepets at the Expo, the Fjord Horse and the Connemara Pony. I picked up the new pack of Fjord coats in all allowed colours from Teegle and decided that in this pale coat, he could play Bäckahästen (the River Horse, a creature from Nordic folklore) in this mystical woodland scene which features the Edo Freshwater from Konoha, also for the Expo.

It has been a long while since I did a proper skin review, but with Skin Fair 2021 just having opened it seemed like a good time to revisit what used to be a staple of the blog. I’ve also fallen more into the habit of simply blogging as opposed to reviewing items, so I wanted to revisit that as well.

However, before I dive into looking closer at Logo’s Bella head and Bella skin, I have to say I am bothered by LeLutka’s addition of a new UV to their heads. With BoM you finally had a variety of skins to choose from for smaller head brands as well, at least from those creators who stayed true to the SL UV. Now it looks like we’re heading back down the path of brand-specific skins and I am not liking that prospect.

But, I digress! This is about the latest head from Logo and the skin released for it, both available at the Skin Fair on the North sim. And as this is a skin review, there is nudity below.

While I love to put together interesting locations and blog home & garden items, it is unusual for me to not include any avatars at all in the shot. But this one simply would not come together right unless I focused entirely on the decor. Clearly, the elegant bench and planter set from The Willowinds and the lovely nature scene with flowers and rocks from .:Tm:.Creation. Both are sold as donation items for RFL at the Home & Garden Expo which is still on-going and not to be missed.

A bit of fashion, a bit of home & garden, all set against a beautiful sunset that represents a first for me—I bought this lovely sky setting and the matching water on the Marketplace. EEP has its issues, for sure, but sellable and tradeable presets are a great idea. This particular preset is Mesmer from DHS and if you want to try it out for yourself there is a demo.

The reason that I started looking at buying a ready-made sky was that I am still not as comfortable working with EEP as with Windlight and I wanted a really nice sunset for showing off the setup I made with the deck from EED Home & Garden from the Home & Garden Expo together with the boulders from Fanatik’s Land Shapes set. On the deck I have also got a few decor pieces from Headhunter’s Island, also for the Home & Garden Expo.

Froukje Hoorenbeek of Dutchie seems determined to keep everyone wet of late; last month’s hot tub has been followed-up by an outdoor shower at the March round of FaMESHed. Like the tub it comes in a PG and an Adult version, with three texture options for the wood and three for the shower itself, and it looks great togethr with both the tub and the sauna from Dutchie. I picked a reddish wood with copper and placed it a the back of the house of the Horse Ranch Homestead from RVi Design. The perfect, rustic setting for this kind of shower (it would also look fantastic on a beach) and great for getting clean after working with the horses on a hot day.

The PG shower has 20 solo and 10 couple animations and the Adult version adds 10 romantic, 25 foreplay and 25 sex couple animations. And, since this is the Adult version that I am showing off, you can get both clean and dirty at the same time. ;) NSFW pictures follow.

In my last post, I did a tour of Hope 9, one of the Home & Garden Expo sims. I teased the upcoming releases from Teegle and gave you a look at the other creators on the sim, such as RVi Design. Now the time has come for a closer look at the Horse Ranch Homestead from the latter as well as the Teeglepet Fjord Horse and Teeglepet Connemara Pony.

The Home & Garden Expo opens tomorrow, with nine sims full of fantastic creators and many, many vendors raising money for Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society. The event, running from the 27th of February to 21st of March, will make it ever so easy to get your house or your whole sim looking fantastic you give support to a very important cause.

I got the chance to blog the event and to start my coverage I did a tour of my assigned sim, Hope 9. And since Hope 9 is sponsored by Teegle, I did it on horseback. Look below for a video, a sneak peek photo of one of the two new Teeglepets as well as credits for what I am wearing.

I had high hopes for the latest Enchantment round with the theme of “Viking Saga”, but I must admit that I found it a little slim on really interesting releases. Probably a good thing for my virtual wallet, all considered. ;) And there definitely were some things that inspired me, such as Roawenwood’s “Runecasters Table”. Decor items/props that also tell a story and can be used for role-play always draw my eye and this was no exception.