Otherworldly

Aisling has not just one but two amazing sets of accessories at the current Fantasy Gacha Festival. The second, Feldream, blends fantasy with rather more science fiction inspired elements, and when I put on the stunning headdress I thought it would go very well with the latest appliers from the Slink Visage heads from Adam n Eve. I also decided to pick up another body suit from Gallactic to finish off the look.

The most unusual gacha at this round of the Fantasy Gacha Carnival has to be the Ensepulcher set, a collaboration between paper moon’s Sohma Dix and Nephilaine Protagonist of (among other things) the Muses. This set will let you release your inner Egyptian, especially if that inner Egyptian has a thing for embalming people! Or perhaps you want to be an intrepid egyptologist, discovering a sealed room with pristine artefacts…and probably a cursed mummy or two?

Fantasy Faire is drawing to a close, so best get cracking to get that last minute shopping do! Although fashion fairs tend to have a significant gender imbalance, with nine sims full of designers, there’s a great deal of items for men who want to jump into the fantasy world. I felt like going green, for my part, as you can see below with these items from De La Soul, Wasabi Pills, Exalted, LaNoire Soleil Designs, and House of Rain. Besides Wasabi Pills, all of these designers are new to me, so that makes it doubly exciting!

The end of the Fantasy Faire is swiftly approaching. If you have yet to experience the magic for yourself, make sure to take the opportunity over its last two days. Between my RL deadlines, I still hope to get a few more posts out, because there are so many lovely things that I want to share with you. In this post you get another look at the skin from the Plastik as well as a jewellery set from a new-to-me designer, AZE Jewelry Designs.

Among the lush forests of the Fairylands dwells an elusive creature, whose appearance would seem to suggest that she formed from the very plants and trees of the woodlands. Her skin is painted by nature in hues of green, her curling horns resemble the bark of trees. Pointed ears peek out from tousled red curls and red are also the curious accoutrements she wears, made from flower, vine and leaf. Is she perhaps a forest spirit, guarding the woods from those who might wish them ill? Or is she the last remnant of some long-forgotten race, wandering the woods in hopes of finding one like her?

The Palace of Tears is a stunning build that is part of this years Fantasy Faire. There are no vendors on this sim, but if you do the second part of the hunt, you will find yourself there. And even if you don’t do the hunt, do visit because it is a gorgeous build with some really haunting and creative decorations in the palace gardens.

From skin with the rough texture of stone to skin with the dark-grey colour of stone; with so many fantasy events going on, finding a good fantasy skin is not hard at all—the only hard part is choosing if you only want one. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to blog this particular skin for this round of We Love Role-Play, but though I opted to keep the whole look grey scale, I moved away from the traditional white hair of a drow.

Both the Fantasy Faire and Enchantment are still going strong so it is time for another little event cross-over. It seemed to me that the Enchantment releases from HopScotch and Lark would make a fine pairing with Alia Baroque’s RFL release for Fantasy Faire from Fallen Gods.

The Fantasy Faire has now been going on for a few days and many of you have probably had a chance to visit. If you are anything like me, you probably have favourite stores that you check out first. I even tend to go so far as to make a list of stores to visit for each sim, just to keep myself organised. But if you always head for the known quantities, how are you going to find those exciting new things? The “My New Shiny” Blogger Challenge is about encouraging bloggers—and everyone else—to branch out a bit. When I was on my browsing the sims during the blogger preview, I tried to do so with an eye towards finding something new that would catch my attention. That is how I came across Arx Loricatus. And when I needed an outfit to go with my fancy new sword, one of the review copies sent out seemed to fit particularly well. As it happened, it came from a brand that I’ve never blogged before either, 22769.

This is an exceptionally good month for fantasy events and I can only apologise in advance to all the creators who have sent gorgeous review copies that I may not have time to cover. I want to showcase as many as possible, but work isn’t leaving me time for more than a post or so a day at the moment.

One of the events on the table for May is We Love Role-Play, as always opening on the 4th of each month. The quality has really been on a steady upwards trajectory and the variety across different genres tends to be quite good as well. For this post, I am wearing one of the event gowns from The Muses together with a hair from Calico (also from We Love Role-Play) and jewellery from Sax Shepherd Designs (for the Fantasy Gatcha Carnival).

I thought about calling this post “When Events Collide” as it features items from no less than three fantasy-related events opening in May: Enchantment (already open), Fantasy Faire (already open) and Fantasy Gatcha Carnival (opening on the 4th). There was just something about these pieces from Kalopsia, aisling and Sax Shepherd Designs that demanded that they be used together.

Tomorrow, May 1st, the new round of Enchantment opens. The format has been changed since previous rounds - instead of shopping at a central location, each of the participating designers will have new, Enchantment-specific releases available in their main stores. Each time you purchase one of the qualifying releases, you receive a stamp card and here’s were the added fun begins. You see, in addition to the main store releases, each designer has also made an Enchantment-specific prize and these are available at a central location. However, you cannot just go and buy these special prizes. This is where the stamp card comes into the picture. For each prize that you want, you will need a stamp card. Once you have all the stamp cards you want, you visit the main store of each designer to stamp the cards (you can wear all of them at once at this stage). When the cards are full, detach them and visit the prize location. There, you attach one card at a time and start claiming the prizes you want.

So now that you know how it works, what about this rounds theme? It is Sleeping Beauty, and for my first post, I decided to dig deep into the fairy-tale’s origins…

Pose Fair 2014 is underway and it is time to fill up those pose stands with some fresh new poses. I have to admit that my shopping so far has been rather limited as I feel I have plenty of general modelling poses already. Instead, I look for sets with interesting themes as well as for props. Seeing as most of my posts are fantasy/role-play looks, I am particularly keen on finding poses that suit such photos, but that’s anything but easy. For example, I don’t want my avatar to look like she’s modelling the clothing/accessories, I want it to be more of a portrait look. And while I am at it, I might as well wish for some couple poses depicting combat, like sword-fighting/fencing. ;)

But, I did find some must-have poses on my first visit to the Pose Fair. oOo Studios has several new sets out, including two sets of seated poses, and one of these proved to be just what I needed to shoot a few pieces from Sax Shepherd Designs.

A new release from the Plastik generally means some sexy, versatile pieces in a wide array of colours and patterns. The latest release features a clothing layer bikini, a sexy dress and the distinctly minimal Raedra skirt which I picked out for this post.

Also featured in this post is my first hair purchase from EMO-tions. I cannot believe it has taken me so long to try them!

ieQED has been producing a nice series of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones inspired (but wholly original in design) crowns for various gatchas and for the Secret Affair the set included one called Sunspear. Being the big fan of Dorne that I am, I knew I wanted to feature it, so this look and these photos were largely built around the crown. The other item I really wanted to focus on was this brand-new henna designs from Chandra Masala’s Jalwa brand. It includes both arm and leg designs which you will see in more detail inside the post.