Otherworldly

October has barely arrived and already Second Life is filling up with zombies, vampires, witches and whatever else that Halloween might bring. I am starting off gently in this post with just a hint of darkness in the Straight Jacket shoes from Adam n Eve and the Coffe couch & chair set by the Plastik, as well as an eyeshadow from alaskametro’s Black Magic set. Also featured is a new lingerie set from Voluptas Virtualis and a new hair from Wasabi.

Much to my delight, sachi Vixen of Adam n Eve will be releasing her first gown in ages for the October round of We Love Role-Play which opens tomorrow. Without a purchase of one of her ballgowns back in 2007 we might never have met and become friends, so never underestimate the power of a pretty gown! The new gown, Henriette, started to take form after I suggested that sachi watch Versailles for some inspiration and I am delighted with how it came out. You will not want to miss checking it out at the event as it is being sold at 50% off.

To show my new purchases from Hair Fair, as well as a couple of demos I am still indecisive about, I decided to put together a video. This also allowed me to give you a closer look at style huds and hair colour huds from each brand.

Remember that every pack of hair sold at Hair Fair donates a minimum of 15% to Wigs for Kids, so its shopping for a good cause!

It was a bit of a dilemma for me what to call this post. On the one hand, it does feature the Hair Fair releases by Calico. On the other hand, it also features the Lootbox gacha set by the Plastik. In the end, I opted for giving the Hair Fair the title spotlight as it is a charity event, with all purchases donating at least 15% to Wigs for Kids. However, once you have done your hair shopping, you should definitely check out the Lootbox gacha event as well if you already haven’t.

Hair Fair 2018 opened yesterday, offering four sims full of brand new hair releases (plus two additional sims for cam shopping). The Hair Fair website has all the information, including an excellent guide (with vendor pictures and slurs) to what is available on each of the sims, but here is the crucial bit:

Every pack of hair sold at Hair Fair donates a minimum of 15% to Wigs for Kids. If there is no sign stating a percentage, it will be the minimum. Bandanas and Hair Fair Hares donate 100% and any donations made to the kiosks around the event are 100% donations.

In this post, we are showing you the three new styles from Wasabi; Camila, Maddie and Cole. Camila and Maddie are female styles, Cole is a unisex style that comes in two versions, with or without a shaved side.

Today is George R.R. Martin’s 70th birthday (happy birthday, George!), so it seems only right to be blogging Senzafine’s Elswyth gown which comes in 12 colour combinations inspired by Westerosi Houses. To show a bit of the variety available, I tried something I haven’t done in a while, namely to setup my avatar in three different looks and photo each separately. I had to be a little more careful than usual with lighting so that it work fine to splice the images together, so it is a bit flatter than I would like. But I think I need to play around with this more; it beats having to buy mesh body parts, skins, hair and clothing for multiple alts!

We’re back home after a great weekend in Northern Ireland where we had been invited to visit Game of Thrones filming locations and the Winterfell Festival at Castle Ward. We had a very packed schedule so I am feeling a bit jet-lagged today even though it is just an hour time difference between Northern Ireland and Sweden. While Elio have been going through all the photos and videos from the trip sorted out—we will be publishing several reports on Westeros.org—I have been relaxing a bit in Second Life, photoing the Lightbringer gacha from deviousMind. As one of the things we did in Northern Ireland was to visit a cave, it seemed only appropriate to use the Fanatik Caves for these shots.

After debating it for a while, I recently picked up the Axis HUD from LeLutka. With this HUD you can make your own expressions for your bento mesh heads and no, it doesn’t just work on LeLutka. In this video, I demonstrate the HUD on three different heads: LeLutka Cate, Vista Zoe and Lightstar Maya. Full credits for what I am wearing can be found at the end of this post and I have also included two photos to show the outfit from On a Lark and the jewelry from the Plastik better.

The September round of We Love Role-Play continues to provide blogging material, this time in the shape of a new outfit from Noble Creations. Mama Erzule has a bit of a voodoo vibe going and consists of hat, top (jacket, bra and accessories all in one piece) and skirt. The set includes three colours (black, burgundy and beige) and comes with sizes for Belleza (Freya and Venus), Maitreya and Slink (Physique and Hourglass). It makes very nice use of materials, seen most clearly in the first picture where I used a light source since the room was so dark. The second shot is taken with a small amount of natural light, for a softer look. The very gothic room is from Death Row Designs and their first Shadow Box series. I really hope they do another because it was great fun.

Another post about my favourite event as well as one of my favourite designers, the Muses. And this time, Nephilaine has outdone herself with a gown closely inspired by a portrait of Anne of Cleves, who was Henry VIII’s fourth wife but survived both him and all his other wives. The red and gold version seen here is the original colour scheme, but the gown is also available in black and blue. As it covers the whole body, it is only made in a single fitmesh size, which falls quite close to bodies like Maitreya and Slink Physique.

I paired the gown with a hair from Fantavatar & Moonstruck which isn’t quite right for the period but suited it perfectly well. I then switched out our massive Iron Throne for a smaller throne from Dysfunctional Designs to complete the scene. I had also planned to show off some new banners from the Dreaming Thicket, but since I opted for such dark lighting, they barely show at all. I will have to get back to those!

When I browsed through the newly opened September round of We Love Role-Play, I was thrilled to find the new jewellery set from Bliensen + MaiTai. It is a beautiful replica of an actual Minoan pendant, showing two bees storing away a drop of honey. The actual Minoan piece is one of the most celebrated pieces of Minoan art, a beautiful example of their skill at working with gold. I saw it in the museum in Herakleion when I visited Crete (sadly ages ago!) and of course I bought a silver replica to take home. I really enjoy being able to get it in Second Life as well and I would love to see more historical replica jewellery!

Time for another video, this time to take a closer look at the animated chess set from Dutchie. The set includes a version where you sit on the floor and one where you sit at a table. It is the latter that is shown in the video and I talk a bit about how you may need to adjust the size of the table and chairs to work with the seated animations included in the chess set. Also featured in the video are a pair of new outfits from Caverna Obscura, a matching pair of Grecian/Roman tunics.

Time for another visit to Tia’s gorgeous Pompeii Bath House. This time, may I introduce Favorita, your lovely bath attendant? The gown with its…interesting options is another collaboration between Fallen Gods and Faida, which means a lot of texture and style options via the HUD. You can independently retexture (and each colour offers several texture variants) or hide the top, the corset and the skirt. The top can also be worn with one breast exposed, as shown in the second picture. And because you can hide separate parts, you can combine gowns of different colours by wearing two gowns and hiding different parts on each. Here, I am wearing black and purple.

I have been just a touch distracted this last week, since Elio and I got a chance to try a demo of Reigns: Game of Thrones which has proven completely addictive. As a result, I have barely had any time left for Second Life. But, as I did have some new releases to share with you, I’ve stopped my attempts at ruling the Seven Kingdoms successfully to bring you a look at some fresh new things from Senzafine, Wasabi and alaskametro.

The Maliana Fairy Gacha from the Plastik is gorgeous, intricate and huge. Collecting everything would take a lot of luck and persistence, but there are many cool individual pieces. What I am wearing here is actually far from all of it because there are a couple of different jewellery sets and I simply couldn’t fit it all in at once. If I had to pick a favourite piece, I would be hard pressed, though the two rare skins are very striking with their beautiful tattoos. The bento wings (which come with a HUD with a lot of pose and animation options) are also lovely and then there’s all the jewels! To see everything that is included as well as close-ups of each individual items, make sure to check out the Plastik’s site.