Otherworldly

As soon as I saw a preview of DRD‘s Studios gacha for the Erotigacha event, I knew Ran and I had to get a few of those sets. As it turned out, we ended up with more than a few (including duplicates of the Casting Couch and the Roman set; contact me for trading) which looks likely to give me a lot of photoing excuses. The Medieval set, at least, was the perfect backdrop for some of my recent acquisitions.

Despite trying to promise myself to steer clear of gachas, I did end up playing the TAG! Gacha. It is a neat system which gives mainstores much needed exposure and the theme for this round, the Side Show, resulted in some very cool and quirky designs. I do think they had good results with people keeping their creations themed, something which isn’t always the case in this time of event overload. In this post, I am showing prizes from Chanimations and Enfant Terrible, plus shoes from Sax Shepherd Designs.

If you or someone you know is in need of some correction, then elymode might have just what you need at the Pose Fair. Elysium had passed me one of the two sets featured in this post, and then when she wondered if the poses in the other set would work for a guy as well as a girl, I immediately volunteered Ran as a guinea pig. As it turned out, he was quite pleased with the arrangement. ;)

Skin Fair 2015 is only a few days away (March 13th) and it brings with it a welcome return to the world of Second Life skins: a new release by Tuli. Her skins have been among my favourites for a very long time and I still wear some of the previous releases now and then and would do so with regularity if they only had Physique appliers. As tends to be the case with my skin posts, I prefer to go light on clothing to show the body as well as the face, but I could not resist some accessories by aisling, Sax Shepherd Designs and ieQED. I am also giving a look at a skybox from Dysfunctional Designs that I soon hope to show more of.

If you wear the Slink Physique mesh body, the Slink Visage mesh heads or any of the Slink hands & feet (male or female) you will want to get yourself over to the Slink mainstore to grab the massive updates released yesterday. There are a lot of exiting changes and additions, such as materials being enabled on all layers for all mesh body parts. You can already head over to Adam n Eve to try out some glittery makeups for the mesh heads - and yes, the Visage update also allows for extra makeup layers, so you can mix and match from different creators.

What would Valentine’s Day be without a touch of nudity? I felt that the Justine couch from Libertine definitely needed to be showcased more and I thought it made a fine setting for showing off the Fairy Rings jewellery & stilettos from Sax Shepherd Designs for the Fantasy Gacha Carnival. Add to that a few sultry makeups from elymode for the Cosmetic Fair and nothing else is really needed.

Sometimes, the best present might not be something you buy…

I am much too stuffed from enjoying the fruits of all the cooking done the last few days at our julbord to write anything particularly lengthy, but I should manage a little festive post at least. It all started with the lovely Aphrodite jewellery and matching shoes from Sax Shepherd Designs. It is texture change using a HUD and after a bit of playing around, I settled on this striking black and red combination. Then I saw a post on Flickr using the Giselle lingerie and Alexis corset from erratic which I had completely missed at Uber in November. Once I went to try it, I found to my delight that one of the sizes was fitted mesh based on the Slink Physique body. This is now without a doubt the best-fitting piece of mesh lingerie I own and I think it looks stunning. You still use some alphas around your midsection to properly simulate a corset and that works perfectly.

But what really inspired the specifics of the photo was the “A Libertine Christmas” gacha from Libertine. It features a very nifty scripted Christmas tree that you can decorate with the ornaments that you win. But you don’t need to fiddle around with placing the ornaments and you don’t need to worry about winning 50 red balls. Oh no, you just click the tree, select decorate, and after marking an ornament you have one, you hold down CTRL and drag it to the tree. You will then be able to active that ornament in as many or as few of the pre-defined spots as you want. It was actually quite a lot of fun!

The Fantasy Collective has opened for a new round and the combination of Senzafine‘s gown and ieQED‘s crown proved irresistible to me. I paired with a pose from Picture This! for Mystic Realms Faire (closing soon!) and found myself a stalwart knight to protect me.

This all started with lassitude & ennui’s gorgeous Buccaneer Boots for We Love Role-Play. Initially, I found myself at a loss for what to wear with them as my fantasy/history inventory consists of around 95% gowns, but then I remembered the Mirdain outfit by Senzafine. I accessorised with some gacha pieces from Sax Shepherd Designs and stayed in my new skin from Pink Fuel, topping off with a new hair from Truth.

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.

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.

The latest release from Zaara, the Suhina sequin gown, is one of those pieces that just exudes elegance and glamour. There’s a simplicity to it which is balanced by the little details that really make it a stand-out gown; just look at the asymmetric waist and how well it goes with the slit at the bottom. And, of course, the icing on the cake is the use of materials. Just look at the way it catches the light.

I am not really much of a shoe addict. Or rather, I love boots, but high heels aren’t generally my thing (in SL or RL, for that matter). But when I saw the latest release from Sax Shepherd Designs, the Mata Hari Jeweled Stilettos, I knew I had to get the new high feet from Slink in order to be able to wear these shoes. I can’t resists jewellery and these oh so sexy shoes really are as much jewellery as shoes. I decided to pair them with a barely-there mesh bodysuit from the Plastik and picked up the steamy new poses for today’s 50 L Friday from oOo Studios.