Otherworldly

A couple of weeks ago, I took notice of a new (or at least new-to-me) brand called Hotdog thanks to the stylish coat that Ran is wearing in this photo. Around the same time, I also spotted them participating in the Pose Fair with a pack of male poses. It did not take me long to send Ran shopping, though it took us a bit longer to get this post together. But at least the frock coat is available at the Dark Style Fair for a few more days and the same goes for the poses at the Pose Fair. Afterwards, they will presumably find their way to the eclectic Hotdog mainstore which already houses a small collection of releases showing off their unique aesthetics.

Before sending me this outfit, Chandra Meehan of deviousMind asked if I was up for it, given what I said in my last post about spiders. I assured her that as long as the spiders weren’t animesh and crawling all over me, I would probably be fine. That said, there are a lot of spiders in this outfit! And I am not even wearing all of them here; there are a few more flexi add-ons, some applier layers (with or without blood) and some other hair/head ornaments (with spiders, of course). Additionally, there’s a nice accessory available for the Once Upon a Nightmare hunt.

Just the other day I had reason to discuss the use of green as a colour to indicate the presence of magic, so it seemed fitting that I would make use of it here as I am showing off the latest fantastical gacha from the Plastik: Spidela. I have mentioned before what I think about spiders—and about having them all over my avatar!—but this is a pretty darn nifty set. It is very sword & sorcery, Spidela could have stepped right out of a Conan comic, and I think it went very well with this Necromancy pose & prop set from chanimations, an old favourite of mine. I also made use of the Petra Chamber add-on for Fanatik’s cave system as the backdrop for a suitably ancient and epic feel.

Every witch needs a familiar—a cat, a raven or maybe a rat? In this case, two of them, a cuddly companion on my shoulder and a cheeky little fellow wandering on my worktable. Both come from Jian’s gacha at the Epiphany, with the shoulder companion being the rare item. Jian has been doing almost exclusively animal gachas or animal sets of late and are a great source for pets and companions. I hope they move into animesh when that is released, that would be really interesting.

I might be getting ahead of myself seasonally, but I couldn’t resist a wintry landscape for the very grey-themed look I had created with Lumae’s Elentari skin, Grier from Wasabi and the Fiona dress in grey from lassitude & ennui. As it happened, I had a couple of very nice bargains from Redeux to show off as well, one being the Winter Castle modular set from Mushilu (just L$100!). The other? A lovely pose set from Serendipity.

Today I am hitting the virtual dance floor in the newest gacha from Voluptas Virtualis, which will be available at the Epiphany when it opens tonight (well past my bedtime!). I found just the right prop in my inventory, this dance box from sadly defunct pose store LostAngel, which made it easy to create a little personal club space. As much as I have been shopping for builds lately, I think I need to get some more, particularly modern skyboxes that could work as clubs and similar things. This outfit definitely does not belong in a castle!

I just got the opportunity to start blogging for Lumae and since they are currently having a big sale and a photo contest it seemed like a perfect time to introduce the brand here on my blog even though there is no new release out right now. You can read more about the sale and the photo contest on Lumae’s Facebook page.

Lumae releases faces for a range of different heads, including Omega, and provides both natural and fantasy skin tones. The skin I picked for this post is made for LeLutka and she is called Deia, here shown in T6 (out of 8 in total). At the end of the post, I have included a list of what is included with a purchase of Deia.

I am staying in an occult mood for this post as well, having several beautiful new witchy sets of jewellery by Voluptas Virtualis to show off as well as a new Witch Hazel dress from the Dreaming Thicket which continues the theme. My new hair from Wasabi is from the pop-up round at the Arcade and I am also wearing more makeup from the Black Magic set by alaskametro, which I absolutely love. Plus, another look at the Straight Jacket shoes from Adam n Eve.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.