I am a huge fan of Cica Ghost's whimsical worlds, and her newest creation, Little Town, is a pleasurable romp of hills, dales, blinking buildings, floating beds, and a fun car to drive! It seems to me to be a spiritual successor of her Rust - one in which what was rusting has become overgrown with plants and life. It's been really neat to watch how she's changed over her different builds, and seeing what has stayed the same. Her sense of playfulness is probably what I appreciate most - a lot of art in general tends to become all but leaden with meaning and implication, but Cica's builds always make me want to frisk and play like a kid. This one is nicely interactive, too, with flying cages, floating beds, and the cars - if you sit in one you can drive it around!
My skin is an absolutely new release from .:Soul:., the image rebranding of De La Soul - maker of my eyes as well. I went with a slightly darker shade of Frappe in Catalina, as if I'd gotten some sun. The skin texturing is soft, and the lips are very sweet. I also quite like the knees and cheeks - both can be problem areas, but the texturing is smooth and naturalistic. This skin is individualizable to the extreme - including brows and no brows versions, and brows in many colors including a white, tintable one. Pixie-cut style hairbases are also included in all of these colors, offering a soft hairline for stubborn hairstyles. There are several breast shadings, and also a 'soft belly' shading for larger and plumper avatars. It comes with a ton of appliers - including Lush, LOLAs, Loud Mouth, and Slink - for no additional cost. And then, as if to tempts us all, he includes a series of cosmetics to go over the skin, most of them applicable to any skin shade. I'm wearing the rainbow lips and rainbow eyeliner because of course I am - they are for me, after all! There are pink, purple, autumn, and spring sets, among others. The sheer volume of things included fair take my breath away, and all of it packaged in HUD-style unpackers with a tree growing on them. Who could ask for more?
My outfit this time was entirely driven by the Nomi dress - which was the first thing from Fit for a Princess that I put on, and which stole my heart completely. I really loved the combination of a heavy sweater dress with a hem of creamy lace. The sleeves are long, which is only a problem if you look where my palm cuts through the fabric. I think they work perfectly with the short skirt, though, all ending at about the same level, which allows for a playful sense of consistency. The collar is very high, which means the majority of skin showing is thigh and down - which allows for a sense of innocence and sweetness; more skin showing would have made it seem much more adult. I selected a more restrained shade from the number Nomi made available in the fatpack, a peach and pink design with little flowers, and kept the lace white instead of going with the black that was also available. I wanted to keep that playful sense in the rest of my look, and I really lucked out with the single hair available at Fit for a Princess this month - this adorable bow updo from Sweet Thing. It also is a slightly more mature version of cute, with the slicked back sides and the restrained size of the bow; larger and the whole look might have tipped over into childish, which is always the risk with looks like this. It had been pink tips on blond when I put it on, and I liked the effect so much I left it that way - however the blond set comes with a number of shades, both solid gold and with a variety of different tips.
All of the poses are also Fit for a Princess releases - this time from Sweet Sacrifice. I love the playfulness of them, which worked well with my overall look, and they all worked really well with the often finicky Second Life body. Even in the lying down pose, the shoulder isn't distorted or bent - quite an accomplishment and a sign of a good pose-maker! The inclusion of lying, sitting, and standing poses also allowed for a broader variety in images.
The rest of my accessories I aimed toward mature with. Firstly, I selected a slim tiara from Apple & Eve, with a strong shape that curved well over my brow in a simple gold shade to match up with the yellowish-peach of my outfit. I wanted to keep the entire look warm. The simplicity of the tiara keeps this elegant - something with more frills and gems might tilt the entire look immature. Green was then brought into the look through the addition of these adorable pink flowers from NSP Florals which came in a hair ornament and in an enormous bouquet. The green is a warm rather than cool green, which was important to me overall. Another lucky stroke was with the necklace from BluPrintz, with it's very high and simple shape. I went with white to echo the ring of lace at the bottom of my dress - a sort of visual echo - and then I tried several shades on the stone before settling on green. It's a cooler green, but it's also quite small, so I hoped the bit of chill wouldn't be too discordant. One thing I like to do when I'm covering an event, as opposed to just making a look or working with things from a specific store, is use as much as I can from that event while still making it all look good. In this case, I managed to combine things from six different stores at this round of Fit for a Princess without it seeming forced or inappropriate, and so I was very happy.
I rounded out my look with shoes from outside of Fit for a Princess, however, from Bliensen + MaiTai. I have loved the Dahlia shoes for a while, but the combination of sleek and flowery was difficult to match harmoniously with a full look. In this case, however, they were perfect. The smooth, simple curves of the shoe contrasts nicely with the sweet and spiky flower. I went with the green shoes with a soft pink flower, and then selected the shoes separately (something I was able to do because the shoes were modify ok - thank you!) and tinted them with a very strong yellow to bring the green more in line with the yellow-green of the flowers. While the stone in my BluPrintz necklace was small enough to not overset the overall warmth of my look, I feared the green of the shoe was large enough to upset the balance; being able to tint saved the shoes for me in this particular look, and it's something one can use to combine items from different stores which might otherwise be too differently shaded to work together. This is one of those tricks I sometimes wish I could teach budding fashionistas as they begin the difficult task of matching and contrasting colors in their outfits.
( More pictures here. )
Credits:
Skin: .:Soul:., Catalina
Sparkles: Folly, Rainbow Sheen
Hair: Sweet Thing, Mandy Hair (Fit for a Princess)
Crown: Apple & Eve, Autumn Princess Tiara (Fit for a Princess)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie
Eyes: .:Soul:., RooMee
Eyelashes: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Jewelry: BluPrintz, Terra's Necklace (Fit for a Princess)
Hands & Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands & Feet
Nails: Wicked Peach, Elven Path
Flowers: NSP, Wild Flower Bouquet & Add on (Fit for a Princess)
Clothing: Nomi, Knitting Lace Dress (Fit for a Princess)
Shoes: Bliensen + MaiTai, Dahlia
Pose: Sweet Sacrifice (Fit for a Princess)
Location: Little Town by Cica Ghost
Light Settings: TOR, SCIFI Cranched
Water Settings: Phototools, Ship Light
Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only
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