2012 Color Challenge: Week 50 - Gold

Gold is always a tricky thing to reproduce without the actual metal (and the ability to make things actually glimmer), but I don't think I did half bad.It is perhaps a little yellow for gold, but it was hard to find golds that weren't on the yellow side but still had a yellow hue - a lot were much more brown and dark. The dress is an awesome lucky chair prize from Indigo Oddities - the set she has up now are different, but equally awesome. I particularly like the snowflake detailing in the skirt, especially since they matched the awesome new shoes from katat0nik with snowflakes all over the socks! The ribbon along the top of the socks is totally cute, too, and if you look up close there are tiny white hearts all along the top ruffle. Seriously squeetastic! I matched it with this hugely puffy hair from Wasabi Pills; it has a slightly retro feel which I thought matched the outfit very well. The ribbon around the head is color changing with a HUD, and while it cuts into my ears a little, judicious angling manages that well.

The accessories were all pulled from a search for gold. Firstly, I finally got to use the awesome hair ornaments from Bliss Couture. I picked them up on a whim, but haven't found a look they worked with, so I was glad this one came along. I like how they poof up and weave into the existing ribbon on the Wasabi Pills hair. When I saw the bento box from Falln Angel Creations, I new immediately I had to include it. In addition to being totally cute and matching my hair ornaments, they also drop the cutest snacks all around when I have rezzing rights - snacks which anyone around can buy if they want! Finally, I added a cute jewelry set from Dark Mouse, a sort of mixed together style in the lighter shades of the dress. The cosmetics are hard to see due to the lighting, but I wanted a golden lip and so I layered a yellow gloss from Mock over a darker matte from Damned, and I think the effect was pretty spectacular. Finally, for the lighting shade I kept the red-yellow-blue tints from earlier pictures, and I think the hints of blue here and there keep the yellow from becoming too overpowering or cloying! Let me know what you think, though.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Glow, Crazy eye shadow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick 1: Damned, Alice Lipstick Yellow
Lipstick 2: Mock, Lucir Lipcolor Narcissus
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Inchigo Mesh Hair - Golden (promotional item)
Flowers: Bliss Couture, Korin Hat - Gold
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Bracelet: Kyccie's Creations, Hopeful Flower Gold
Jewelry: Dark Mouse, Found Things Gold
Dress: Indigo Oddities, Nefarious Noel Gold
Bag: Falln Angel Creations, Bento Box Golden (rezzes buyable food)
Shoes: katat0nik, Snowflake T-strap Wedges

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Tiramisu Cafe
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Southern Delite
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

2012 Color Challenge: Week 21 - Lemon Chiffon

Much as I love the clothes I pulled together for Lemon Chiffon week, I really think the poses - several from Studio Sidhe - take center stage in the full effect of the pictures. I wanted something sweet, a little flirty, and naturalistic, and Studio Sidhe is one of the stores to go to for those. I don't spend enough time talking up the poses, even though they are so deeply integral to pictures turning out; I'm going to try to do better in future posts. I was aiming for childlike (but not childish), and I think that Studio Sidhe really did well in giving me that sweet, innocent air. It would be nothing without my adorable dress from Hal Hina, though, which I bought especially for this look. I didn't have any yellow chiffon in my inventory, but I did have some chiffon and after a few stops at other stores, I found this semi-recent release from Hal Hina which fit the bill perfectly, and added in the hints of black which I think offset the pale yellow so well, as well as making it a bit more unusual. It also set the style at Sweet Lolita, which is a style I adore but don't do often - due to my addiction to cleavage! Cleavage and Lolita never go together. My hair from Honey Hair set the color in stone, though sadly the store seems to no longer be around. 

One other aspect of Sweet Lolita culture is very minimal, natural cosmetics, so I just used a pale lipstick from Mock and only my thinner eyelashes from Flugeln Brise. The jewelry from Alienbear is a bit of a deviation, being modern, but I was trying to balance out the black from the dress style. I thought the simple style suited the look, though - even if it doesn't have the ribbons and lace a pure Lolita prefers. I moved the earrings out to perch on the tips of my ears; I'm really falling in love with being able to show off earrings this way - it ends up looking so amazing! I finished off my look with bracelets from Dark Mouse which were part of their Spring Fling release - it comes with a necklace and earrings as well, but they didn't work quite so well with my dress. Capping off the look, and my feet, are these Rose Booties from G Field, which are a longstanding purchase of mine. The color is actually beige, but I tinted it slightly yellow to match the lemon chiffon and I think it turned out really well.

Amerie's Main Store sim is a good reminder that beauty can be anywhere we want to make it. Set out like an old fashioned town, and blending into other sims with different styles in a smooth manner, it is a work of art. Exploring the LEA sims recently, I've been putting a lot of thought into what art means and how one can know it. Historical art often was centered around being beautiful and transcendent; decoration to be admired by all and to give homage to the gods. Modern art, however, became much more about causing strong reactions and exploring interior realities and struggles; which some of that is apparent in art of the Christian martyrs, for example, the rendering of it was still to be pleasing to the eye; as dramatic as Rembrandt's Lucretia might be in the moments before her suicide, it is also sincerely beautiful. Some modern art walks the same line, but often the ideas overtake and overshadow attractiveness - and often not being attractive is part of the point of art. I find myself torn; while I do enjoy the cognitive stratospheres, I am primarily interested in the pretty and the beautiful when it comes to art.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose (promotional item)
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow MESH (promotional item)
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Flirt
Hair: Honey Hair, Bowtie Bella - Lemon Chiffon
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Alienbear, Bubble Dream (Chic Gift)
Bracelets: Dark Mouse, Spring Fling
Dress: Hal Hina, Chiffon One Piece - yellow
Shoes: G Field, Rose Bootie "Diva"

Poses: Studio Sidhe

Location: Amerie Main Store
Light Settings: Places Las Legunas
Water Settings: Murky

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only