Genre: Rose Fairy in the Club

This Genre is Urban, and so I started my descent into the night by making up a neko club girl! I actually love the combination of ears, tail, and hair enough that I'm setting my neko alt up with them - I'm a calico with attitude!

Genre: Olive Underworld

Darkness walks the grid for a little while longer as Genre continues with the theme of Underworld. Deamons, death, darkness, and everything that goes bump in the night is represented, from Death herself to the accoutrements of terror. The Underworld is Greek in origin, but since the days of Athens it has been expanded into a variety of religions, worldviews, and fantasy realms. Genre's Underworld covers the gamut, from traditional Greek dress to batwings and thorned horns and even the odd Japanese influence. I went more fantasy Christian, with the horns and batwings of a demon dressed up in a pretty frock.

The horns are courtesy of BlackPearl and curve out of my temples in a swirl of wires, bands, and metal leaves. I love the combination of natural and decorative, with triads of leaves all over the top and back, and long mental wires hanging down like branches and twigs. The crown is included - an inverted cross at the brow and hanging metal strings from brow to temples. In addition to the dark metallic texture, the entire headdress is materials ready and is cleverly applied so that it looks like metal gleaming through dark rust, catching the light in bits and pieces through a dark haze. My wings, on the other hand, are from Chimeric Fashions and have a matching horned mask I'm not showing here. The shape is a simple, wonderfully curved batwing accentuated with curls of olive. Each bone is left in shadow while the membrane thins to a dark olive brown. I especially appreciate how the curls leave gaps where the forearm bends down, and how each finger goes in a slightly different direction. I also was tickled when I realized the hue matched the browny-black of my headdress and the bulk of my Blue Blood dress with it's green accents. Blue Blood has long been a favorite of mine, and I'm so glad to see her step fully into the world of articulated mesh. In this case, it's a sleeveless, deep v-necked gown that beautifully mixes revealing with full. The folds and gathers at the waist are full and broad, meaning that it moves smoothly with my movements and looks natural even with wide stances. The fabric has a good heft to it as well, and fit my body perfectly. I also love the details, like the buttons at the bottom of the v-neck, and the grommets on the belt and collar. The fatpack is your purchase, so you get all of the colors along with a color changing HUD - offering eight riffs on this dress with the lapel, belt, and underskirt all changing color while the rest stays the same.

The demon is in the details, and for this look I went with a combination of eyes, cosmetics, and accessories for the succubus on the go. Eyes and lipstick both come from Senzafine, and have a fantastic pearly effect to them. I mismatched two of the six varieties and punched up the glow a little. One of the advantages to mesh eyes is that they can be paired hetero-chromatically, and I loved the idea of an off-color demon. The purple lip is shiny without being too obvious, the sort of glow one might get off of feeding from the life-force of the wicked before their inevitable descent into darkness. It stands out well over the striking Gauze base - also available with red highlights along the side for date-night. I wanted something simple but non-human, and this fit the bill perfectly. The final touch was this collar, stolen from the neck of Cerebus himself, and shared with the rest of us from Hate This. Being more of the brief than swanlike in the neck department, I often find collars a but of a trial to fit, but the narrow design of this one and the fact it is editable made resizing and placing a snap - and I only pricked my fingers a couple hundred times on the lethal-looking spikes! Unlike a lot of collars which pass on the verisimilitude for the extra-spikey, this collar not only has grommet detailing on the front, but the back has a perfectly rendered buckle, complete with slightly extended tongue and beveled collar end. I'm not normally a spikes kind of girl, but the delicate placement of the spikes, and the differences in length of spike around the collar, gives this a classy, polished feel.

Swing by Genre this week to pick up accessories to make your inner demon sharper and give her lips some of that pearly, soul-eating sheen!

Gifts

I can't remember when I began buying and wearing Blue Blood clothing, but it was well before the advent of mesh, and probably even before the advent of the invisilayers which can make mesh flawless. Her work always straddles the line of cute and creepy, never quite slipping over to horrifying but often hinting darkly of the corpses in the closets you will never open, and this dress - a slip with a ragged hem splashed with something dark and red - is no exception. It's also a group gift; Ghanima has always been generous, and this dual set of dresses is an example of that - both are texture change via a HUD (it beeps very high pitched when you change colors, so you know you did!). It has a complicated pattern even before you take the blood into account - side panels and a belt which break them into "light" and "dark" (Blue Blood has a long history of White Gothic Lolita which is charming) and a bib in the contrasting shade - white on the dark patterns, and dark on the light patterns - over the long color panel which has five different options, including one which flirts with rainbow. The group costs 50$L to join, a slight cost for a total of twelve bloody dresses!

I've been looking for an outfit to add Spyralle's Genre offering this month, and couldn't resist when I saw it against my purples. This look is a combination of a large, face covering web (the lighter purple pattern with the wisps at the edges) and the forehead jewel. A HUD recolors the latter to match each of the offered colors, and also lets you change the texture of the metal base and frame for the jewel separately. I am always impressed anew by Kerryth's use of fractals in her creations, and her way of bending them around the human body, and this is a dramatic example of how fractals can be literally woven into my avatar's face. The effect is striking, and works well with further enhancements - in this case a contrasting lipstick and black eyeliner. I look forward to seeing how else Spyralle decides to play with fractals and tattoo layers; this was definitely a success, and is available at Genre until the 12th.

Genre: Rhapsody in Blue

This month's Genre is Celebratory, a Third Anniversary Party filled with shine and glamor and edged on all sides with a pretty ribbon of silly. As events go, it's one of the longer ones and inspires a cavalcade of unusual clothing and accessories. That sheer variety is on display all over this month's event - clothing crossing several ages, accessories for many different types of avatars, and some wonderful celebratory items to decorate homes and accentuate parties. Nowhere is this more obvious than this dress from Blue Blood, a fluffy confection that combines an elegant Mandarin collar with puffed lantern sleeves and bodice reminiscent of Fifties' cocktail dresses. It transitions smoothly into the wide, ruffled skirt, and the combination of the catch along the collar and the dividing line down the center of the dress adds interest. It comes with a fatpack of colors divided into light and dark, twelve options in all, and each of them combine two tones of color - a brighter, shiny half, and a slightly dull, leatheresque half. Clever use of materials adds to the sense of texture and shine on the dress, making the tentacles seem embossed into the surface as well as making each half seem like a different type of surface. In addition to my eternal favorite, tentacles, there is also a skyline version of the dress which you can see me wearing in my DDR post.

Goth1c0 also blessed us with colorful fatpacks, offering up a wide variety of textures on these charming zippered heels with the platform base. Unlike a lot of fatpacks, where the different textures are color variations on a theme, these boots include this fun, blue embossed pattern, animal print, a fun spiderweb, and even some skulls and crossed bones - ten options in all - and four metal colors. The shapes of the openings are wonderfully fun, each zipper hanging free off to the side. I love the silver detailing along the base and the pipe-shaped heel with it's cute, rounded center. One of the things I love about the SLink high feet is that they offer up options for cut-out, boot style heels that show off the smooth foot beneath. The style of shoe also let me show off my fantastic nails to good effect - another Genre offering, this time from Sense-able Fashion. I chose one of the puzzle nails, an interlocking pattern of blues which seemed made for this overall look. There are two other sets, all of them brightly colored and fun, a valuable way to bring your celebrations all the way to your fingertips. And just in case you want to celebrate down to your marrow, The Stringer Mausoleum made an amazing set of starburst eyes in a variety of shades - each one eerie and pale, and yet somehow compelling. There is a wearable demo in gray in addition to the purchasable colors, and each comes with such incredible options - petite eyes, mesh eyes, legacy eyes, and a system layer - that even the pickiest eyeophile would be pleased.

Music by Moonlight

I was last here for the Surrealism Challenge, but I vowed to return for more shots and I finally made it back tonight. Musiclandia is a lovely sim full of musical instruments, water, and whimsey, and it looks lovely under moonlight.  I had some fun playing around with windlight this time - shifting where the moon is, adjusting the cloud layer, making the stars larger and smaller as it suited me; you might be able to tell now and then from the hue of the light that a lot of things have change, but overall I think the changes are seamless. In one picture, I used an attached light to make things brighten up; can you figure out which one?

I've been bouncing around in this outfit for a while, thoroughly enjoying it. The gown is a quite old one, but still lovely; Blue Blood makes the most exquisite clothing, and I think her wide-hipped ones like this are my favorite. I love the sleeve design, too, and the gray and white quality of her whitegoth styles. I substituted lovely stockings from Stellar for the included ones, though, so that they could slip over my SLink feet - feet I'm rather loathed to go without, these days. Luckily for my sense of completion, though I didn't angle a shot to see this, the Blue Blood gown included garters separate from the stockings - so there are still little hearts holding everything up under my skirt. I had to wear my SLink feet, you see, because of these sweet, simple update on his shoes, slipped to me on the sly by Sax Shepherd Designs - like the other SLink shoe I reviewed, these have a color changing HUD which changes pretty much every part of the shoe; bliss for my inventory. This time I went for a soft set of gold hues to catch the threads of gold and the hearts in my dress - something small to tie the whole look together. In the same way, I covered up the fact that my SLink hands cut a little high on the Blue Blood dress sleeve by moving up the prim finishing piece on my wrist so it becomes a forearm design instead - just another of the many ways one can alter prim and texture clothing with rigged mesh attachments; I doubt you'd notice the alterations unless you were looking for them.

The rest of my look was calculated to echo the whimsy of the Musiclandia - sweet, a little geeky, and exquisitely textured. My dear reptilian friends are a release from Silent Sparrow - the latest in her quest to populate all of our inventories with the cutest animal friends on the grid. For a single purchase, one gets three rezzable, single prim turtles and two wearable ones - I'm showing off both wearable locations; the forearm turtle also comes with an included pose to keep him up against your chest. The green of Mr. Keylime on my head modulated beautifully with this strawberry patch headpiece from the Gatcha machine for World's End Garden, which can be found at her RMK store (I have extras of most of them, gained in my failed quest to get them all); remember her full sim is closing later on in the month, so make sure to swing by and enjoy it one last time. Sadly, a lot of the more complicated builds that had been there are gone, but there are a couple very simple ones, and if you move to the right spots, you can find the same soothing music that used to comfort me for so many hours. I added katat0nik's recent group gift strawberry glasses to this, just to tip us over toward geeky in the best way; these have the most adorable pink strawberries along the edge, and the green was a perfect match for my Head Turtle. My Clawtooth hair is another gatcha prize, but this time an extra from a dear friend so I've no idea which event it's part of;  Finally, I echoed the red again in my lips, a sumptuous color from Adore and Abhor that was exactly the color of my World's End strawberries; mmmmmm... tastes of flame and apocalypses.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Jade
Hairflowers: World End's Garden, Primavera K
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyeshadow: Virtual Insanity, Spring
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Glasses: katat0nik, Strawberry Glasses
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, Fluff Lips
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Flair, Set 98
Pets: Schadenfreude, Turtles
Dress: Blue Blood, Inima
Stockings: Stellar, In Bloom
Shoes: Sax Shepherd Designs, Frills

Pose: Don't Freak Out

Location: Musiclandia
Light Settings: Phototools, Moon Light 03
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL Disney Bound – Week Twenty Five: Belle

I took Belle a little dark for this Disneybound - the penultimate one. I'm reminded of the storyline for Belle in the second season of Once Upon a Time, when you meet the "not fairytale" version of her; in the fairytale version she often comes across as sweetness and light, her purity being that which transforms the beast, but I've always thought that Belle or Beauty must have a significantly darker side; the only explanation for the tension between light and dark is that each has some of the other within them. That is one of the core conflicts of a Beauty and the Beast kind of person; spending so long seeking the dark in others, it's only when one looks inside to find ones own darkness that one can be free of the darkness of others. Getting a brief glimpse of the darkness of Belle as conceived of in Once Upon a Time, the love of danger, the attraction to the imperfect, was a real reminder of my connection with the story.

This Belle wears her black and white out on the surface in this amazing dress from Blue Blood that was part of her Whitegoth line. I adore the stripes, and the double layered skirt, and it moves beautifully. It actually comes with every conceivable layer, shirt and corset layered separately, and two skirts - this short Lolita one and a longer ballgown. My Belle-tastic brown hair is from Underscore in a loose style with large curls and a spiral of hair down the back. It comes in three different sizes, which means it fits even my big, round head. The tendrils down into the torso move really well as my head shifted direction; in particular, the front curl stretched in a natural way due to it's loose shape. Flying up from my head in butterflytastic glory is this metamorphesis from Boom; I love to find excuses to include in my looks. On my wrists and ankles is a simple, shell set from AZE which; I really enjoy how well it falls on the ankle, something which you can see more clearly in this closeup. I wish more jewelry sets came with anklets; I'm always tempted to turn bracelets into anklets, and necklaces into bracelets with jewelry. Finally, those amazing shoes are from Eclectica and are part of a new release set of hers. It has a fantastic shape and the shading is textured without being losing the softness of velvet. The heel, button, and body of the shoe are all texture changeable, as well, which makes them very adaptable.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Underscore, Maryanne
Butterflies: Boom, Metamorphsis
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe Wings
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Orc Inc, Rich Darks
Dress: Blue Blood, Adele
Jewelry: AZE, Plain Puka Shell Anklets & Bracelets
Ring: Eclectica, Vintage Dress Ring
Shoes: Eclectica, Crushed Velvet

Pose: !bang

Location: Snatch City
Light Settings: Places, Annamaria (modified)
Water Settings: Nacon's Lake Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Twisted Color Challenge: Week 22 - Autumn in Soho

Charlie recently redid his woods to include more mesh and more densely placed trees, so I ended up going down to Amras to explore and take some pictures for Autumn in Soho, a really fun color combination more in keeping with my recent November Rain post that the balmy and warm weather I'm enjoying offline. I went for a theatrical, over the top look this time, because the brownish-yellow shade was perfectly rendered my Blue Blood in an enormous number of her outfits, though it took a while to find one which was overwhelmingly ocher instead of mostly black. This is one of my favorite styles of her dresses - poofy side skirts and tenderly rendered, tactile textures. Since it is prim and texture, it works wonderfully under this World Goth Faire Exclusive corset set from Perception, which brought in the dull orange which matched the other color in Autumn in Soho.I had already had the hairstyle from Analog Dog on, an old favorite with some heavy buckles and a sort of industrial feel to it, and I thought it suited the overall look and feel rather well - Soho is an industrial sort of place in New York City, a place full of artists and visionaries, most of them living hand to mouth.

I went of a family vacation to New York one time, my mom and brother and I, and we spent a day in Soho exploring. I vividly remember finding a tiny Conceptual Art Museum along one of the dank streets, an enormous window in the front with chairs arranged inside of it and a sign to the side describing this "Conceptual Art Project" of humanity watching humanity. Once inside, my brother and I wrote out dramatic notes about how we were trapped and couldn't get out, trying to lure people in to play with us; I still laugh remembering it. I wanted to add a hint of that wildness and unpredictability, so I pulled out these amazing butterflies from Boom and tinted them slightly grayer to match the ocher of my dress. The way they fly up and out still enchants me, and I hope you can see why I picked up so many colors of them. For cosmetics, I wanted something completely over the top and amazing, and I immediately thought of these cosmetics I had picked up from MiaSnow during her attempt to raise the Linden for her rent. I'm very happy to report she succeeded, and is back in world free and clear. This eyeshadow combination is astonishing, thickly laid layers of black, yellow, orange, and red, gleaming and theatrical. I added in the final piece of orange with these shoes from Lassitude & Ennui, which so perfectly matched that I didn't need to adjust them in tone at all. The final effect is gothic, theatrical, creepy, and yet still somehow doll-like; I love the combination of poofy skirt and narrow waist, of enormous sleeves and narrow wrists.

(  More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace - Creamer
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Miasnow, XP eyeshadow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick 1: Adore & Abhor, Lips Mono
Hair: Analog Dog, bound gold
Butterflies: Boom, Metamorphisis
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Corsets: Perception, Black Leather Flame (World Goth Faire)
Dress: Blue Blood, Shiver
Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui, Skully pumps

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Isle of Amras
Light Settings: Bristol
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Wrapped Up With A Bow

A long time ago, I began to notice some changes in packaging and started collecting some of the most fantastic and my favorites, meaning to pull together a few now and then for pictures. And I kept forgetting, or having something else to do, but finally I have pulled them all together and they are epic. These are just the ones with built in poses with me standing, so they're a little more repetitive than my usual shots, but I really think the inventive and glorious packaging - all of it giving you things either automatically or with a single click - speaks for itself. Above is the packaging from De La Soul, which contains the tree that is in the middle of the store along with a picture of the product. Below is an adorable corset-purse from Favole (since closed) that I seriously considered keeping just as the purse - it's well made and totally adorable, and comes with the hand-outstretched pose for easy clicking. The Frooti package was probably the funniest, including me falling backwards with fruit flying everywhere; it makes me giggle every time I see it. I also love the dollies, and the tiny packages, all carefully held out so that you can see them and click them easily. Inventive packaging is among my favorite thing in Second Life - it adds such fun and whimsy to a routine endeavor. Each of these pictures is a different store (except for one repeat).

My bow, which is nearly swallowing my head, was an awesome release from SoliDea FoliEs, a store which has joined my growing list of stores to check out when I have some time and attention. I love the big, swoopy curves. My one complaint is it is very hard to find a hair to fit under it - I once talked about making a "hood friendly" hair folder for moments like this, especially now that more and more hair is un-editable mesh. My hair is a gorgeous release from Truth that I picked up after finally cramming myself into the sim during his sale. I blew a lot of cash for that, and this is one of the awesome, curly results. I love the loose curls - they blow me away, all loose and sweet. My dress is from one of my longtime favorite stores that I haven't blogged for ages - but she is no less amazing; Blue Blood is simply the To Go to store for well made, Gothy Lolita clothing. I particularly love her huge, floofy, layered skirts with their rich and dark textures. She's making some forays into mesh now, but I return time and again to her prim clothing because they're simply fun and still very well made. Check out the adorable bows at my hips; so adorable. Finally, my shoes are from another old favorite, G Field; I've worn her bow boots many times, but these bow shoes I keep returning too because they're simply solid.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Candace (promotional item)
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow (promotional item)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hair: Truth, Kasia
Bow: SoliDea FoliEs, Haudrey
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Dress: Blue Blood, Acha
Jewelry: Eclectica, 'Flora' Jewelry
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Nails: Orc Inc, Glitterslash
Shoes: G Field, Bow Strap Shoes

Poses: Various

Location: Cupcake
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Silent Heck
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL DisneyBound – Week Four: Snow White

Once upon a time in a misty-gray world, a Raven and a Butterfly fell out of love and battled to the death. The Raven's sharp beak left golden dust and blue tears filtering down from a butterfly wing, and the Butterfly's sharp words drew blood and feathers from the Raven, and their wounds littered the snowing ice below as they both expired from their wounds. It wasn't until Spring when the ground began to bloom again, dust and tears, blood and feathers, snow and death rising from the ground and named by the birds Snow White. She emerged from the cage left of their dying wishes to see the world and find it made of equal parts light and dark, day and night, joy and grief, love and hate - each so mingled they can't be separated. The whispers of the bees and the whimpers of the swallows led her inexorably to the Apple of Desire, which tempted the palm of her hand, the shadows of her form, the icy bite of her teeth. She followed it's trail of passion to find it at last, caged and cold and shrouded in mists. Her fingers brushed the cold bars and they gave way before her, the apple transforming at her touch to fledgling and chrysalis, each having waited in crimson silence for their pain to return to them reborn. 'Eat Me' the Apple whispered, and she did. 'Eat me,' the world whispered, and she went to consume it all with a smile and a cut of canines.

Coming up with a look for Snow White almost undid me; it took me longer than any look to date, and unlike almost all of the older ones, everything I used except the corset came from already sorted clothing which I've owned for quite a while. The corset was my starting point; representing my science, Pisces, it's the only corset of Perception that I've indulged in, though I've been tempted by a bunch of the other Zodiac Releases she's had and I've picked up some of her jewelry. For the rest of the outfit I struggled, though. Although the colors vary widely, the roses and clothing attached to them are parts taken from G Field's indomitable Fairy dress with it's wide variety of skirts and it's beautiful texturing. I actually started with the skirt and then filled in the rest once I realized how well the corset and skirt fit together; thank everything that the dress was prim instead of rigged mesh, or I could have never pulled this off.

After a whole lot of trial and error, I finally settled on this very old dress release from Blue Blood - one of my favorites of her whitegoth releases, and a dress I actually have pulled out a few times for different looks because I like it so much. Again, since it was prim instead of mesh I was able to do a lot more nudging, including leaving off one of the sleeves so that my arm flowers would work out. The love of the Raven and Butterfly lived on in Eclectica's gorgeous heart jewelry, which like a lot of her releases was color changing so that I could make it match with the rest of my look. I also echoed the red in my gorgeous Adore & Abhor lipstick, pairing it with this dark, short style from Wasabi Pills to match up with Snow White's fabled lips as Red and Blood and Hair as dark as a Raven's Wing. The Fabled Apple of Desire is actually a free purchase in World's End Garden, the gorgeous sim where I took these pictures and the setting for my Fairy Tale.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, Shreveport Lips - Blood
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Claire Mesh (promotional item)
Flowers: G Field, Rose Fairy
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Eclectica, Antique Hearts
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Apple: World's End Garden, Apple of Desire
Shirt: Blue Blood, Fluture
Corset: Perception, Underbust Corset - Pisces
Skirt: G Field, Rose Fairy
Shoes: G Field, Flower Pumps "Eve"

Poses: Glitterati

Location: World's End Garden
Light Settings: Places Kumming
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL DisneyBound: Week Two - Ariel “Kiss the Girl”

I am being late girl for all of my challenges, but I hope this one is well worth the wait! Disney's Ariel has a few different outfits, but the one for the "Kiss the Girl" scene is a gorgeous remake of Aurora's gown from Sleeping Beauty, only in shades of blue and black. I ended up edging more on white on the top, but I really love the final look even though I took some liberties with the shades! This is a hugely combined outfit, so I'm going to start from the top and move my way down.

First, the bow is a special large bow from NYC, I think from one of the accessory events. I wanted something really huge and over the top, and I think this bow really fits the bill; it is over the ponytail instead of behind my head, but I think it works anyway. The hair, in a sharp and amazing shade of red, is a fun updo from Wasabi Pills festooned with braids. This was one of my bigger departures from Ariel's look, since hers is long and has a ploom over the brow, but I really loved the style. I matched my hair with eyebrows from De La Soul, which added a touch of realism.

The collar is actually from an outfit otherwise not represented - a gorgeous outfit from Cipher that I really adore, and that gave me the perfect collar for this outfit. The shirt itself is from Rabbit Kiss, part of a gothic look, and I ended up altering it both in adding a smaller and less ornate collar, and changing out the corset for a different style one. The sleeves of the shirt are very puffy and rigged, so they curved beautifully and gave the full puffyness of the Ariel gown. The corset is an old purchase of mine from Aura, and I really adore it. It's curvy and sweet, and has the most adorable bow. It comes in a lot of colors, but I made sure to pick up the simple black, and that's what I'm wearing here. Finally, the skirt was the initial inspiration of the entire outfit, a gorgeous gown skirt from Blue Blood that I purchased ages ago and haven't been able to showcase before now. I really adore the foaming lower edge of the skirt which I thought was really reminiscent of Ariel's origin as a mermaid, and her future in the original fairytale as sea foam.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Seelie
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Anais Mesh Hair
Bow: NYU, Bold Ribbon - baby blue
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Collar: Cipher, Punk Lolita
Shirt: Rabbit Kiss, Eternal Gothic
Corset: Aura, Grimm - Black
Skirt: Blue Blood, Oceanic Sonata
Heels: G Field, Bow Strap Shoes "Kate"

Poses: Adorkable

Location: Selidor
Light Settings: Places Abracadabra
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Violent Seduction in the Season of the Witch

Violent Seduction has broken her long silence with an amazing new outfit and head accessory based on all the indulgences of the French Court, with a bit of flirty calf thrown in for spice. This mesh dress, a square-bodiced, elbow length gown with a built in black velvet corset and ruffles, is edged in gold detailing with the chandelier on the front of it. The bodice is cut low enough that the top of my aureolas were showing, covered enough to pass in a PG sim, but edgy for people who attend to detail. I love the sumptuous fabric of the gown; the corset is richly textured velvet with patterning in the color of the gown with ruffles and fastenings set in subtle satin that seems almost tangible. The bows at the top and bottom are perfectly placed, a subtle finish to the metal fastenings. The velvet of the dress is lined with gold braid which almost seems scratchy to the touch - only the chandelier seems more painted on; the rest is richly embroidered. The matching headress, available in black with red roses at the Lucky Boards at Violent Seduction's new store in Cupcakes, is a little bowed hat linked to bows on the other side with a subtle diadem of two rows of beads. I particularly like the chain dangling under the bows, clearly the ends of the beads and well placed enough to disappear naturally into a lot of different hairstyles. Fitting it to a hairstyle can be a little bit of a challenge since the hat is quite vertical, but any one sided hairstyle will suit it well. I ended up pulling out this awesome rigged mesh style from Exile which had been languishing in my inventory; both the lack of bangs and the tumble of hair on my left fit the hat perfectly.

In response to my usual modesty, I paired Violent Seduction's scandalous new release with bits and pieces from a couple of Blue Blood dresses - the sleeves, shirt, pants, and stockings from one while the collar came from a second, echoing the ruffles of my bodice with ruffles at my neck. One advantage to Blue Blood's unique style is that pieces can be mixed and matched like this, and then combined with the equally unique offerings from other stores. The one flaw I see in how mesh is taking over everything is that it undermines this sort of creative layering; what I'm wearing from Blue Blood is all body texture and prim rather than mesh, so it fits easily under the dress from Violent Seduction. I think I'll always keep my extensive old-style clothing in my inventory just for this reason; the possibilities for creative combination simply skyrocked when you have a lot of different options. Rounding out the entire look is another new release - this time from Wishbox. These Rocking Chair shoes are made of rigged ribbon up around the calves down into a unique platform shoe that I have not seen the like of anywhere on the grid. A better shot of them are here, but I have to warn you the color is not one released by Wishbox; instead I took the cocoa coloring and tinted it blueish purple to fit in with the entire look. The platforms are wooden - they come with light and dark wood options - and the shoes and ribbons appear satiny to me, the texturing very soft. In the end, I think I managed a rather classic Lolita look, with my only deviation being my weakness for gartered stockings instead of more modest bloomers and petticoats.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyeshadow: Adam n Eve, Hepsut
Eyelashes 1: Flugeln Brise, 04-A
Eyelashes 2: SLink, Mesh Eyelashes
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, May Lipcolor - Rose Taupe
Hair: Exile, Wide Awake
Headband: Violent Seduction, Cantonier (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Dress: Violent Seduction, Versailles Dress (promotional item)
Undershirt and Stockings: Blue Blood, Dyna
Shoes: Wishbox, Rocking Horse Shoes

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Witchport
Light Settings: Phototools - Got it Light
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Venice in the Mists

It's interesting to me how much our expectations affect what we see and what we take out of something. Nextflix has a new feature where when you're watching a series, the next episode starts up automatically. However, just like Pandora Radio, they like to check and make sure you're still watching - and they decided to time it with every other episode. When I'm watching something short, like a half hour show, this means every hour it stops - however it doesn't stop at the beginning of the show, but rather two minutes in.

Now, when it didn't start automatically, I actually used it as a timer. I get up and do something around the house when an episode ends, then hit the next episode to begin. This means I get stuff done, but I don't exhaust myself and maybe throw out my back - a system that works. However, two minutes into an episode, instead of feeling happy I get a prompt to get up and do things, I feel pissed at the premature stopination - illogical in many ways, but a definite thing. It actually pissed me off enough that I wanted to turn off Netflix altogether when I couldn't find a way to turn it off; I ended up calling their customer support about it. With any luck... at least the option to turn it off will show up!

But that all ties into expectation - the expectation of a show to continue after it began, the expectation of being able to turn off something you don't like, expectations that ultimately ruin the experience because of how it rolls out. Sometimes I think there's something similar in Second Life, where people have expectations not only of others but also of themselves which cause them to limit what they see and do. You select the people you can focus on, both in world and out of it, and they shape the world you build around you. This is even more true in a place like Second Life, where lots of small communities can form in near isolation and reinforce themselves into infinity. There is always judgement and critique to be found - everyone is ugly in someone else's eyes - but there is also care and support if you're willing to give it to others.

As a side note - the skin is a group gift from De La Soul; the group costs money to join, but check out the gorgeousness! This is a preview of a new skin she's releasing with pink makeup on it. It's a bit of a softer and more mature look than my usual Aestali skin, and while it was created to go on a more Angelina Jolie style mouth, it suits my shape just fine out of the box. The awesome hair is from Alice Project; I love the amazing curls in the back, and it comes with and without bangs. The dress is an old purchase from Blue Blood; the delicate patterning on it really blew me away and I couldn't resist prancing around Venice in it - even if I was a little out of style - don't tell the roleplayers (remember to grab a tag if you're exploring)! The shoes are a very old purchase from Eclectica, and come both patterned the way you see above, and primarily black with colored trim.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Candace - Cream - Sakura (Group Gift)
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Rainbow
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hair: Alice Project, Shirley
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Jewelry: Glow, Studio Earrings
Dress: Blue Blood, Inima RED
Shoes: Eclectica, Garden Party shoes

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Venexia
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Southern delite
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Dark Side

Sometimes a dark mood is best reflected in dark dress - and no one does dark dress better than Blue Blood. This is her most recent release, and I'm completely in love. I got the red dress for free, but you can expect a pile of linden heading from my direction to hers once I'm sure I've got the basics covered! The hair is from a new Gatcha at Love Soul, and the hairflowers are from IMP and were part of the 25$L Tuesday event which occurs every week; I made it partway down the list, and I'm glad I did. I feel a little better after putting together a pretty look (and doing a little roleplaying today), but it feels like I'm siphoning out my moodiness with a tiny little thread rather than flushing it all out and going back to my usual chipper self. I just hope more dark mood doesn't get added on top of the system; there isn't enough alcohol in the world to thin out that level of irritation! If I'm lucky, though, I might continue my transformation from bitchy ball of crank through to the levels of Tomoyuki, at which point I believe I'm due a hawt redhead - given that, maybe I should say "Bring on the crank! And set out the pancakes!"

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow MESH
Eyeshadow: Mock, Fae-rly UnCertain Scarepia
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelases 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Mock, Dark Kiss Lipsmacker
Lip Detail: Mock, Lip Effect Kabuki Linea
Hairflowers: IMP, Baby's Breath Head Wreath - white
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Hair: Love Soul, Hair Ramen-S Jet Black
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Axiom, Anthropic Principle Necklace Set
Dress: Blue Blood, Lady Death - Red
Stockings: G Field, Halloween Spider-web Tights - solid
Boots: G Field, Square-toe Shoes "Sophie" - red

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Mayfair
Light Settings: TOR, EUPHORIA natural high
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Wear Gray

This is the season of Second Life Charities, and Wear Gray for a Day faire is one of those, found on a lovely sim in the style of a small town of stores. It's a little difficult to find your way around, having an internal 'c' of stores plus a circle of stores all along the edges, and a couple of little blocks of stores in free areas. All but a few stores are set up, and the quality of things is high but canted toward modern, casual female in general. You can also donate directly to the American Brain Tumor Association, either in addition to buying donation items (all of which were 100% that I saw) or instead of visiting. There's also a hunt going on, with pictures of some of the prizes shown on the website. I ended up picking up an almost complete outfit while I was there, aiming to match my awesome shoes from Forsaken. Multiple versions of the spiky, animal print wedges are available in a variety of electric colors all as donation items, but this is the official gray version!

The skin is an amazing creation of Rue, available in a few different colors for donation. Available for both men and women with a variety of characteristics, the white marks on the forehead and cheeks, and the pink blush under the eyes are part of the skin, as are these adorable freckles (it comes in a non-freckled version, too). I was beginning to think I needed to use another hair until I ran across Discord Design's glorious foray into rigged mesh hair, with this braided style I fell in love with. You can get it in sets of light or dark, or get all the colors in one. This is one of a couple of styles available for donation. I paired the whole look with a gorgeous dress from Blue Blood, with a thin trim of hot pink that I thought perfectly matched my cheeks. The outfit is prim, with an invisi-layer for the lower torso and upper legs, just to avoid flashing a bit of thigh. Across the chest is a white and pink band which handles the difficult SL mesh body well.

The jewelry is an old release from Eclectica - not being released at the faire but a valuable and useful addition to any inventory; the beads are recolorable in a bunch of shades in two separate sets, and the metal has three options. It comes with earrings, a necklace, and a ring, all showing in these pictures. The orange and purple eyeshadow is also not from the faire; it's a group gift from Mock that I put on to test and really enjoyed with the rest of the look. The eyeliner is from the faire, though - Silken Moon released a bunch of eyeshadow and lipstick for donation, as well as a variety of other items; the eyeliner is thick and dark, and the lipstick is actually editable and recolorable. Finally, the flower in my mouth from !bang was not only a donation item, but also a gatcha prize. I ended up with two of the white ones, but it was the perfect touch for my look! There are other colors, though, and a special rare silver one if you're willing to put in the linden.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Rue, Anima - Neuromancer
Eyes: Rozena, Lively Eyes - cold dream
Eyeshadow: Mock, Carribean Twilight Elegance (group gift)
Eyeliner: Silken Moon, Stella Khol
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelases 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Lepore Red
Flower: !bang, Euphoria Mouthie (white)
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Hair: Discord Designs, Ohna - mid grey
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Eclectica, Clusters Jewelry Set (promotional item)
Dress: Blue Blood, Spring - yellow
Boots: Forsaken, Rawr! - Snow Leopard (promotional item)

Poses: aDORKable

Location: Cherry Manga
Light Settings: TOR, HORROR Namob islet
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Bloody Wimp

I am a total wimp when it comes to horror and scary things. Even patently false things, even on the internet, I can get thoroughly creeped out.This photoshoot was no different; my feet were tucked up, I had lights on, and I turned the volume OFF! But I like how the pictures turned out, and to do this creepy outfit from Blue Blood credit (it was part of a special event recently, but I couldn't tell you which) was totally worth it. Pairing it with my favorite thigh high boots from Kcreations was also a must - these are patent leather and I'll be following her store until I get all the thigh high boot styles my little heart could desire. There are vast amounts of the hotel which I didn't explore; I ended up finding a few places for pictures, and I might come back during the day with brighter in-world lighting, but I don't think I will. If you like the ghostly and the creepy, though, this is a wonderful place to go - extremely well made and textured. There are many floors of different styles of frightening things, including creepy teddy bears and floating ghosts, and I think I even saw tentacles on my quick scan through to find the bloody words my hands implied should be there.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, MESH Eye - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelases 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Lepore Red
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Kumi Mesh Hair (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Dress: Blue Blood, Nina
Boots: Kcreations, Ballet Thighboots Patent (gift)

Pose: Glitterati

Location: Falmouth Hotel
Light Settings: TOR, HORROR Namob islet
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

2012 Color Challenge: Week 8 - Dark Raspberry

I knew what I was going to wear for Dark Raspberry as soon as the color showed up. Blue Blood's pinks on her black always have a dark, rich hue that fit this week's color perfectly, and it's been a store I both love and haven't featured much recently, so I was really grateful for this chance to go dark and gothy with a pink twist! The gloves, which matched shockingly well, are from Bubble and somehow managed to be the same hue! The same with the hair - an old hunt prize from Diversity that also happens to be the only thing called "raspberry" in this whole look! It would be interesting to see what would happen if everyone was forced to use certain names for each of the colors, but until then we'll stumble through mixing and matching. Both my wings and the adorable wedges from katat0nik were tintable - and I tinted them to match! It took me a while to remember to shift the texture to white first, so it was easier! The bracelets are of my own design, but textured with gifts from a dear friend, Fortunas, whose Fortunas Creations is filled with gloriously gorgeous textures. He talked me through mixing and matching several different kinds, giving the jewelry added depth that I really enjoyed - even if it's only apparent up close! It was harder to find a place to take pictures - I ended up searching through pages and pages of possibility before settling on one of the displays at Musei di Roma Capital, based on interpretations of Poe's stories, and then tinting the scenes reddish using a combination of windlights and worn lights.

Several different things in concordance have gotten me thinking about the ties between people - both positive and negative - this week. Like the wire meshes which surround each of these displays, people are tied together by threads of expectation, desire, opinion, and hatred. Even indifference has it's own sort of thread - dull gray and nearly transparent. It is easy for people to spot their own webs of opinion and feeling surrounding them, but it is significantly harder to spot the webs around all of the people we interact with; no matter how well you know someone, you can still be ignorant of some of their hidden likes and dislikes, their secreted away feelings which they might only be willing to admit to themselves. When one is ignorant of those ties, it's easy to act as we will without taking others' thoughts into account. In the absence of information, focusing on our own thoughts and opinions is only logical.

The question is what happens when one learns of the thoughts and feelings of others - how much do we allow those ties to bend and twist our own opinions of the world. To what extent should the experiences of those we care for affect and change us? Too much and we become puppets on the whims and opinions of someone else, and more of our interior core is given away through love. Too little and we become hardened and inflexible, our senses of compassion and love sacrificed on the altar of self-determination. The trick is to find a level which is consistent with our integrity - to act with both compassion and in tune with our deepest values. I'm still ruminating over a few difficult challenges - where my value of beauty is truly being pressured by my value of compassion; nothing is being asked of me, but within me I feel the need to respond.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Eyelashes 1: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyelashes 2: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyeshadow: Elymode, Coal & Magenta 1
Glasses: Air, Cresta
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss - Flirt
Hair: DH, Kiki - Raspberry
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Gloves: Bubble, Laced Corset - Pink
Dress: Blue Blood, Rebellious - Pink
Bracelets: Begendings, Bangles (textures by Fortunas)
Ring 1: Earthstones, Eternal Blossom Ring
Ring 2: Alchemy Immortalis, Nestling Finger Talisman
Heels: katat0nik, Aya Wedge

Poses: Striking Poses

Location: Musei di Roma Capital
Light Settings: TOR, SCIFI Sailor Moon
Water: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

2012 Color Challenge: Week 3 - Electric Indigo

Electric Indigo was a fun color to do. I immediately knew I wanted to use a Blue Blood dress - her colors are always so vibrant against the rich blacks of her designs that the electric is completely obvious and totally gorgeous. This is one of the many fatpacks lingering in my inventory that I opened just to pull out this dress - and even not remembering which is which (you don't want to know what my inventory looks like; I have piles of unopened boxes) and - unsurprisingly - I completely adored what it looked like. Like all of her dresses, the fabric layers are on every level, and surprisingly only the skirt is prim! All of that detailing on the neck and wrists - all drawn by Ghanima of Blue Blood and all gorgeous. The stockings are also included, and I adore the richness of the color which you can clearly see in these pictures.

I paired up up the dress with a pair of gorgeous, winged boots from Favole with lacing up the back. One thing I like about Favole's shoes is they really are unique as well as being strikingly gothic! The only other accessory this time, beside the usual suspects, is a hat from VC Designs that I totally expect I got on a hunt of some sort in the past. Sometimes I think I really should mark things better so I could tell you where they came from! It's totally cute, though, isn't it? With a little bit of lace on the front and some flowers along the brim. Really, the dress doesn't need much embellishment, though, so I kept it simple.

We're taking a running step off into unique and terrifying colors for this year, which really makes me happy. As everyone who knows me at all knows that brilliant and bright colors are my favorite - I love the bright, the implausible, the as-close-to-a-rainbow-as-possible. I tried to highlight and offset this brightness, but I was really frustrated no only by some new problems between my browser and second life (slplugin not working? Can I strangle someone now?), but with my desire for something I couldn't find in Second Life but that I suspected must be somewhere! A neon, modern, digital world. All of the futuristic sims I found were emphasizing the dirty dystopias of the future, and lacked the clean, metallic glow I was seeking. So I ended up in the wild again - which I suppose is where faeries belong, but still. Frustrating.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, Prim Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Hair: Heart Softens Natu - Honey Blond
Hat: VC Designs, Dress Hat Amethyst
Ears: Illusions, Mystic Ears
Dress: Blue Blood, Carmina - purple
Ring 1: Alchemy Immortalis, Nestling Talisman
Ring 2: Earthstones, Eternal Blossom Ring - Bouquet
Shoes: Favole, Lilith

Poses: Dare

Location: Dark Muse Forest
Light Settings: TOR, NIGHT That Spells Moon 1
Water Settings: Claira