2012 Color Challenge: Week 49 - Cotton Candy

I love cotton candy - the food, not the color.The candy in my hand, I think a Gatcha prize from Saturnine Dreams, and my awesome Skinthesis wings were both rather closer to the theme than I had originally planned, but I ended up really liking them and I couldn't resist being literal! I actually started with this Gothica dress, which I've had in my inventory for a very long time and haven't had a chance to use before now. It was a perfect color for cotton candy, light and sweet but bright and playful. The flower theme was harder to carry over, though - the necklace is included but no bracelets or hair ornaments - so I ended up supplementing the pink daisies with lilies. The one in my hair is from G Field and is a staple of my inventory. The shoes were the most difficult of all, though; I ended up returning to an old staple from Deviant Designs, these adorable sandals with the lily detailing on the side. They are pre-mesh, but still incredibly well made. Finally, I ended up using a cute pig tail hairstyle from Wasabi Pills, but instead of using her jellyfish color (which was way too bright) I took one of her light white shades and tinted it to match the darkest part of the daisies. I also swapped out my usual relaxed SLink hand for the "bag" hand which looks like it's holding something, so that the stem of my cotton candy didn't fall on the ground while I was gallivanting around. I had impulsively bought the fatpack of her hands, but I'm really glad I have the versatility of them all, even if I usually just use casual! I paired a couple of eyeshadows - one a simple blush on the lid from Mock (adding a matching lip) and the other more theatrical and vivid, a heart from Schadenfreude to round out my look, and I think I look rather snazzy!

The biggest challenge of the whole shoot, really, was the location and the lighting. I didn't want to overpower the outfit with a really dark location, but I did want to echo the pink of the outfit in the sky and hopefully on the land a little. I used a variety of lights, this time focusing them on one side of the body using grays and pinks. The gray was to take off some of the edge of the pinks - make it a little less obvious that the light was tinted, and to even out the light across the face and try to minimize the awkward and unattractive mesh shadows around the nose and lips. To get a shadow along the nose without catching the slightly off triangles at the sides of the nostrils is a challenge in Second Life due to the flawed mesh o its base avatars; that being said, I will take the customization of the basic mesh avatar over any mesh avatar any time of the day. I really wish Second Life would expand the options for mesh, maybe allowing a way of combining their adjustment system with fresh, better mesh bases. I'm beginning to think we may get there sometime - Second Life is slowly seeming to become more responsive, and so I maintain hope for a meeting point between individualization and style.

( 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 1: Mock, Carnivale Cotton Candy
Eyeshadow 2: Schadenfreude, Cotton Candy
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Mock, Glasside Lip - Carissima
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Megumi
Hairflower: G Field, Hibiscus Hair Clip
Wings: Skinthesis, Cotton Candy Wings
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Food: Saturnine Dreams, Home Spun Cotton Candy
Dress: Gothica, Clove Pink
Shoes: Deviant Designs, Beach Baby

Poses: aDORKable Poses

Location: Izzie's Mainstore
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Catastrophe
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Color Challenge: Week Forty-two - Chartreuse

Chartreuse Week was totally easy. I rarely say that, but this time I plugged in the word and this gorgeous bathing suit from Ingenue. I don't know when I got my hands on it - I don't often buy bathing suits - but the little butt ruffle is totally the cutest thing ever. I'm even pleased with the little spots of light on it; normally I'm not the polka dot type, but between the wide-strapped style and the cute ruffle, this seems like a stylish modest bathing suit pulling from the fifties in style!

The hairstyle is an old one I bought from Tekeli-li, and I thought the swirling seaside style would work well with a beachy feel. I followed that through with my favorite sandal set from Deviant Designs - one of my real splurges since I picked up every color, but I think you can see that it is simply perfect for any breach-front day of pleasure!The cosmetics are my usual mix - Adam n Eve offering some floral designs with cheLLe layered on top, and an addition of a new lipcolor from Mock that I think really rounds out the look.


I also added a ring from Earthstones as part of my default look. Default looks are kind of funny - my skin and eyes from De La Soul, my ears from Illusion, my wings from Fancy Fairy, my shape, and now this ring show up in almost every picture I take. When I switch from one to the next, it's a total switch. Unlike clothing and hair, and now cosmetics, they comprise what is my central "look" in Second Life. This brings up the fundamental irony of Second Life; while I have a solid and unchanging identity as Deoridhe, every part of my look is not only freely available but also the creation of someone other than myself!

It also brings up the irony that while these creators help define me, by doing so they work themselves out of being fiscally supported by me. Unlike the places where I buy cosmetics, or clothing, or hair, I purchase skin rarely, the wings I wear are literally my first purchase in Second Life (no exaggeration), and the ears are the second version of the first ears I ever bought! If you take into account that Siyu saw me wearing her ears and gave me some money, you can even argue that I made a net win on the ears. In fact, only the skin and eyes have changed a lot and almost always within a similar theme and - in almost every case - with rainbow cosmetics or to a skin made by a friend.


In order to make money consistently, you need either the same people buying things multiple times, or a lot of people buying things once. This is often done through tapping into a "need" a person has, or creating it. I remember watching the "need" of teeth whitening grow over the nineties through television adds. One tooth paste company started marketing their teeth as "brightening," then there were the faux-scientific tooth color tests, and lots of pictures of people given makeup so their teeth changed in color (want really white teeth? Wear really red lipstick; does it every time). Now every toothpaste brand has teeth whitening types and we're back in the downswing of 'get everything in one ultimate toothpaste' again. You can watch the same movement of adds with cough syrup, another product everyone uses where adherence to a brand is created by creating positive feeling toward that brand rather than due to being unique.

In Second Life, creators often do a similar thing. They can create a cult of personality, or have a style which draws a lot of people in, or create a sense of need for their product. In the day of makeups only being on skin, skin creators could make a lot of money with a variety of similar makeups with variations of lip and eye color. With cosmetics, a lot seemed to fear money loss due to people sticking to a single skin and changing their cosmetics (which I do) but didn't count on the amount of money that could be made with a wide variety of cosmetic styles that could then be mix and matched. I'm far more likely to spend 500$L on a pack of ten makeups that I ever was on a single skin (and skins tend to be twice that), and I feel like I can't be alone in that. Often one closed opportunity opens up a wealth of new doors; that's something I always try to remember.


( I wanted to take a picture in the little house in the distance there... but it had a security orb and I got kicked away. Woe. )

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Kei Cream
Eyeshadow: Adam n Eve, Forest Deity
Eyeliner: cheLLe, Cleo Called Black
Lips: Mock, Agua Gloss Lip in Blood (Veronique II)
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Ear
Hair: Tekeli-li, Undine - Honeyblond
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Bathing Suit: Ingenue, Bathing Beauty - Chartreuse
Ring: EarthStones, Eternal Blossom Ring - Bouquet
Shoes: Deviant Designs, Beach Baby - Mint

Poses: Long Awkward Pose

Location: Surf Braata Beach
Light Settings: Abracadabra2
Water Settings: Blackwater

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only