Blowpop – Review
A while ago (shamefully so, in fact) Annyka Bekkers dropped a sample pack of her Mellie skins from her shop Blowpop on me. I tried them on right away, but then got distracted by that darn first life and haven’t blogged them yet for all of you. I’m going to talk about the Cream skin tone as that is my normal choice. If you like what you see here, you should go to Blowpop yourself and try a demo.
First of all, Cream is not the lightest skin tone, Vanilla is, and the skins range to a deep tan called Caramel with a few steps in between. As I said before, these are the Cream. In the sampler Annyka gave me, these are the three makeups that were included for Cream. She has obviously taken care to create a range of makeups as well from fresh faced to evening makeup.
But let’s look at my very favorite thing, the lip. I think the lips on these skins are so sweet and I love the little upturned corner and sweetheart shape. They are what makes the whole face for me. The shading on the bridge of the nose is a bit stronger than I’m used to, but I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just different for me. The nostrils are well done though, and that’s a difficult area where I have issues with some skins. I also think the eyes are very well done and I appreciate the range of makeups Annyka has applied to them. I think it gives these skins a lot of versatility for her customers.
The skins will allow you to play with the hair color on the eyebrows and other bits, but I didn’t experiment with that for these pictures. I wanted you to see them as they are, and play with them on your own. I will also note that I will not be taking full body shots or analyzing other bits of the skin. Not my style, and the face on a skin is the number one most important feature to me, so that’s my focus. Although I will point out that the collarbones, which you can also see here, are nicely done.
All in all, I’m glad Annyka got in touch and I will be adding her skins to my rotation. Again, these are the Mellie skins, and you can find them in her shop, Blowpop.
Argyle Boutique – New Find/Review
It all started when I saw that there was a coat named Madison. Of course, I am not so vain as to believe that has anything to do with me, especially since I have never met the designer, Noelle Eilde, before. However please take note, this will not stop me from pretending far and wide that I am famous enough to have a jacket named after me. 
Regardless of the origin of the name, seeing this coat led me to Argyle Boutique, and that is definitely not a bad thing. I proceeded to buy nearly everything in her shop and then decided that you, dear readers, needed to know all about it.
Please note that the jacket in question here is absolutely adorable. It has an optional prim collar and neck bow which I am modeling both of for you here. I am also taking this opportunity to show off the Davenport Weathered Velvet gloves which just go perfectly with my jacket.
Stick around after the cut for more great finds at Argyle Boutique!
Primitive Design – New Find
Although the store is named Primitive Design, I see nothing primitive about the offerings there. Now I know this is not my usual style or mode of being, but I have to say, I really loved this little shop. I honestly do not remember how I ended up on the sim with this store or how I came to wander in, but I’m so glad a random shopping trip lead me to this.
The top, pants, and necklace shown here are all from Primitive Design. The top is their Wehrmacht tank which is offered in two colors, and the pants are Skulled Corpses Pants in black. Please note the pants also came with the rope attatchments on my leg and arm. And I am in love with the kitty-faced belt buckle on these. But possibly my favorite piece here is the Deathhead necklace I’m wearing. I know, I know…. I’m a bit prim to be wearing anything called “deathhead” but what can I say? The necklace comes in both a male and female version, so make sure you look around and get the right one.
This is just a small sampling of what they are offering, so if you like it stop by Primitive Design in world.
Also featured in this outfit are: Henna Pack II tattoos by Canimal, Neko Boppers shoes by TRUTH, Wish II hair in Currant by Cake, and Vivant Blush Biba 1 skin by Tete a Pied.
ZHAO Shoes – Review
I have recently gotten to know Melanie Zhao of ZHAO Shoes just a bit and had the honor of getting some of her newest releases dropped into my inventory. At first I was skeptical, as I love shoes but can be very fussy about what actually goes on my feet. But as I unpacked these and tried them on, I could not resist them.
Before we head into the pictures, I’d like to point out that all of the ZHAO shoes are scripted with options for bling and clacking noises as you walk. Those are easily adjusted or turned off completely simply by touching the right shoe and using the menu that appears.
Of the nine pairs of shoes I examined, these were my very favorites possibly because I have not really seen anything like them in SL. They are called Virus for reasons possibly only Melanie could explain. But they remind me of something I would buy for my real life closet and wear all summer long. For some reaon, even in a pixelated fantasy world, clothing I would actually wear on my real life body thrills me.
(More fantastic shoes after the cut!)
Customize this!
I’d like to take a moment to talk about the business of custom creation. Now, I cannot create anything other than blog posts to foist upon all of you. But I have, just a few times in my virtual life, sought out a custom bauble from the content creators of SL. In fact, just recently, I was after a custom tattoo to match the one I have in RL.
After looking around, I found a parlor that seemed to be good at what they did and I read their custom request instructions. Per the instructions, I created a notecard outlining what I was interested in and including a picture. In the notecard I asked for more information, such as a timeframe for the creation and a price. What I got was complete silence. Just when I had all but given up hope, I got an IM from the creator herself telling me my custom tattoo was ready.
Did you find something wrong with that last sentence? I did. But I decided on the benefit of the doubt and went over to view the item. When I got there, the tattoo was very oversized, the image was severly pixelated, and the creator seemed to have no issue with it (or the shady business practices) whatsoever. I politely inquired as to whether or not the size and quality could be remedied and was informed that it could. For a fee. So let me outline what I was being told here. Since the custom job was already complete (despite the fact I had not requested it to be done yet) I owed the creator for the price of the item already. On top of that, if I wanted the quality corrected that would be an additional fee. I was informed that the image I provided was not of a suitable quality, but it could not be explained why that information was not shared before the inferior tattoo was created rather than after.
I retained my cool, dear readers. At that point I asked if a better image would rectify the problem, and was told it would. The creator even asked if I had the original image from which the real tattoo was created in the first place. I did, and I gladly uploaded and passed it over, with the stipulation that if the image quality was not suitable, I should be asked to provide something that was.
More time went by with silence, until I prodded the creator again. At that point I was quickly rewarded with the “fixed” version. The tattoo was indeed smaller and better placed, but was even more horribly pixelated. I was so flummoxed that I decided not to even bother this person again, and since they never requested the fee for the “correction” I never paid it. But the experience left me with a decidedly bad taste in my mouth.
The obvious question is why anyone advertising themselves as an SL tattoo artist could not hand draw the very simple design that is my tattoo instead of relying on images which clearly did not meet their needs. But placing that aside, why was this item created in the first place when I was just making an inquiry? And why is this particular content creator so satisfied with passing off what was clearly a terrible product? Have other SLers had similarly awful cutom experiences, or am I just unusually unlucky? And furthermore, exactly where does one go to get a good custom tattoo where this is guaranteed not to happen?
Enlighten me.
Feeling a little gray…
When Roslin Petion of Tete a Pied dropped these skins on me, I knew it was time to play. Drow is not usually my thing, but the Vivant skins are all so well done that I really just wanted to see what it would look like. A little digging through my inventory produced a suitable ensemble and I was able to snap this picture.
After it was taken, my instinct was to change back, but I decided to wander the grid like this for the evening just for fun. It felt foreign, but I have to say it was a little fun. I wonder if everyone feels the need to push the limits this way sometimes. Do you ever go out in a look completely different from your normal? Let me know.
