More Than Meets the Eye

LOTD090629, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

BareRose has the cutest kimonos out so I just had to indulge myself and spend a whopping 140 L$ on the Okami kimono, shown in blue here . I’m wearing it with Curio’s June 2 Zenia in bean (who says only Japanese chicks can wear kimonos?) The hair is Maitreya’s amazing Moon and the hair flower is Kanzasi Sakura, from Kurotsubaki. I have no idea whether it’s still available, since it’s quite old, but I still like it.

lotd090627, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know I’m a total sucker for a good system skirt. So when last week I was over at Bijou and saw this pretty from their Ambient outfit, I knew I had to have it. I’m wearing it with the basic white Cambridge Cuffed shirt from Armidi and accesorised with the Kaya set from Zaara. I’ve picked the black Marie shoes from Tesla to wear with this outfit. I love strappy pumps. I’m wearing PXL Creation’s Kim in tan and Adam ‘n Eve’s adorable Cristina hair.

It’s taken quite some time in between RL work and some projects that went ahead of it, but as of today, Kim in in the shop at PXL Creations. I think it’s Hart’s best skin ever… logically so, maybe because it’s an ongoing work of development, and he strives to grow with every skin he makes. But yes, again, I’m very happy with the result. One of the masive improvements in this skin is the way he handled the eyebrows. They have always been hand drawn, but a lot of people thought it was a weaker feature in the skin. So Hart’s been studying eyebrows in RL and Kim’s brows really look good IMHO. The pale Kim has a red head version, but it didn’t feel good to use it in the darker skintones, so that is a bonus for the fair skinned among you. And the tan  has a light brown hair version instead of the blonde.

Also new is the pricing. I’m excited about it! We’ve had some massive discussions about prices over the last couple of months,  but I’m so pleased to let you know that all female skins at PXL creations as of now are priced L$ 1000 per single skin (well, single skin… not really… single make up, but still all the eyebrow options and the hair and bald version) and that there are great deals on the fat packs as well.

Also, Sasy needs to show Hart some good lovin’ because finally he’s decided to make his skins shaved and offers various pubes on the underpants layer! She (and many others… so go smother the guy) has been asking for that for ages now!!

This skin was first developed in tan. We were looking for a way to achieve a higher contrast skin than what PXL did so far, but without making her look like she’s been in the tanning studio too much… you know… that orange tan that a lot of tanning studio afficionadas have. So the idea was to work from the tan Kim and then gradually go lighter, and correcting shading and highlights on every skin tone as she went paler, to maintain that very contrast we were aiming for.  And then the process started again, which I’ve shared with you guys before… beta v1.2 up to, I think,  6.7. Meticulously balancing the adding of a pixel or two here… and then upping some contrast there or adding some shading on the calves… aaah, I think you get my point. There has been put a lot of work again in this beauty. I would have loved posting a photo of various beta’s next to eachother… but the differences from beta to beta are not really visible on the photo’s. You’ll agree with me that the end result is stunning, though.  Nude pics after the cut!! Read more

LOTD090625, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

The red head version of Kim made me go back to hair fair to pick up Curio’s gorgeous Paper Tiger in the red shades. and I’ve coloured the colour change white head band to a sunny yellow to match Dela’s yellow Vivian blouse and Digit Darkes’ Dirkshire lilac pants. I’ve accesorized with Icon’s Heart necklace, which comes in 2 parts (spine & chest).

lotd090624, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

Going professional today, even though the cute Christy skirt from Skin Flicks is too short to fit the proper definition of office/business attire (which would be knee length, or just above knee). But since I’ve got the legs to pull it off -in SL at least- I picked it anyway to go with the Dietrich shirt from Lelutka and the beige houndstooth Metro jacket from Bijou. I’m wearing the black nylon tights from Sheer and the Pearl and Chain belt from Ume. My glasses are from FNKY and the earrings are Exodi’s Bailey’s pearls.

I’ve picked Cupcakes’ Seduction in Wheat (Girly make up) and Lamb’s Unbirthday chignon in Butterfinger to finish the corporate look.

Annyka Bekkers just released her 4 N2 lines of scrumptuous skins at Blowpop . They all come in 4 skintones, fitting the character of the skin, a bare version and 5 make ups. Per make up there are two options, one light and demure,  and a more outspoken one, for a stonger look. The bodies are all gorgeous, not a flaw in sight and the shading is awesome. I’m really happy with these skins, they combine a drawn look with great detailing.

All of these are shown with the same shape, my default, which I didn’t have to tweak this time to bring out the best in the skins. With L$ 900 for a single skin (2 really, for both make ups) these skins are an incredibly good deal. A fatpack  for all 6 (12) skins in one skinetone sells at L$ 3200.

I’ve used Michami’s latest swimwear release for the photo’s: Soraya for Carmen  and Maya, Aaliyah for Ava and Yolanda for Elizabeth. Hair by Truth.

Hair Fair 2009, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

3 styles that are among my purchases at Hair Fair… Argrace’s Mystic Bob has a texture change fedora (which is also available separately) . Kin is indisputably one of the best hair makers around and great on the elven styles, but these cute braids are lovely for not-so-elven me. Plus, with only 100 for a single, there is always room on my L$-balance for more Kin. Siddean Munro from SLink nailed it again with her Pixie hair, which apparently is Sid’s RL hairdo. She has a new system for colouring the hair (similar to what Dernier Cri has) so make sure you read the note card if you’re not familiar with it yet.

Sparkle Skye @ Hair Fair 2009, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

I actually knew that Sparkle also did hair, but I know her more from the elaborate fantasy formal gowns that she has been making for years. But on this hair fair Sparkle has some new styles out. Now you’re likely not to wear them often for your day to day look, but if you want to dress up and are looking for some pretty exceptional updo’s, then you should consider these. My favourite is Helena. The reason why the feathers from Nicky Ree’s Cabaret Star outfit are missing from this pic is that the tiara that comes separately with Helena also attaches to the neck. Just sayin’

Maitreya @ Hair Fair 2009, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

Good morning world! Hopefully big bad SL is going to be a little more friendly today… otherwise I might just have to kill a Linden or two… (not that killing the staff is going to make the grid any better, but you know… revenge just tastes good).

What is oh so very good already, is the new hair from Maitreya. You know I hate Renderosity hair with a passion, but with textures like this, there is no reason why one should even want to use it, at least, not for SL photography. Kudos for Onyx and Beau!!

Decoy @ Hair Fair 2009, originally uploaded by Grazia Horwitz.

I didn’t know that Annette Voight, Decoy’s talented designer had ventured into hair… but this I found at her booth at Hair Fair. Nicole comes with the bangs and no bangs style included. Katie is just THE CUTENESSband Zoey is Annette’s Hair Fair special. The textures are really lovely. Way to go *sighs* yet another shop to follow more closely.

The lovely tank is Ebba, from Michami.