Merry Month of May

New for May, Pompeja Rossini of LaVie offers Gabriel and to entice you she's offered up two special version of the Gabriel Skin to her group members in all his pugilistic glory. Hair base, bruises, scrapes and the defiant set to his jaw are all part of the skin.

Left:
Gabriel Skin (light beard) - LaVie
Hakama Pants Blood with wrist bandages - The Trap (not free)

And if that wasn't enough Swaffette Firefly at SF Design is standing in the middle of her store in Penryn handing out this handsome leather black trench with a grin and a wink. Comes with both resizer and non-scripted parts so if you need a trench for RP or too look good on the dance floor you don't need to worry about causing lag.

Right:
Gabriel Skin (dark beard) - LaVie
Black Leather Trench - SF Design
Violence Jeans - SG Fashion

And while you are out and about, you might want to hit SG Fashion. The store is moving to DuoLife and Sasha Gopheller is offering her entire inventory for $10L. Jeans, shirts jackets, tanks, sweater, you name it. If you need to fill out your closet and not spend a lot of lindens, SG Fashions has you covered. Sale is for a limited time, though, so don't wait.

MenStuff Hunt - Skins

The MenStuff Hunt Started February 1, and like it's predecessor, some of the grids best men's designers dove into the spirit of it and went all out.
There's a contest being run, where participants build an av from the ground up -- and that means you need to find a really good skin -- luckily there are some amazing ones being offered here.

There's shapes too (see next post) and oh yes, clothes and shoes and hair and poses, and the occasional fun surprise. Urban, Modern, Fantasy or Historical -- you're going to find a bit of everything in this hunt.

Skins first: All the skins shown here but one are Kyr wearing his normal shape: a modded version of KMadd's Kirby shape. The shape itself is neither free nor in the hunt. (Click for larger images.)

Top Left is The Special Echo Skin from LaVie. I think the Echo line is some of Pompeja's best work to date and this skin is no exception. It's also one of the hardest of the hunt prizes to find but it's worth it -- don't skip out on it.

If you've already seen the Echo line, you'll see the difference here. There's a small face tattoo (or half healed cut near the left eye and a healing scar on the right. If you are into any kind of Roleplay (or just want that dashing, battered look, this is a skin well worth having in your inventory.

Top Right: Aimesi's skin offereing is a little more mature, classical feature and well defined musculature. The skin runs more golden than tan -- This would be a perfect skin for a gladiator, a prince, or, you know, the next SL Male Model.
Next in line is JeSyLiLo's male skin in 3 versions, fair-skinned, blond base on a husky build. Fair skinned and an interesting face. Not a brute but not likely to fade into the woodwork either with the wider set eyes and generous mouth.

&Bean brings you another skin that shows some wear and tear -- which the name of it, "Dear John - Can of Whoopass", kind of implies. Chest tattoos of a wolf and unicorn are part of the skin as are the blood and bruises. This is not a guy who gives up easily in a fight, whether he's losing or not.

Style by Kira offers another more mature skin. Drake has sharper facial features and a well defined chest and six pack, hint of a sardonic demeanor, but giving the impression he can be charming to those he knows well.

The last of the skin alone packs from the difficult to find, Egoisme, offering among a series of other gifts (tattoos and clothing -- a very generous hunt gift). SammV2, is a darker skin, well detailed body hair and a dark hair base. The skin could suit a variety of ethnicities based on the shape under neath, which makes it incredibly versatile.

On the bottom left is the only skin and shape set offered. (Although Body Doubles designed their shape to go with the LaVie Echo skin line). Essences offers you Diego 7, a tall, bronzed skin man, imposing but with that old world charm. Broad shouldered and narrow hipped, he's a taller than usual shape even by SL standard. The skin has a hint of a goatee and well trimmed moustache, and be he a bullfighter or a World Famous Actor, stevedore on the docks of New York or running a Linden coffee shop, he's a man you take note of.

Advent Season - Day 2

Advent Day 2:

Left: Zacca's winter trees - Free at the shop on Swayland - 3 sets of various sizes.

Gabriel - long sleeved Black tee (group gift)

22769 - Black cords, Advent #2 (Really nice texture, prim cuffs)

Right: LaVie - Ringo Sweater with Touch Texture change collar.

Catch 'em quick!

Blatant Indulgent Vanity

Not much free here today, but maybe a couple of designers you might be willing to give some of your hard earned lindens too.

I've blogged before about the detail in the clothes from designer hiwinyu Fazuku of ::[ Mr.Poet]:: . The latest release of workshirts is no exception.

The look is layered and so are the sculpted necklines and cuffs, one on top of the other for the kind of look that makes the fabric look like you can reach out and touch it.

I am completely bowled over by the skill and artistry of hiwinyu's work. And given the level of detail, the cost is scarily reasonable.

::[ Mr.Poet ]::Work shirt Denim - $200L

Three shots here, just so you can see the details -- and even when you move (and I have a pretty constant movement AO) this shirt and jacket set holds together. Amazing.

Worn with this shirt are ripped jeans from Kobalt. Now jeans are generally not all that exciting. Let's face it, there's only so many pairs of jeans one avatar can wear in second life and if you are like me, you tend to find a pair and a designer you like and stick with them until you find another pair and another designer you like and so on. Well, I may have found that magic switch off.

I have to give a hat tip to Aida and M4ri1yn over at S.Luxury; who in addition to being one of SL's hottest couple, also have an amazing eye and taste for really good, new designers. Their latest fashion photo essay featured some of the works at Kobalt and I had to go check it out and was impressed with what I found.

$250L is about the top of what I will pay for a pair of jeans unless they come with multiple wear options. Kobalt managed to do that and gives you an unexpected but hot extra. Most of the jean I looked at came with two wear options, but the second wear is a blatantly sexy look, for the the hard core cruiser (and not a bad choice for an erotic dancer,) or for those nights when you want to give your partner an extra thrill.

To the left I have on Kobalt dirty tank top Moonlight ($110L), and Kobalt jean "2 styles- moonlight" ($250L). The basic style comes with cuffed pants and a well fitted prim bulge, but dig into the box a bit and you'll find and open version, complete with a well designed package for show and tell, and a hud to assist in matching your bonus package to your favorite skin. The look is sexy-hot, even if only for show (for more interactive genitals you will need to look elsewhere.)

To the right you'll get a hint of what kind of options you have with Kobalt's suki speedo blue ($200L) -the reveal here is a little less blatant but you get the idea. The speedo, like the jeans comes with 2 wear options -- in case you find yourself in more polite and less frisky company.

In case you need a little warm up before you strip down to the dirty and playful, you might want to stop by Brocade Tiger's new location and see what Lexi Vargas has been up to.

Lexi has been realigning his work to match his new logo "a style for every man," and you can find a wide array of options from street wear to the glam look of his newest offering, Dark Luster, in multiple color options. Luster is a neuvo-goth-glam look with a full coat, nice drape and movement to the coat skirt and adjustable chest chains. Clubbing or just dressing to impress and you can't go very wrong here, and he's currently running a sale. At $400L, Dark Luster is a pretty sweet deal.

He's also been working on some new lines so keep your eye on his Brocade Tiger blog.

Rounding out my latest indulgences is a gift from one of my favorite designers in SL, The Black Canary. Morrigan continues to impress and push his creativity. This fur trimmed cloak was a gift to his subscribo members and it's yet another example of what he's capable of. This comes with a hood option (not shown) and is unisex. It's a full double cloak, that moves amazingly well, the perfect outerwear for the cold night creeping up on us. Paired here with the pants from his Worthy Pearl set ($350L), it only reminds me I need to stop by his store and see what of his I don't yet have in my inventory.

And lest you think I've completely given up on free, I haven't, although most of what I am wearing is no longer free (That will teach you to miss those hunts, now won't it?) the skin is from LaVie, the Echo promo release with dragon tattoo that Pompeja offered before the full line release, and the Feather Necklace is from the MHOH4 hunt from Zenith. The hair is Army Crop from MADesigns (not free but not scary expensive either ), and the *Gemma* earrings are from Rozoregalia, from prior hunts.

Twisted Gears.

There's always hunts going on around the grid, but for some reason, fall seems to bring out the biggest and in someways, the best. Starting today a whole new set of hunts opened up including two of my favorites; Twisted and Steam Punk. Twisted has the benefit of a lot of seriously well known designers who all get to play a bit and put a slight bend in their designs, and really put their creativity to work. And Steam punk, well, I have a special place in my heart for the Steam Punk hunt: it's not so much that I use or need a lot of what is in the hunt, but it's all so damn clever! Seriously...they need an inworld museum just to show off some of the seriously amazing builds and gadgets that emerge from this hunt.

Neither hunt is limited to clothing; in truth I'd say clothing makes up less than half of twisted and even less than that of Steam Punk, but everything that you do get really is a testament to the amazingly smart dedicated people who make up the core of SL Life. But for some of what you can wear and just marvel at, stick around.

First up is#4 Mire, who always has something really fitting the themes of the hunts they participate in. Pathfinder is a full outfit except shoes, Tailcoat and ragged jacket and pants, top hat and goggles (for show) and an armband full of tools. Perfect wear for someone pushing through the rough ahead of everyone else.

22769 went a different vintage directions and fans of comic books and their long history will understand why. Enter a Vintage Captain America Tribute; red white and blue body suit, leather Baldric and belt, gloves, helmet and a shield, all to help you wage the good fight against the enemies of the post (past?) modern steampunk era. Haven't you always wanted to be a super hero?

From Twisted we get a mix of cool piercing sets from #67 .:CoLLisions:., the hand set I blogged earlier from #68 Sable Rose and for something completely different...a corn field maze from the twisted mind behind#103 Oddment. (hint: Sable Rose, .:CoLLisions:., and Oddment are all on the Gallinas sim and within walking distance of each other. TP's have been a little flakey lately so if you have trouble, you can grab all three without having to TP to the next stop.)


Guenevere DeCuir at .:CoLLisions:. offers two sets of piercings. A three pronged navel set with skull and bat wings on a chain and a torso chain set for the lower belly/hip area. She includes a set for men and women to accomodate disparity in avatar sizes and my set needed only the most minor of adjustments to fit properly. She also includes a facial tattoo called "Cracked" with a whitish base to match the metals on her piercings. It has the kind of eerie bone through skin look to it, perfectly matching the Twisted Hunt's Spooky theme.

Oddment actually has two gifts for hunters. There's an easy to find gift right by the sign that contains a crazy fun avatar that looks just like the orange twisted hunt gift box, including the rotation. It's the kind of wacky fun Helix Constantine, the creative mind behind Oddment, is known for. The other gift you will have to hunt for: it's a DIY cornfield maze complete with scarecrow emitter. You can see it underneath the shop build, so if you are looking to decorate for Halloween, Oddment gives you a massive headstart on decorations.

The last thing here isn't a hunt gift, it's a group gifts (for $1L) from LaVie to promote the soon to be released Echo skin. I really like this skin and have been waiting for the release since it was first announced. the gift comes in three versions: pale, normal, and dark and the dragon tattoo on this version is part of the skin. Goatee beard and a really nicely involved fully body and face tattoo with nice faded aged look to it. I don't know how long it will be available and you need to be a LaVie member to get it. Currently enrollment will set you back $250L but for the skin alone it's worth it, plus the other gifts Pompeja routinely sends out to the group (and occasionally membership is made free but it isn't currently. )