Surprise Surprise!

 We haven't said a whole lot about this yet, but we will be moving the store into the sky very very soon (First part of February). The store shouldn't be down long and this is what you should expect - Small dedicated boutiques for finding things more easily. We will have teleporters near every shop. There will be a dollar store, jewelry store, skin and shape store, makeup store, clothing store, dollar store (Yes, full of L$1 items!) and a texture store.

 The texture store is my old SL venture with my alt Hera. Studio Hera has been marked down tremendously, most items by more than half. So, bring your builder friends! There are even more bargains now!

  If you've noticed that new releases have been few and far between lately, that is because they will all be in these new stores. I may send the landmark to the group before the official opening. I haven't decided yet.

  Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that I don't break anything and come see us soon! The normal store will still be open til the new one is up.

 *HUGS*

A Blast From My Past - And some clothes!

  When I first came to SL with my original avatar about 5 years ago, the skin market was very... I don't know exactly how to explain it nicely, so I will say it sucked. I do remember that the top skin stores seemed to be Chip Midnight's skins, Nevermore Studios, X2 and my very favorite, Nomine!!!

  I found my first set of skins that didn't make me look at myself and shudder there. It was also one of my favorite places to shop for clothes for a long while. I guess you grow out of everything. After I got a bit burnt out on the gothy style I visited Nomine less and less, but I'd still stop in a few times a year to see if there was anything new anda mazing.

 I went a long while without paying a visit this time. I wish I'd gone sooner because I was VERY pleasantly surprised the first time I ventured there after over a year.

  There was the new Mosaic skin line. Mind you, I only buy "pure/bare/nude" skins, but I went crazy picking those up. The Mosaic skin line is dramatic, a bit bitchy and pretty all at once. Right now they are only L$100. There are lots of makeups available for them, but I just wear my own =). Here is one of the skins. I forgot which tone this is though... I have them all!

This skin screams "I am a brat, but I am hot and I can get away with it." 

 If the Mosaic skin isn't enough, I visited again and Nomine's Papillon skin line was there. I guess that was also new. It's also currently on sale for 100L per skin also. I picked up every tone. I didn't feel like showing every face this time, but here are some samples.

In my opinion, Papillon has more of a sweet, but sophisticated look.

 One thing I have always appreciated about Nomine skins is that they seem to work well with a variety of shapes. I am wearing a softer shape I may release later and these are the results.

She has a lil meat on her bones and the shading doesn't look ridiculous. Most skin designers can't/don't pull that off without making the belly look undershaded.

   Last, but not least, Nomine nude skins work beautifully with my makeup layers! That is a big factor in whether or not I purchase a skin. The faces on the skins are detailed so nicely without being overdone. Anything would work well with them!

This is shown with my Tribal Mistique eye makeup in Club and Baby Kisses Lips in Fuschia Craze.

 Convinced yet? Go visit Nomine and pick up some pretty new skins already!

 THE END

YOKO HATES FACELIGHTS!

  I have told my partner, my friends, my enemies, my customers, FACELIGHTS SUCK. Wanna know why they suck?

  This is normal me without some blingtard standing in front of me with a facelight set to 20 radius or what the hell ever.
(I am using a windlight setting. It makes me, everybody that isn't wearing a face light, and most every thing very visible and clean looking.)

Note that I am wearing a pale skin and I think Maitreya, where I was hair shopping has some lighting, but as you can see, there is no weird contrast from everything else, no spotlight, minimal glare. This can be customized to your preferences!

Ok, well, before this I was standing near a girl and it made me look like

THIS!!!!!

I have heard of a glowing complexion, but I don't think this is how it was meant to be. Mind you, this is not the worst face light I have ever come across, but LOOK! This is also a hassle when I am working. Some player comes up to me and stands nearby. My face is instantly washed out. I have to leave edit appearance, my pose or whatever i am doing and actually walk away to avoid them.

In almost every non-standard viewer (Phoenix, Kirstens, Imprudence etc..) There are a selection of windlight settings already installed. They can be accessed by going to World > Environment (Or similar) and Sky Settings or Environment Settings. Good "starter" clean windlight settings are analu studio 8, CalWL, and AnaluAvatarOptWhiter. All of these aren't in every viewer, but you should be able to find one of the above.

Often you will find a windlight setting in  notecards included with skins as well, but you must set these by hand or use resources included with your viewer to obtain/install them.

I change my settings up a bit quite often, though I generally stick with the analu AvatarOptWhiter. If you are ready to dive into editing your settings head first, here is Gogo's windlight tutorial from juicybomb.com. I looked around for others that got the point across, but this is the easiest to follow and best by far.

Gogo's Updated Windlight Tutorial

Go ahead! Give it a try. You won't be sorry.

THE END

Makeup Your Mind!!!!

  DISCLAIMER: Before anyone gets all butthurt, I am not criticizing the quality of any of the skins mentioned here. I adore even the ones I have a complaint with. That's why I am posting!

 Although I make skins, I do invest in quite a few skins of other brands because A. I admire them B. It gets awfully boring seeing the same faces in my ads.
 The biggest no no for me is buying skins that have too much eye makeup. If the skin is more than about L$100 and I cannot cover the eyes with a simple eyeshadow that's pretty much a no go for me no matter how much I admire it. I want my customers to see the makeup as it truly is and I don't like garbled-looking makeup.

 One of the designers that inspired me to write this article was Glam Affair. I adore their skins, but I have limited myself to buying their L$70 skins from The Dressing Room because honestly, they had far far far too much eye makeup to be useful to me.

 I was going to go grab some demos and show examples, instead I found some of their newest skins. YOKO IS HAPPY!

 I have always vowed that if they ever made a skin with minimal eye makeup that I would buy it. I did and I am extremely pleased!

 Castalia has almost no eye makeup and would you believe it?  The darkest tone is beautiful and has no orange undertones. I love having a bunch of ethnicities to choose from when I make my ads, so Castalia is like striking gold!

Here she is with no makeup and with my Shadow Rock eyeshadow and Big Mama lips.

Isn't she pretty?!

I guess I will alternate happiness with mild disappointment. 

  Elle by Belleza has been a go-to skin for me for a very long time. They can really be "dressed up". I was so excited about the release of Erika. It's a beautiful skin, but I won't be purchasing one.  

  I got the much appreciated group gift and went to their store to purchase a "clean eye" version. I figured that the gigantic eyelashes on the group gifts were to keep people from getting too creative with the makeup layers or make them want others.

 WRONG!!!

 Every single Erika skin has eyelashes halfway to the eyebrows as seen above. I showed this skin with one of my Bewitching eye makeups. This shadow is pretty big and as you can see, the lashes still stick out of it oddly. I suppose some stuff could be used with it, but any tattoo layer is going to look funky with it. If this is an attempt at making makeups "proprietary" then it works. I am not wearing this. It's a shame. I liked the skin otherwise.

     O.K. Time for more happy!

 I now own um... 8 Dutch Touch skins. Recently they began offering skin "starter packs" which include tons of brow, hairbase, cleavage and freckle options. Even their older skins have a good clean natural version, but the starter packs? Iki Ikarus is a genius! They offer lovely tattoo layers fitted perfectly for their skins without screwing the skins up in a way that other brands of makeup won't work with them. Also, their freckle and beauty mark options are delicious!

Here are the Dutch Touch skins I own, both old and new!

Left to Right: Josje (Cocoa) Yri (Caramel) Eefje (Porcelain) Fay (Olive) Megan (Cream) Mensje (Caramel)

I actually own Fay in the group-discounted Honey tone as well. Megan in Cream is another group discounted skin. I most definitely recommend the Dutch Touch group if you like their skins a lot. After the initial $250 fee, they are fairly regularly releasing new group discounted skins for just L$400. They are as nice as the others, but in an exclusive tone. 

I got the group tag "I Touch Dutch" I think at this point mine should say "I stalk and rampantly molest Dutch".

  I think DT has entered the future by offering Mensje with a "no brow" version. I can't wait to figure out how to make stick on brows!

Allright time to complain again...

 I have loved LAQ skins since way back in the day when they were called RAC. I do own a fair few of their skins, but every time I leave with one I go with a bad taste in my mouth. My purchases are becoming fewer and further between. Not because of quality. I am never disappointed with a Laq skin. But i HATE not having the option to buy just 1 skin. I will never use 9 of the 10. I am getting a bad value at nearly L$2000. 

 Even if i DID want that many makeups, there are so many in the pack that are hardly different. See below.

  I make makeup, I know how hard it is. REALLY some of these are just smudges and lip tints. Not worth it.
  What I would like to see is a single skin pack with some big ol boobies (cleavage, preferably attached so that I don't accidently remove it.) maybe a few eyebrow colors and a few hairbases. If I wanted the "total package" with a new hair base color, good boobies and the skin , right now I would be out about $2700.
 No matter how beautiful the skins are. That's insane!!! I'm sure some people pay it, but WHY? Couldn't LAQ provide us with value? I mean, I am not saying that they should be cheap! These are fine, beautiful skins. Just for L$2000 please give me something I can use!
 Of course creators have the absolute right to charge whatever they want. I have the absolute right to wish and be a little peeved too =).

There are many brands we Glamorize Girls use to display makeup. Here are some with SLURLs.
LAQ
Chaisuki
Tuli
League
Dutch Touch
Curio - Beware of huge lips!
Nomine

All of these skin brands have a nude skin. Prices vary, but Nomine is the least expensive of this list.

THE END

Stop Thief!

    Today I wandered into a shopping area that will remain nameless to use their Virwox terminal. I saw something pretty and of course went over to look at it. I had to answer the call of nature and do a couple of other things and as usual, I left myself at the area so that I could check it out when I got back.
  
      I returned to our store in a little while, promptly crashed, stayed logged out for about 15 minutes to play Tetris. When I logged in I had this message waiting for me.

<Person's name deleted> (Saved Wed Jan 19 10:01:14 2011)Ahh, so that's why you were at <Store Name Deleted> Jewlery store....your partner makes flower jewelry too. Be careful, though as those are RL designs from her RL business....so she can go leagl very easily

  I blew up! As against copybotting and violations of IP rights as I am, Some random person, not even the owner of this store, jumps my crap for no good reason.

   This isn't the first time I have heard of it, but it is the first time that it has happened to me. I know that Coco has been yelled at for "standing around" in a skin store and for being at another at all! (She wore the skin she purchased at #2 for quite a while anyway. Forgiving soul, that Coco).

  I know that people are paranoid, they have every right to be. Linden Labs doesn't have a great track record when it comes to fixing the stolen content problem. But nobody has a right to suggest I would steal from them. I go shopping all the time, at much finer stores than this one. None of the owners ever run me down and accuse me of being a potential thief!

  So anyway, I explained that I had been using the terminal and that I had just decided to take a look at this jewelry store and that I didn't appreciate being treated like a potential thief. (I also sent a notecard to the owner of the store. I figured she didn't want her normal customer flow to be accused of this just because they ran a store.)

  Mind you, every item on the wall in this place was displayed with some of the very first ripped skins to ever go around SL, Dresses from resell packs that were actually early thefts from designers and old skool ripped hair. Total blast from the past! I was further insulted by being accused of trying to steal products marketed in such a way.

  This girl... or whatever it was, contacted me again. "<Other person's name> Says there is no record of the Virwox terminal being used all day!" As far as I know only the owner of the terminal gets this data. So I asked "you talked to euroslex?" she replies, "No but <Person's name> said that there were no transactions with it. I know at this point I should have reported her, not explained myself, but I got the very recent transaction history of my deposit into Virwox and pasted it to her. I threatened to report her and she finally understood and apologized.

 Most people can get by with a simple mute. I'm sure others will disagree, but if you run a store, you want to know what's going on in a situation like this. People have a way of spreading chaos reaaaal fast, even little prejudiced buttholes.

 I guess I overreacted to all of this a bit, but it was enough to make me feel terrible for a lot of the day and assure that even if the woman's ads stop looking like badly made up drag queens, that I will NOT purchase the stuff.

 I guess I wrote this here in case any of you ever get this treatment. You are not alone. Even Yoko gets accused of content theft now and then!

THE END