I’ve been sorting through my Inventory in odd moments lately, partly to just clear out over three years of deadwood, demos and Stuff I Can’t Believe I Bought. But it was also to find things I’d lost or forgotten about. And I have been successful.
The backward horns you see on my head in the above are not horns; they are my hair — well, as much as anything is really my hair in Second Life. But it’s one of the earliest wigs I still own, and one of my most prized — Covet by Sinsation. You all know my love for wild hair if you’re long-time readers of this blog. Well, Sinnocent Mirabeau, now CallaLily Munster, was one of the reasons I started going for the wilder styles. Her old store, sadly now closed for a year or so, had some of the most amazing hairstyles I’ve ever seen, and the ones I own are prized keepsakes. Sinny took the idea of looped braids here in Covet, and basically set off a stick of dynamite in each braid, while containing the explosion inside a set of hoops. To some, it looks like I’m wearing three old tires on my head; to me and to all True Coiffuristas, the effect is fantastic and exotic.
There is one small drawback, though, that comes when I’m sitting in something like a conversation pit, as I was at the University of South Denmark:
Venus, by CallaLily Munster, back when she was Sinnocent Mirabeau of Sinsation
…but not as Sinnocent Mirabeau. And thereby hangs a tale, for the creator of the wild, insane, over-the-top-beautiful prim hair I adore so much was having sixteen tons of trouble with Linden Lab, who for some reason did strange things to her stock and permissions. She couldn’t edit her own creations, as I recall. I’m not sure whether she left the Grid some time back, or the Grid threw her out at the end; but now she’s returning…under a new name, CallaLily Munster, and with a new business plan.
Gone are the prim creations, according to a comment she dropped today on an old article I wrote about her. Instead, she’ll be displaying pictures of those hairstyles, as executed in the Real World!! Included will be information on how you can contact her for similar, or for custom work. I’ll keep in touch with Calla (I’ll still think of her as Sinnocent), and give you the word when her store opens. In the meantime, let’s think good thoughts, and maybe we can persuade her to start doing (supposedly) NPIRL hair in Second Life again!
The cold spell that ripped through my region of RL last week reminded me of things named Ice Princess that have been sitting in my Inventory for a while, and are no longer available for sale…because the stores are gone. (Since these are impossible to obtain anymore, I’ll pass on giving my usual details list at the bottom.)
This dress, from Fornever, could be worn by itself, without the headdress, but I decided to go for it…and to add to it. I had to adjust the skirt, and I’m not sure I got it completely “there,” but the ice blue color and the diamanté trim on the bodice above the bust give the look I’m seeking, of ice glittering on an arctic sea.
The hair is by Sinsation, and (sadly) is also no longer available. The Japanese headdress belongs actually to the dress, but the stars are part of the hairstyle; I edited them to turn on light radiation (and promptly screwed up my studio lighting with the extra light sources). Topping it is this luscious skin from Redgrave with the ice-blue makeup!
Shiryu Musashi (of Milan), the owner of Musashi-do, dropped a box of bikinis on me recently, and I gave some of them a test run. Shiryu’s been studying at a fashion academy in addition to his in-world work, and I think the product, here and in some smashing dresses he has, show the effects of that study.
These are my six best photos from my session. Notice, by the way, picture 3 (the last on the top row). No, I didn’t make a mistake there; those are tan lines. This series includes “garments” that simulate tan lines at three different levels of intensity. Each different package also includes all the layers you could possibly desire for any situation, as well as any needed “hardware,” such as rings, laces, etc. This was the one problem I had, the rings on the first bikini needed to be tweaked into position — a not uncommon situation, though. (Do note, however, that the ring on the top in the Seaside Crescent series uses an attachment point sometimes used by necklaces. You may need to work around this, depending on what jewelry you wear.)
Each bikini style comes in a variety of print colors, and also in solids, as you can tell from just the small sample I put here. I think my favorite out of the batch might have been picture 5, but I also like No. 6 as well. Ah, joy; more and more in the inventory…. When will I ever get it cleared out, what with all the good stuff I have in there, like these bikinis…?
Most of my fashion sessions are in gowns; and I’ll admit that I love the swirl of silk and satin about me at night. (Which is a good thing, since Frank’s Place (SLurl, other articles) is my favorite club in Second Life.) “Gowns” is probably the second largest item in my Inventory after “Hair.”
But let’s face it; it isn’t nighttime all the time. (Unless you keep your environment settings locked on “sunset” or “evening.”) You gotta have the sun as well as the moon, the yang as well as the yin. And you can look just as good in casuals as you can in a floaty Nicky Ree or Baiastice.
There’s a lovely little coffeehouse in Rainforest Isle Estates called the Drip ‘n Grind. I like to pop in there once in a while when I’m not hanging out of a morning at the Blarney Stone. Not the place for a gown, most times of the day; it’s not a “rough” neighborhood, of course (who’d set up a coffeehouse in the Badlands?), but this wasn’t anywhere near after-club clubbin’ time, when you’d stop in for a cuppa joe and some pie or eggs Benedict. So something a little more casual is called for.
(I might as well just declare this a hair blog; an awful lot of stories are about hairstyles lately (Grin).)
Anyway, I was doing some hair shopping today after discovering a new style on Flickr, and I went in to Sky Everett’s store. Sky’s probably best known for her furniture collection, which is luxurious; but she also does Big Hair, and I’m a slave to Big Hair if anything. I had seen one of my contacts wearing her new Rivenspire piece, and so went to get it. But, while there, I found a Marie Antoinette style (which I’ve lost the name for; watch here for a correction). Sky certainly knows how to charge for her hairstyles — nearly L$1,000 — but after seeing all the work that went into the wig, I can’t fault her too much. I bit the budgetary bullet and bought it.
Then I clicked for Edit, just to look and see what the structure was, and I caught sight of the number of prims in this style, and I just about fell on the floor. No wonder some styles can lag a region if they’re worn! But then I started thinking about some of the other big styles I already have, and did a quick comparison….
The first is Sky’s new style, in its most basic version out of three. (I didn’t take time to switch the backgrounds on my new photo studio, so I didn’t wear the one with the black feathers.) This version contains 105 prims. A basic bob haircut runs around 40-50 prims, so this looks like a whopper of a hairstyle. The more elaborate version actually is higher — 188 prims. It has feathers, as I noted, and a few extra gewgaws.
But then take a look at photo 2, the ever-lovin’ Venus from Sinsation you’ve seen me in so many times before (yawn). I checked the load on that one —
247 prims.
I’m glad I didn’t wear Venus at the first day of Hair Fair!
Gentle readers, if you have some extra lindens in your pockets, I’ve heard of a fellow avatar in need.
Sinnocent Mirabeau, the owner of Sinsation Hair in Hairspray, sent out a notecard with good news and bad news. Since the note is public (she has a dispenser in her store), I reproduce it here to let her tell it in her own words:
Hi everyone.
It is with a heavy heart that I write this, but I figure my crisis and personal heartache can maybe have something good come out of it. Hopefully for myself and for all the people in SL who like my hair or skins and want to get 2 for the price of one.
Anyways, here’s the deal. I normally hold sales like this every few months just for kicks and as a fun way to get people even more hair than they’d normally be able to purchase on their own. However, this sale is of great importance to me for other reasons.
A week ago my 9 month old baby puppy, Eris, (even tho she’s not so little anymore) started to have a mass growing in her ear. I thought she had just gotten bitten by something outside and it would clear up in a few days. Well that didn’t happen. In fact, the mass got about 8x bigger. So I took her to the vet yesterday and got the worst possible news.
She didn’t get bitten; she has a tumor and a hematoma forming in her ear and she needs surgery to remove it. Otherwise it will just get bigger and bigger and will either.. rupture… get badly infected…. and most likely both will happen.. and the infection the doc said will eventually kill her.. sooner rather than later.
The even worse news is exactly how much it’s going to cost to save her… Which is $1447.00 US. I was in shock when given that figure because it is just not a price I can even close to afford. I’m getting married in RL in September to my sl hubby and I’ve had to put most of my money towards that for deposits and all the other wedding junk that I need.
The irony is that she was my engagement present, and now… my wedding is the thing that has taken up all my money and put me in this spot. Blah…
So at any rate I’ll get right to the point.. I have a very little window of time in order to raise the money to save her.. so I decided I would do a buy one get one free sale in order to try and help to get some of the money for her surgery.
Everything in my shop is eligible for the sale, nothing at all is excluded. The basic idea is whatever you buy.. you get something of equal or lesser value.. free.
So if you buy a skin you can get a skin free or a couple hairs, doesnt matter. Anything goes.
All you have to do is purchase what you want, then send me a notecard with what you purchased and which items you would like to receive free. I will send them on out to you after that.
I suspect anyone who likes outrageous hair knows of Sinsation. If you’ve seen some of my Flickr photos, you’ve seen me sporting Sinnocent’s work. It’s good, and I want to throw my support behind her. I’ve already done so materially; I purchased a fatpack for £5,000, and I’ve requested a £3,500 fatpack as my freebie. Drop yourself into Hairspray region, step over to the pink palace you’ll see when you materialize, and let’s help out a fellow traveler and good designer.
Second Life® with Harper, Conan, Jem, Diana and Morgan
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