Standing firm on this stony ground
The wind blows hard
Pulls these clothes around
I harbour all the same worries as most
The temptations to leave or to give up the ghost
I wrestle with an outlook on life
That shifts between darkness and shadowy light
I struggle with words for fear that they’ll hear
But Orpheus sleeps on his back still dead to the world
This is the second post featuring the new Daniel skin by Swallow at the current Uber event, as well as Rising Tides, the female hair by Exile – also at Uber – and the Wrark Piercing by A:S:S, which is their prize in ‘The Blues Hunt’ for men, beginning today and running until August 31st. Lastly, come new eyes from IKON, a truly gorgeous (yes, I’m running out of superlatives) fur stole from Body Factory, and a fun Hair Fair gift from ISON.
I have just one photo for you today, because this is a rare torso-only shot from me. Usually, I try to put together a complete look from head-to-toe, but I shot this pic late last night and wanted to get it out as soon as I could, so here you have it ;-)
Starting with the skin, this is another of Swallow’s beautiful skintones. This ivory shade is almost ethereal, with perfectly-shaped brows (I use the Zero skin browshaper from Tableau Vivant, as it’s low and long, but most TabViv browshapers will give you a gorgeous effect) and the work around the eyes is absolutely par-none. Seriously, I’m wearing no makeup here. I was blown away by how beautiful the shading is around the eyes.
Of course, that’s helped by the new eyes from IKON. The Immortal series offer a double-bonus, because you get two types of eye with each purchase: ‘mortal’ (which I’m showing here) and ‘immortal’ (which takes the colouring across the sclera as well, making for a hazy look that’s perfect for fantasy avatars). Add to that the unique HUD which even lets you flip the eye textures (which, apart from general customisation, is also a great fine-tuning tool for SL photographers) and, well… you have some of the most beautiful, glassy eyes I think I’ve seen in SL.
Onto the hair! This new Rising Tides style is by Exile at the current Uber event. Ostensibly a female style, it includes optional starfish that you can wear in the braid and at the parting, but I went for without. This fits male avatars perfectly, if you forgive the slight ‘boob bump’ at the front; which, hey, for us guys just lets us wear jackets with large lapels under it, right? Or we can wear humungous fur stoles, but we’ll get to that in a second.
As always the Exile colour options are almost bewildering. Being Skell (and not wanting the loooong battle of trying to match a bright colour with my mostly-monochrome inventory) I opted for the black shades for this shoot, but not before I tried out some of the many other colour packs. This style could take you from biker to mysterious sea siren (okay, there’s no such thing as a male sea siren, but humour me, yeah?) just on the colours alone.
Aaaand now to the stole. This is from a brand new event called MIXMATCH, run by After 6 Days. You buy any item from a designer at the event, and you receive a discount HUD from the same designer to get a matching item at a reduced price in their mainstore. The items change every two weeks, and the current theme is right up my alley: black and white! Guys, there are several male items here, so it’s worth checking out. You can see a full gallery of the event items here on the Seraphim blog.
I picked up a load of stuff, but I’m featuring this beautiful lion fur stole by Body Factory. It comes in several colours, each with optional metal clasp, and the discount at the mainstore is for matching cuffs. When you edit this thing you’ll be amazed at the complexity of the mesh, which is why it looks so damn good!
Onto the piercing, and this is one of the two prizes from A:S:S in The Blues Hunt, which starts today (August 1st) and runs until August 31st (their other prize is a set of mesh eyes). It’s simple to edit (always a bonus, as I’m used to fiddling with tiny individual prims when it comes to piercings and other facial jewellery. Skell has a weirdly-shaped phiz, it would seem) and I love the mid-cheek piercing. So many chained piercings go right to the ear and, while that’s fine for the ladies, us gents usually have a deeper face and those piercings never reach our ears.
There are 50 stores participating in The Blues Hunt, run by Depraved Nation, and each prize costs L$5.
Side note: I will admit (you know me; I speak my mind on here, even when it’s bloody-minded) that I’m kind of peeved by this. There are so few hunts dedicated solely to the guys, and when one finally comes along and it’s a pay-per-prize, it sours me a little when you compare it to the literally hundreds of events mainly for the ladies that are completely free – with only the ‘exclusive’ hunts requiring a purchase of the prize.
I know it’s only a total of L$250 for everything in the hunt, but many male newb avatars use the infrequent ‘just for the guys’ hunts to kit out their avies, and many of them don’t have paid accounts (either because they refuse to spend money on ‘a game’ or they can’t afford it) so these hunts are the only way they can find quality items (emphasis there, because there are tons of always-available quality freebies for the girls, but very few for the boys) for nothing.
*sigh* Oh well, we’ll take what we can get, right? You can find a full SLurl list here on the Depraved Nation blog, or keep an eye on the ever-wonderful (as in I don’t know what I would do without it!) Seraphim blog, who will no doubt have a gallery of prizes up soon.
A quick mention of the crown, because I’m not sure if this is still available. As I was slogging through the lag at Hair Fair, I nipped into the ISON store along the way. There was no hair that I could use, but I did find a set of three mesh crowns as a free gift; matching ISON’s theme of ‘royals’ for the event, so I snapped ’em up. You might find them at the ISON mainstore, or you might not. Worth a try, mayhap?
Finally (because this post has been one image and a wall-o-text) here is a true-colour shot of the Swallow skin, because naturally I wanted to chuck some filters onto my main image. Whenever I make drastic colour adjustments to something, I’ll always give you a true-colour image at the end of the post, so here it is:
Still absolutely gorgeous and ethereal, right?
Credits
- Uber event location
- MIXMATCH event location
- The Blues Hunt blog (with SLurls)
Skin: Swallow – Daniel (ivory) [ luciayes.magic ]
– At the current Uber event
Hair: Exile – Rising Tides* [ kavar.cleanslate ]
– At the current Uber event
Eyes: IKON – Immortal (Abyss; ‘mortal’ variant shown) [ ikon.innovia ]
Stole: Body Factory – Lion Kingdom Scarf [ deco.olinger ]
– At the current MIXMATCH event
Piercing: A:S:S – Wrark Piercing* [ storm.torvalar ]
– For ‘The Blues Hunt’ for men (Aug 1st – 31st)
Crown: ISON – Royal Crown (gunmetal) [ harry.hyx ]
– Was a free gift at the (now-finished) Hair Fair 2014
Have an exquisite song. Yes, that pause at 2:23 is intentional, and so unutterably perfect.
Sleepers sleep as we row the boat
Just you the weather and I gave up hope
But all of the hurdles that fell in our laps
Were fuel for the fire and straw for our backs
Still the voices have stories to tell
Of the power struggles in heaven and hell
But we feel secure against such mighty dreams
As Orpheus sings of the promise tomorrow may bring