Billy Beaverhausen
What's this? What's happening? What's going on?
Another Fairy Day – Episode 12
There is something about underwear items with a bit of metal detailing that makes me want to put it on a fairy. The new Adrian chain thong by Noche is just such an item and worn with the also new Adrian chain harness it maks a very striking sexy fairy outfit, for those fairies who like to show a bit of skin… Well, lots of skin.
Finian’s Foraois was just the place to let my fairy flag fly. It’s mystically misty and magically moody. The forest is home to fairies, centaurs, and much abundant wildlife, not to be confused with abandoned wildlife, which is what I call myself on a bad day.
Wandering around in the castle made me feel ever so slightly naughty, as if I wasn’t quite supposed to be there and I realy liked it. It’s rather maze-Iike, which makes it very suitable for a good old snoop. I’m told there’s also a tavern here somewhere, but it’s always good to keep something for another visit. Having recently returned to work and the actual office instead of the home office after a couple of weeks off, I’m trying to take the same approach to my work load. It’s always good to leave some for the next day, right? Or the next week for that matter!
Credits
- Both
- Noche Adrian Chain Thong and Adrian Chain Harness, both at Fameshed until October 27th and at the main store after the October round of this even has ended. The thong and harness are rigged for Belleza Jake and Legacy. Fatbacks are available with a generous range of texture options. Single colour versions of the thong include some texture options for the chain.
- PFC Fae wings
- Mandala Steking Ears Season 5
- Redhead fairy:
- Belleza Jake mesh body
- Catwa Victor mesh head
- Stray Dog Erwin skin for Catwa + Stray Dog body skin for Belleza Jake, skin tone #4, using BOM, facial hair comes with the head
- Noche mesh nipples
- Billy shape
- Modulus Adrian hair
- Nexus body hair A02 and leg hair L01
- Noche Roman gold cuffs (part of a Roman accessories set)
- Brown-haired fairy
- Legacy Meshbody
- Lelutka Alain mesh head
- Clef De Peau Allan skin + CDP body skin for Legacy, skintone #5, using BOM, body hair option included with skin, hairbase, facial hair and brows come with the head
- Stealthic Reach hair
- Grant shape
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Halloween with David 2021
All hallows eve will soon(ish) be upon us and the Second Life™ spookiness is in full swing. It was rather inevitable that this month’s blog post with the NX-Nardcotix David mesh body was going to be Halloween themed.
I revived last year’s creepy yet kinda cute pumpkin head look for David and sent him on a date with Mr. Bonesie. The Pumpkin Head can be purchased at Birth and is part of the L$60 Happy Weekend this coming… ahum… weekend (cue the dowager countess: “what is a weekend?”).
The “Bonesie” skull is currently a group gift at Birth and the bloody axe is also a gift from Birth at the Shop N Hop Halloween event. Mr. Bonesie is wearing a waistcoat, shirt, gloves and trousers all by Contraption. They haven’t got a huge range of menswear at Contraption, but every piece they have is a well executed classic garment from the… Victorian era? You don’t even need a mesh body or head with this look, just an alpha that covers your system body.
Meanwhile Mr. Pumpkin Head is nicely filling out the L&B Swear Havoc Leather pants; quite nicely indeed (use the Signature size and play with your shape to make them fit). If you want to take a closer look at the items in that outfit, you can go back to last year’s blog post, it’s still fresh. I did switch things up with the tattoo this year and David is wearing Ancient Soul by IDTTY. I had a quick look around at their store and couldn’t find this specific tattoo, but frak me sideways and call it a Tuesday, they have a lot of tattoos! Enough to break out in a sweat. Seriously, don’t go there if you have an issue with making choices. You’ll be a puddle!
A favourite fantasy look of mine is that of a angel who has newly fallen to earth and just grabbed an old coat he found somewhere to wrap around him. The coat is an old gacha item from Gabriel. As you know, all gachas have now been retired, but you can still find second-hand gacha items on Marketplace. Simply search for “wrap around coat” and you may get lucky. I’m just happy that I can wrap the TMP size of this item round David without glitching through it. Only my left leg goes through a bit during walking, but why walk when you can fly. With some downsizing and shifting the family jewels, I could probably make David more or less anatomically correct under that makeshift skirt. I chose to wear the NX-Nardcotix Darrel briefs and Mecatl sandels.
If you don’t particularly want to wear a costume but do like the idea of wearing something in keeping with the Halloween theme, I may have found just the thing on Marketplace. It’s a layered long-sleeved t-shirt named “Til Death“, with a romantic skeleton print. It’s only L$99, includes a bunch of colour options and comes in David’s own size. I’d forgotten that my Troy shape has a slightly redunkulous caboose. In this case it makes the shirt stand out too much in the back for my liking, but it’s an issue you’ll notice with other shirts and bodies too. I guess I’ll have to suck some of the fat out of his buttocks and inject it somewhere else or gift it to one of the Kardashians.
I didn’t have to think long about the trousers I wanted to wear with this shirt. I kept it simple and pulled the NX-Nardcotix Finlay Cargos out of the wardrobe. The beanie is a nice finishing touch for this urban outfit and I think you can still find that one for free at Kalback at the moment (October 2021) as a gift for the L’Homme Magazine group (free to join).
Some more credits
Clearing Out the Wardrobe – Episode 11
Every now and again I scroll down my long list of outfits and look at one of the older ones to see what I can do to update it. This is the concept of my Clearing Out the Wardrobe series.
Today I’m updating an outfit that used the old TMP Deluxe mesh body and head. As a replacement I’m using the Classic Meshbody and Lelutka Guy mesh head as shown in my latest budget friendly blog post. While the shape of the old TMP body of course could already be altered, there wasn’t much you could do with their mesh heads in those pre-bento days. Hasn’t Second Life™ become much more fun now that we can shape and mold mesh heads to our heart’s content?
I rather liked the Huntsman jacket by Cold Ash back in its day. I’m sure someone could make a more sophisticated version of this now, but I haven’t found one and I really wanted to stick with that lumberjack vibe, so I recycled it and simply chose another texture. At L$299 for a pack that includes three colours for the jacket and shirt, it’s not a bad deal. I don’t know how well this jacket would behave with any other body, but it includes a TMP size so it works reasonably well with the Classic Meshbody. If anyone knows of a newer, better executed version of this kind of jacket, please let me know in the comments.
Those trousers were really outdated! The Holloway ripped jeans by Cold Ash are a huge improvement and while the previous sneakers weren’t too bad, the Deadwool Chase sneakers remain a winner in the shoe department as far as I’m concerned, even if they are not the newest thing out there. Last but not least the Stealthic Psycho hair with beanie is a great upgrade from what I was previously using as well. Check out my previous blog post “For a Little Less – Episode 7” for all the details on the head, body and Birth skin, including some tips on where to get freebies. The colourful atmospheric autumnal sim I’ve used for this photoshoot is Nelipot.
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For a Little Less – Episode 7
It’s been a long time since I’ve last done a blog post focusing on getting the most avatar bang for my Linden buck. In episode 6 I showed a free mesh head by Logo, but sadly that was a temporary offer. In episode 7 I went for a genuan bargain hunt, featuring a group gift mesh head by Alantori, which is still available today. For this episode I’m kicking things of with something for those of you who want to elevate their appearance beyond the standard Second Life™ avatar, but still feel a bit squeamish about pumping cash into this virtual world.
I headed over to [DNA/BROX] to check out their range of full mesh avatars and skins that are all just L$1 each and I purchased the Brox mesh avatar and No. 9 skin. The body doesn’t come with an alpha hud, instead you get a folder with wearable alpha layers which will hide parts of your body to help you with wearing mesh clothing. Alternatively, if the item of clothing you’re trying to wear includes its own alpha layer, you may want to use that instead. I made a quick visit to Fitch to pick up a free pack of applier clothing so I could give our chap a pair of boxers to “protect his modesty”. Everything is free at Fitch and while I was there I grabbed a lot of stuff. I’ve put together this and that from said free stuff (a skin, eyes, beard, hair base, overalls, sneakers), wacked on the free group gift hair from Modulus and played with the shape for a bit. You can see the result of that exercise in the middle and on the right of the collage above. Not too bad for an almost freebie, right? So in summation, I wouldn’t want to pay much for this avatar but it is worth the L$1. To be clear, while I did also pay the extra L$1 for the skin, you can definitely find yourself some free skins to use with this body, though the fingers and toes probably will look gnarly… less gnarly than those on the system body though. If you REALLY don’t want to put ANY money into Second Life, there’s an interesting page on How to Earn Linden Dollars you may want to check out. I’d strongly urge you not to go begging for that L$1.
For the second look we’re going with a larger budget. We’re starting off with the free Classic Meshbody. I say free, but you do need L$1 to grab it and I’m not sure if this is one of those cases were the money is immediately refunded while the items is being delivered. To this body we add the Lelutka Guy mesh head. This is one of the two older male mesh heads you’ll find a little bit tucked away in a corner at the Lelutka store. While of course Lelutka’s newer Evo X mesh heads offer a much better (invisible) neck seam with certain mesh bodies and plenty of extra bells and whistles, the Guy mesh head is currently lower priced at L$2,700, (Evo X heads are L$3,990). Wear LeLutka.Alpha.Head&Body.BOM that comes with the head to hide the system eyes otherwise it’ll look like an eyelid lift gone wrong.
Birth has some nice skins that look good on the older Lelutka mesh heads, especially Guy. The Ripley skin I’m using here is L$650 and includes a hairbase and several beard options. Birth’s skin for the Legacy Meshbody is L$450 and can be used successfully with the Classic Meshbody. Obviously you’ll need to use the BOM skin, as there is no applier that works with the Classic Meshbody. You will have to live with a visible neck seam, depending on the Windlight™ you’re using. The good news is that from some angles and in some windlights it’s hardly visible at all.
The eyes I’m using are by Avi-Glam and are a personal favourite of mine. They’re called Solstice eyes, cost L$350 and include an applier you can use on the mesh eyes that come with the Lelutka head. It’s worth joining the Avi-Glam group, as the joining fee is only L$10 and you’ll get a bunch of nice free eyes for that, as well as a 10% discount on every purchase. This means you already earn that joining fee back if you purchase the Solstice eyes (group discount price is L$315).
My hair is Knox by Exile and it’s a special two-toned free version until further notice, related to the Stay At Home SL campaign. I’ve made the Trevor shape for this specific head and body combo and priced it at L$99, instead of my more usual L$199. This brings the total for this look to L$4,225. You can of course swap out the eyes for one of the free group gifts at Avi-glam, then spend L$199 on the Metallic thong at Noche and still have a bit of spare cash left over.
For look No. 3 we’re sticking with the Classic Meshbody and Lelutka Guy head and are zipping over to Stray Dog where you’ll find a bewildering range of skins. Many of them are for Catwa, Lelutka Evo and Evo X mesh heads. To make sure you get a skin that works the best with the Lelutka Guy mesh head, you need to look for skins that show the old Lelutka compatible logo. There is some information on the vendor for each skin that tells you if it was specifically made for Lelutka Guy. Alternatively you can always demo a skin that was made for Lelutka Evo heads and see what it looks like. That’s the general rule in SL anyway: demo as if your life depends on it baby! I can tell you though that any skin that’s been made for Evo X heads will not work.
I am using Stray Dog’s Jeffrey skin for Lelutka Guy, which is L$590. I’m really digging the more mature look and the optional beard that’s included. Even when you’re using a BOM skin, you can still use an applier on top of that as well, like for example one of the standard freckle options you’ll find in the HUD of the Lelutka head. Stray Dog’s skin for the Legacy Meshbody is L$499, is suitable for the Classic Meshbody and comes with options like freckles, body hair and tan lines. The same remark I made earlier about the neck seam visibility holds true for this Stray Dog skin as well. Take it or leave it or upgrade to a more expensive avatar. For the eyes I went with one of the Avi-Glam group gifts this time, more specifically the Mellow eyes. These eyes include an applier for Lelutka Evo eyes, which doesn’t work on this head. Luckily they also include mesh eyes, so you can use these instead of the eyes that come with the head and move them into place till you get the best fit. The shape is the same as I used for the previous look, priced at L$99. This brings the total for this look to L$3,899.
The Essential Jockstrap by Noche is L$299 and is one of the few older underwear items still left that work with the Classic Meshbody. This goes back to the days when this body was known as TMP (hence the title of one of the sub series in my blog: “What’s Eating TMP?”).
Right, before I love ya and leave ya, I’ll send you on your way with some outfit ideas.
A few years ago Kauna retired from their clothing designing activities in SL, but left behind a wealth of goodies to pick up for free. I’m wearing the Novus Suit, Monk Strap Shoes and Safety Glasses all from the Kauna collection. The suit includes a TMP size and is fitmesh, which means you can adjust your shape and the suit will adjust with it. I felt it made my avatar look chunkier in the middle than when he’s naked, so I reduced the love handles and saddle bags. Make sure you click Save As and not Save when you do this kind of shape editing, so you don’t use the shape that looks good naked… If only someone had given me that advise in real life!
Gabriel have areas at their main store for older items that have been discounted to L$1 or L$50. Look for items with the symbol for either The Mesh Project or The Mesh Project Classic Body. Once you’ve unpacked the box, you need to look for anything that has TMP in the name. Even at these bargain prices you can still get a demo first, in case you want to try on something that doesn’t seem to have the TMP size. I thought the Buckle Strap Pants (includes a pair of boots) and Leather Short Hoodie made a particularly striking combo at L$1 each. It’s an especially good outfit for showing off some ink. Tattoos are rather easy to snatch up for free in Second Life™.
It’s a bit early for the group gift Christmas sweatpants by Ascend, but the holiday season will be there before we know it. There’s a L$25 joining fee for the group, but the sweatpants are worth it and after all this I needed something to crash down with.
That’s it for now but maybe I’ll do another episode in the not so far future with the Lelutka Andrea mesh head, showing different skins and a couple of outfits again. Cheerio-ho-ho-ho. Damn it! The Christmas sweatpants got to me.
Sci-fi roll play in Seconde Life™
Noche recently released a latex version of their Jack Crop Vest. Noche’s Jack Latex Singlet includes a slightly looser version that allows for something to be worn underneath, like this crop vest. Together they make for a rather stunning “uniform”. The obvious setting for this kind of outfit would be a (fantasy) wrestling ring, but I thought I’d go for something a bit more science fiction and give my guys a goofy looking retro style ray gun. It kinda works, right? I mean sure, you didn’t see a lot of latex in Star Trek, but some of the outfits were definitely provocative.
If you are into roleplay or simply enjoy a sci-fi environment, make sure to check out the Cyber and Sci-Fi roleplay sections in the Destination Guide. You’re bound to find something there that tickles your fancy among the mix of moderate and adult futuristic sims. Personally, for photography purposes I was drawn to the preview image for Cocoon. When I hit the ground at this landmark, I immediately got the impression that this sim is taking roleplay quite seriously, but you are allowed to visit as a guest without fully emmerging in it. Cocoon is a space station and, in the words of the destination guide: “a medium-sized commercial hub that has grown exponentially in the past decade, home to mega-corporations, crime syndicates, and much more.” This sim manages to be both bold and colourful and yet quite moody and positively reeks of shady deals, which would be a good name for a perfume. It seemed only right to parole the streets in our “uniform”, which is a good-ish segue to the credits. First though, I’ll remind you that I now have a Patreon page so if you feel like showing your appreciation, you can sign up and get the occasional extra image. For this blog post I’ve made an extra naughty (NSFW) image for my Patrons, featuring a thong and crotchless jockstrap by Noche.
- Noche Jack Latex Crop Vest, Jack Latex Singlet and Bill Essential Gloves
- Semller Platform Brit Boots (the green ones on the left)
- Gutchi Super Boots (the purple ones on the right)
- Ray Gun by Silent Sparrow
- The Forge Cyber Visor (old L’Homme Magazine gift, still avaible)
- Both avatars are using the Lelutka Alain mesh head and Legacy mesh body
- Red head is using Stray Dog Hikaru skin for Lelutka + their body skin for Legacy, Exile Knox hair (includes hairbase) and Grant shape. Brows, freckles and beard all come with the head.
- Brunette is using Clef De Peau Allan skin + their body skin for Legacy, Stealthic Reach hair, Avi-Glam Solstice eyes applied on the mesh eyes that come with the head. Hair base and brows come with the head. The shape for this one is also Grant… They’ve got that interesting “boyfriends that look like brothers” thing going on. Oy vey, AND they work together too! It’s a bit much.
L’Homme Magazine Group gifts
The latest edition of L’Homme Magazine, arguably SL’s most popular quarterly male fashion magazine, was published in August (2021). Personally I like to leave it until we’re into the second month of the quarter before I start looking for the gifts that come with each edition of the magazine. Quite often not all creators who are kindly donating a gift, have put it out yet on the day the magazine is published. Even though we’re rapidly approaching the end of September, some creators still seem to have no gift available. Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk, especially when the milk wasn’t there to be spilled yet. Let’s look at some of the gifts I could find.
I’m also using this as an opportunity to continue the Belleza Jake mesh body and Lelutke Skyler mesh head tutorial. From Vendetta we’re getting the Milan Skin for Lelutka Evo X mesh heads. Remember to switch to Evo X in the HUD for your Lelutka head if after putting on the skin your face is all over the place.
Typically you will not get a body skin for Belleza Jake or any other mesh body with this kind of gift. You can either purchase it separately from Vendetta or you can use Belleza’s own body skin. Keep in mind that the face skin needs to go on top of the body skin, otherwise you’ll get a very bad neck seam. Either you put on the body skin first and then add the face skin or if you’re already wearing these the wrong way round, you can edit your outfit (click on the button with the wrench) and when you hover over an item in the list, you’ll see an arrow that lets you move it up a position. I think that with some skins it doesn’t matter much in which order you wear the layers, but with this Vendetta skin it definitely does.
Right, now it’s time to start embellishing! The hair base can be found in the Unpack – HAIRBASES – lel EvoX BOM (m) folder and the freckles are in the Unpack – ADDONS – lel EvoX BOM folder. I’m also wearing the HD beard that comes with the head. And now for some more L’Homme Magazine group gifts:
- Chang Face Tattoo for Lelutka EVO X by Mister Razzor
- Mesh Unisex Chain TYLER by OPOPOP
- Satellite Earings by Archivefaction
- Ring by Realevil Industries
- Dual Pants by Bakaboo
The backdrop I’ve used here is a group gift from Minimal and it reminded me I should mention that L’Homme Magazine isn’t “just” about fashion, it usually has some smashing interior design editorial pages too, so it’s no surprise that there are also gifts for in and around your virtual home. Sometimes there may even be a (tiny) home.
Varonis has gifted a cute little cabin and while I’d be hard pressed to turn this into a proper home, it has potential as a romantic hideaway somewhere in a wooded area… Spontaneously bursts into song: the loooove shack is a little place where we can get together… Right! Moving along! The cabin has a wood burning stove to make it nice and toasty and there are several furniture creators in Second Life™ with a lovely back catalogue of group gifts that will be helpful to create a cozy space.
The L’Homme Magazine group gift from Zerkalo is a small stack of books with a whiskey tumbler and cigar. While you’re there you can also pick up Zerkalo’s own group gifts, like the chaise longue and basket with blanket. There’s no joining fee for the Zerkalo group at the time of publication. I also rezzed a rug, side table and some artwork, all gifts from Fancy Decor. There you’ll pay L$ 250 to join the group but the Fancy Decor gifts are plentiful and more than worth it. Meanwhile the shirt I’m wearing is the L’Homme gift from Gabriel and the boxers are a group gift from Kalback. The charming onesie worn by my equally charming buddy is an oldie but a goodie from Noche and also just happens to be a group gift. Finally, the sleeping corgi is yet another group gift from Jian. It will probably please you to learn that there’s no group joining fee for Kalback, Noche and Jian.
The cabin has a small loft, but you can’t really get up there by climbing the ladder, unless you have a very short avatar. Varonis kindly included some pillows with sitting animations with the cabin, so you can rez these on the loft to give you something to click on and take a seat as a way to get up there, away from the world and its worries. It’s a good place for a couple of ice cold brewskies and we just happen to get a bucket full of them from 8f8 Creations.
That’s it from me for now as far as the L’Homme Magazine group gifts are concerned. There are more of them and maybe some will pop up in another blog, but now it’s time for me to go get the laundry out of the drier and probably spend way too much time on trying to match up gray socks in correct pairs.
Belleza Jake 3.0 Mesh Body tutorial (with Lelutka mesh head)
Near the end of August Belleza finally got round to updating their mesh bodies to what is now the 3.0 version. There was no automatic redelivery and as I don’t always keep my ear to the ground (it’s such an awkward position) I only found out about it a couple of weeks into September. Oh well, never mind. I got my update now, so I’m using this as an opportunity to go over the basics of putting together an avatar with this particular mesh body.
I suggest that first you get yourself down to one of the classic standard avatars. Then you start stripping til you can’t remove anything else. You’ll be left with a shape, skin, eyes and brow shape. For the next step you are already faced with a choice. You can either use a BOM skin, in which case you do not need to wear an alpha layer. Alternatively you can use an applier skin on the mesh body and in that case, you will need to wear an alpha layer to hide the so called system body. Let’s look at the BOM option first.
Put on Belleza Jake V3 BOM/BENTO and Belleza Jake Body HUD V3, by right-clicking each item and choosing “add”. The body has been set to BOM mode by default, so what you are seeing here know is the skin of the standard avatar “Baked” On the Mesh body… Aaaaah, that’s what BOM means! As it happens, the shape of the classic avatar I’m using doesn’t make the body look too weird. Sometimes at this stage you end up with something that will make you pause to savour the moment, a.k.a. laughing so hard you can’t breath. In any case you can of course edit your shape till it’s just how you like it and if you find shape editing too much of a kerfuffle, you can always shop around for one. Usually shapes are made for a specific mesh head and will include versions for different mesh bodies. My own shapes are usually for a specific combination of mesh head and body, but I find that often a shape I made for the Legacy mesh body, also looks good with Belleza. I believe Tivoli is a particularly popular shape creator, at least that’s the impression I got from anything I’ve watched on Boston Blaisdale’s Youtube channel. As I always make my own shape, I can’t spontaneously name any other shape creators. I do know that often when you buy a skin for a mesh head, it will include a shape for a particular head. If you look closely at a poster for a skin, it will probably tell you which head it’s shown on.
Now that I have touched on skins and mesh heads, it’s time to start using them. Today I’m choosing the Lelutka Skyler mesh head. If you are new to Lelutka, it might be interesting to know that you’ll find two male mesh heads from their older range slightly tucked away in a corner, named Guy and Andrea. Although these two can be used with BOM skins, they were originally created to be used with appliers. I realise that for the totally uninitiated this will all sound somewhat bewildering, but bear with me here. In a later stage Lelutka started created a new line of mesh heads, naming it their Evo line. Their most recent development has been from Evo to Evo X, using a different method to map skin onto the head.
Because the Evo X heads use this specific way of mapping the skin and also because the shape of your standard avatar most probably will not be very suitable for the mesh head, when you first put on the Lelutka Skyler mesh head, your avatar is going to look well messy. Don’t worry, Lelutka’s got you covered. In the HUD for this head you’ll find buttons to switch between Evo and Evo X. To get the look you see on the right in the above image, you need to add the following items to your outfit (always right-click and choose add). I’ve used the exact naming as shown in the folder for the head.
- /HEAD/ lel EvoX SKYLER 3.1
- /HUD/ lel EvoX (m) 3.1
- /EYES/ lel Evo 3.1
- /TEETH/ LeLUTKA 3.1
- SHAPE Default lel EvoX SKYLER
- SHAPE Brow lel EvoX SKYLER
- ALPHA (BOM Head + Body – APPLIER Eyes)
If at this point your eyes are just empty red sockets, it means that they are set to BOM. There are two things you can do. You can remove ALPHA (BOM Head + Body – APPLIER Eyes) from your outfit and the eyes of the standard avatar will be baked on the mesh eyes that come with the body (sounds kinda painful!). You can also leave that alpha on and click on one of the eye textures in the HUD, which is what I have done here. This avatar is coming along nicely already and we haven’t even looked at skins yet. The standard avatar skins are quite bland and lacking in detail, but luckily there are lots of options available from various skin creators for the combination of the Belleza Jake mesh body and Lelutka mesh heads.
Before you head out to purchase a skin, you may want to look at the options that come with the Belleza Jake mesh body and Lelutka Skyler mesh head. In the folder for the Jake body you will find an item named Belleza BOM Mesh Body Skin. Unpack this item and you’ll get a folder with 14 skins, consisting of 7 skin stones, each one in a smooth and hairy version. I chose the “Med Hair” version here. Now go back to the folder for your Lelutka mesh head and look for the four BOM skins, named “FACE lel Evo Skyler 001” to 004. I’m using 003 here, which seems to match up naturally with the body skin. I don’t think this would have been possible with the previous version of the Belleza body, but because the BOM skins have been made to blend into each other, you don’t get an ugly seam on your neck. If you’re still pretty new to Second Life™ (hello, welcome, have fun, please don’t be scared), you might think: “so what?”. But if you’ve been knocking around here for a while, the absence of a neck seam is a blooming halle-forking-lujah moment! Next you can add your eyebrows which ar also available from the Skyler folder. The fun doesn’t stop here yet with the addons. Go ahead and unpack all the items in the Lelutka head folder that have a name that starts with “unpack” and I’ll see you on the other side.
As we’re working with an Evo skin here (not Evo X), we can only use ADDONS – LeLUTKA Classic BOM (m) and HAIRBASES – LeLUTKA Classic BOM. I’ve added:
- LeLUTKA.Freckles.004
- LeLUTKA.Eye Dusky.Mid
- LeLUTKA.Hairbase.001.Red (m)
I also added the HD Beard, which comes with it’s own HUD for changing the style and colour of your facial hair. This is one way of wearing a beard. You can also wear a bom layer without using the HD beard.
Make sure to take a look in the HUD for your Lelutka head, as you will find even more options there like a subtle lip gloss, a smokey eye, an eyebrow scar, longer lashes, different teeth, etc. Here you can also change the angle of your ears and of course this is where you will find all the animations. You can find a detailed user guide on Lelutka’s website.
You may have noticed in some of the shots that my body was looking rather shiny. This is something you can adjust in the Belleza HUD. In the Skin tab you will find a button to turn the “materials” on and off. This is the N button. When it’s turned on you’ll notice that your skin looks more bumpy. Note that Advanced Lighting Model needs to be switched on in the graphics settings of your SL viewer or you won’t see the difference. The button with the sparkles turns your skin gloss on and off. You can use the Gloss and Environment sliders to make the effect less or more dramatic. The visibility of these effects also depends on the WindLight™ you’re using.
The Alpha tab is an important one when you want to wear clothing. Some items will just fit, others may have an auto-hide function built-in. These means when you put on that item of clothing, any parts of your body that might go through it, will automatically be hidden. If this not happening, you can manually click areas of your body on the mannequin in the HUD to make them invisible. You can then save this for future use if you want. It’s also possible to create your own auto-hide for specific outfits with a kit that’s available at the Belleza store.
That just about covers the basics. I found a video about the Belleza HUD on Youtube. It’s quite old, but the HUD hasn’t changed much since then, so you still may find it useful. The Belleza Jake mesh body currently is 50% off, so it’s L$1,500 and the Lelutka Skyler mesh head is L$3,990. So to repeat my exercise (not including the clothing) you’ll need L$5,490.
If you’re going for a more unique look, you’ll have to spent some money on a skin, hair and eyes. If you purchase an Evo X skin, you’ll be able to use many more add-ons that come with the Lelutka head. Changing your shape will make a big difference as well. You can either make your own shape or purchase one. Shapes usually come with a detailed notecard telling you which skin etc. to use if you want to resemble the poster image for the shape. Many skins also include a shape for a particular mesh head. In most, if not all cases, the shape will be modifiable, so if you like the look of one but want to make some “cosmetic” changes, then that’s perfectly possible. I do advise to make a copy of the shape first before you start editing. There is always the option to use “save as” once you’ve made a change, but there’s the danger of forgetting about that and clicking the save button instead, losing the original in the process. Then again, most stores offer redelivery, so it won’t be a disaster.
That it’s for now folks! I think my next blog post will be with the Belleza Jake and Lelutka Skyler mesh head with a shape and look I’ve created for it.
If you’ve found this blog post informative and enjoyable and would like to support me with my Second Life endeavours, you can become a Patron for €3.00/month, which can be cancelled at any point.
Locker room shenanigans
Linden Labs doesn’t strongly market the sexual aspect of Second Life™ and while it’s perfectly possible to make your SL experience and altogether wholesome one, it’s safe to say that with the vast range of provocative fashion on offer, monthly events focused on kinky stuff and anatomically correct avatars (after you’ve got yourself some bells and whistles that is), you can turn this virtual world into your very own den of iniquity. Or to put it in les condemning terms: nowt wrong wif a bit of slap and tickle, innnit?
In real life I wouldn’t throw caution to the wind and get overly handsy with some guy in the locker room at the gym. In Second Life™ that wind is a bloody hurricane and whatever caution I had here to begin with has long been sucked up and whizzed of to Oz. I do urge you to respect the maturity rating and covenant for whatever sim you happed to be at, before you engage in any heavy petting. Losing one’s caution is one thing, but there’s no excuse for a lack of common decency.
I noticed recently that among the destination categories in the SL viewer (or Firestorm) there no longer is an adult section, but I don’t have any strong feelings about that beyond “hmmm, interesting” with a touch of “meh” thrown in for good measure. You still can find an adult section in the destination guide on the Second Life™ website. Interestingly again, while everything else is in alphabetical order in the list of destinations, for the Adult only sims you have to scroll all the way past Z… meh. No matter how far down the list they put these sims, there will always be shenanigans going on in Second Life unless we experience another uprising of the prohibition movement. I can almost hear that in a deep movie trailer voice: The puritans are back, and this time they are going virtual.
There’s an even steamier Locker Room Shenanigans image available for my Patrons. I decided to create a Patreon account recently because I rather like the idea of my Second Life™ creativity paying for itself but I’m not a fan of random ads appearing on my blog (Russian bride anyone?). I’ll try to create at least one extra image to put on Patreon for each blog post I publish. To be honest, I don’t expect anything of this, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Credits
- A sexy latex version of the Jack singlet by Noche. For the shoulder straps you can choose a translucent plastic to replace the opaque latex, which is a really nice touch. This singlet has been rigged for Belleza Jake and Legacy Meshbody and includes a looser version so you can wear a skintight t-shirt underneath.
- Legacy Meshbody and Lelutka Alain mesh head on both.
- Redhead is using Hikaru skin for Lelutka by Stray Dog and Exile Knox hair (comes with hair base). He’s also using mesh nipples by Noche.
- Dark haired guy is using Allan skin by Clef De Peau and Reach hair by Stealthic. His hair base comes with the head.
Shopping for David – September 2021
Quite often the monthly search to find something new to wear with the NX-Nardcotix David mesh body starts on Marketplace. I enter NX-Nardcotix in the search field, hit the search button and filter on Apparel and Men’s. While there aren’t many new items being made for this body, if any, occasionally I do come across a full perm items that’s been given a nice new texture. As we’re through the first half of September now, I wasn’t surprised to find a sweater with a bunch of textures in autumn colours and halloween patterns.
I downplayed the Halloween theme for now, choosing a simple muted red and gray striped version of the October Sweater by Love Fashion. It goes well with the Lewis denims by Legal Insanity. These fit David in the Signature size (which I’m wearing) or the Enzo size, if you’re willing to play with your shape a bit. The shape editing sliders you need are leg muscle, saddlebags, butt size and belly size. These jeans are torn and sadly you can’t wear them without the patches that come with them, because you need to alpha out your legs. On the bright side, you can get a textures add-on pack for these patches and make them match your outfit. The Ulrich boots and socks by Deadwool look like they’ve seen a lot of action keeping my feet warm on long autumn walks through cities and parks.
Once back home I stripped off that sweater to show of the Dear Devil tattoo by Taox Tattoo and also show that the Lewis denims can be worn shirtless with David, if you are willing to adjust your shape as mentioned before. While I was at it, I continued stripping to show you the back of the tattoo, call it a day and take a nap with the cat.
I have made a bare bum version of the image with the briefs for my Patrons
Credits
- NX-Nardcotix David mesh body
- Lelutka Guy mesh head (an “oldy” but a goodie!),
- Birth Maverick skin in skin tone #7 for Lelutka + their Omega skin applier on the body (you need the Omega relay for the body, available at the NX-Nardcotix store)
- Billy Beaverhausen Troy shape (shaped was edited to work with the Legal Insanity jeans in this blog post, suggested skin in notecard is also different from what I used now)
- Avi-Glam Solstice eyes (applied on the mesh eyes that come with the Lelutka Guy mesh head)
- Modulus Lewis hat and hair
- October Sweater by Love Fashion
- Lewis denims by Legal Insanity
- NX-Nardcotix Darrel briefs (comes with a tank top)
- Ulrich boots (and socks) by Deadwool
- Taox Tattoo Dear Devil (Sometimes you need to click the blend buttons a couple of times to make the tattoo go sharp. You’ll find these buttons in the layers tab of the hud that comes with the body.)
- Jian kitten pillow
Run Forest, Run!
For a brief period in real life I became quite the avid runner. I started gently by taking long walks straight after work. I was still living with my parents back then and had absolutely nothing in my way to prevent me from “stretching my legs” for a couple of hours every day. Then I gradually started building in short burst of jogging into the walk. As soon as I felt I could keep it going, I started driving straight home from work and running in the countryside where my parents still live today. At least four times a week, come rain or shine, I would run 5 or 10 km. I had already started a weight loss journey and the running gave it an extra kick, so it wan’t hard to find the motivation. Sadly, I never really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the after buzz, but not really the running itself. My knees weren’t agreeing with it either so I ended up trading it in for a crosstrainer. At least I could have the tv on while I was spinning away on that contraption every day.
I do envy people who seem to be enjoying themselves while running though. It is quite a popular way to stay fit for lots of people in Stockholm. Year in, year out those bloody joggers are being a nuisance to those of us that just want to enjoy a walk. It’s kinda funny how there’s a nuisance hierarchy in traffic. Walkers are annoyed by runners and bikers, then of course bikers feel threatened by cars and anyone driving a car has large vehicles like busses and trucks looming over them. Anyhoo, at least collisions in Second Life™ don’t come with any physical damage and virtual running doesn’t put any strain on my knees either. You know, I’m really starting to think SL is better than RL.
Credits
- Noche Leon Shorts, available at Equal10 until October 5th, check the main store at a later date
- Noche Hawk crop tee
- Versov Evenov sneakers
- Lelutka Connor EVO X mesh head, freckles and beard used come with the head
- Birth Hendrix skin for Lelutka EVO X mesh head (make sure you click the EVO X button in the head’s hud) & Birth’s body skin for Legacy Meshbody
- Legacy Meshbody
- Stealthic Narcotic hair
- Nar Mattaru Immortalis tattoo
- Billy Beaverhausen Brent shape
