…what more could a boy want? I say boy, because currently you can grab a free Catwa head at three temporary locations inworld and on Marketplace until May 24th and it’s best suited for a young look. The head is called Freya and is meant to be unisex. When you take a look at the main hud and find your way to the “ALPHA.LASHES.TINT.NECK SIZE” tab, you’ll see the male and female symbols that allow you to switch between neck sizes. The truth is though that many skins that work well on other male Catwa heads will not align perfectly with Freya. You’ll be able to get more out of Freya with a female avatar, But it’s free until May 24th and one shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth (no pun intended). It has all the usual bells and whistles of Catwa heads and with a bit of TLC, I was able to put together a look I like.
I looked at the head on the Legacy body and the Classic Meshbody, but in both cases the neck joint was looking rather funky like a deformed adam’s apple. On the Belleza Jake and Signature Gianni mesh bodies this effect is less pronounced. I went for the Belleza body in this case and the skin is Erwin by Stray Dog. As mentioned above, male skins tend to “travel” on this head. After trying several skins in my inventory, I settled on Erwin because it seemed to be the best fit and then I started to make some improvements.
If you’re making your own shape, try to avoid an upturned nose as it will draw attention to slightly miss-aligned nose holes. One of the other most common issues is the inner shadow of the eye sockets “leaking” which gives you a messy eyeliner appearance. Maybe you like this, or maybe you will hide it by applying even more eyeliner, but I found Izzie’s – Catwa Eyelid Changer. It cleans up the messy eye lid and gets rid of the “eyeliner”. You can tint it in the Catwa hud if you feel the skin around the eyes looks too light for the rest of your skin. If you’re using the eyelid changer as a bom layer, than you can tint this layer in edit mode.
Erwin’s lips are quite dark. If you want something lighter, you can apply one of the lighter lipsticks in the Catwa hud and play with the blend slider to reduce the effect.
I wanted some stubble on this face and applied the Birth Bristle Catwa Beard applier. You’ll have to play with the blender and tinting of the blush and lipstick to make it all show in the same colour and intensity. Possibly you will knock off your lipstick by applying this beard, so you’ll have to apply lippy again after getting the beard. All areas on Catwa heads have an upper and lower layer, which means that you can use up to two appliers on each area. For example, the lipstick is on the upper layer of the lips while part of the stubble around the mouth is applied to the lower layer. Of course you can save yourself this hassle by finding a good bom layer beard.
Catwa ears are always a bit sad in my opinion, so I further embellished the head with the more refined L’etrê Basic Mesh Ears, even though they are partly obscured by that luscious mop top hair by Dura. Phew! After all that I need a shower!
Now on to Fameshed and Noche’s newest pair of Kaiden Shorts. They’re short, sporty and spicy. Noche has made similar shorts in the past, but these are an improvement on that older model, which makes sense. The more items you produce, the more practice you get in 3D software, the better your work becomes.
Combined with the Noche Hawk Cropped Tee and Versov Kurtov Low sneakers I like this as an outfit to hang out at a beach sim where the setting feels more residential and one wouldn’t run around in speedos. Or you could imagine it’s your outfit for travelling there before you strip down to your swimwear for an evening dip in the water. The Kaiden Shorts have a strip script in them in your crutch area. Click it once to drop the shorts to your knees, click again to lose them all together and click a third time to be a good boy and put them back on. Note that you will not be able to actually wear your speedos underneath these shorts in SL. We’re still eagerly awaiting that level of realism.
That’s it for now. I hope you’ll make the most of the free Catwa head and have oodles of fun putting the Noche shorts on and off and on again.
Credits
- Catwa Freya free group gift (no joining fee) available until May 24th on Marketplace and in temporary inworld locations. (update: After this offer ended the head became available at full price)
- Belleza Jake mesh body
- Erwin skin and skin for the Belleza body by Stray Dog. (includes appliers and BOM system layers)
- L’etrê basic mesh ears
- Dura B&G81 hair
- Izzie’s Catwa Eyelid Changer (small crease)
- Avi Glam Solstice eyes (applied to the eyes that come with the head)
- Billy Beaverhausen Kris shape for Catwa Freya & Belleza Jake
- Noche Carter Underwear, Kaiden Shorts, Hawk Cropped Tee and Chris Swim Briefs
- Locations for the beach weekend shots: Baja Norte
- Minimal Sequoia room with added items: plants from Natural Habitat set by Dust Bunny, Kitten from Jian Kitten Collection, Attire package from Classic Style Gacha by David Heather, Wire Clock by Fancy Decor.
Billy Beaverhausen 