Tag: Avatar Makeover

UPDATED! Another Fifteen-Minute Second Life Avatar Makeover: Autumn Maiden

It’s 4:00 a.m. and I have a wicked case of insomnia, so I decided to get out of bed and present yet another in my series of my patented 15-minute SL avatar makeovers (you can find them all here).

I have an alt (with, appropriately enough, the legacy name of Autumn Winter), whom I tend to trot out at this time of year, dressed up as the avatar embodiment of autumn. Here’s a Before shot of the classic system avatar, wearing a system-layers-and-flexiprims outfit, and rocking a hat from ye olde pre-mesh days:

Not bad, but I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could upgrade this alt to mesh, as inexpensively as possible. Here’s the After shots, and I think you’ll agree with me that I succeeded:

Styling credits:

  • Mesh Head: Genus Strong head (still a free group gift from Genus Project; the Genus group is free to join)
  • Mesh Body: Atenea from LUCYBODY (available for free from their Midnight Madness board in-store; once the board hits 350, everybody wins a copy of this mesh body, which is Maitreya Lara-compatible for clothing and Slink-compatible for footwear; you will need to purchase a Bakes on Mesh applier for this body for L$197 to use it with BoM skins. Note that this MM board does not reset at midnight!)
  • Hair: Jamila fatpack from FAGA (available on the SL Marketplace for only L$1)
  • Bakes on Mesh Skin: Flower Girl skin in Autumn from 7 Deadly S[k]ins (a fatpack of these skins was a recent free gift from their Gift Board in-store; gifts change daily)
  • Gown: Kensie gown (a free group gift from Just Because; the Just Because group is free to join)
  • Flats (not shown): red flats by Garbaggio (part of a free sample pack of Slink-compatible shoes from Garbaggio, available on the SL Marketplace)

TOTAL COST OF THIS AVATAR MAKEOVER: Only L$198!

Pictures taken at the Deer River sim, a beautiful place for a virtual autumn stroll.

UPDATE Oct. 24th, 2021: The Halloween Shop and Hop gift from Caverna Obscura (exact SLURL) is this lovely autumn maple leaves head wreath, which is completely adjustable. It’s the perfect finishing touch for this autumn maiden look! You have until Nov. 1st to pick this freebie up, before it’s gone!

Another Fifteen-Minute Second Life Avatar Makeover: Professional Business Woman

Everybody is familiar by now with the Elizabeth businesswoman avatar, one of Linden Lab’s selection of starter avatars for newbies:

Well, today I decided to give Elizabeth one of my patented fifteen-minute avatar makeovers, and take her to a role-play hotel operating in Second Life for a business meeting! The Essencia Hotel (website; SLURL) is a hotel and convention centre, staffed by both NPCs and role-playing avatars (you can even apply to work here).

To book a room, you just click on one of the kiosks in the hotel foyer, which takes you to a website. Rates range from L$150 a night for a standard twin single, up to L$500 a night for the premium suite!

If you join the Essencia Hotel group for free, you can even pick up a free gift: some luggage!

Here’s what Elizabeth looks like after her head-to-toe makeover. And, like any savvy businesswoman, she knows the value of a dollar. Everything you see here was free! (In some cases I joined a group when they had a free group join period.)

Elizabeth is wearing:

Mesh Head and Body: the free Kalhene Ariadna female mesh body (which, unfortunately, has been pulled from the SL Marketplace because of a DMCA complaint; more details here; I hope that this is resolved soon, but as Elizabeth the businesswoman well knows, legal matters over intellectual property can take time to resolve!).

Skin: Creamy in the milk skin tone from WOW Skins (a free system skin from the gift box of all the previous group gifts, located next to the panel with this month’s group gift; I joined the WOW Skins group when they had a free group join period a while back; Creamy is an older system skin, to which I added the Bakes on Mesh finger fix gloves which are part of a full package of BoM feet and finger fixes for Wow skins, tucked away on a shelf on the second floor of the new location of the Wow Skins store, located at this exact SLURL (click Show on Map and follow the red arrow).

Hair: Kristen by Ade (free gift from the SL17B Shop and Hop; more information here).

Eyes: Sahara eyes by Avi-Glam (free gift from the SL17B Shop and Hop; more information here).

Dress: Office dress in black from Kaithleen’s (I picked this up for free using the gift card that was a Christmas group gift from the store last December).

Shoes: I have been meaning to blog about this fabulous freebie for a while now! These are the sixtynine pumps in black, a free group gift from the KOKOIA shoe store (the KOKOIA group is free to join). These lovely free pumps come in six different neutral colours to go with just about any outfit!

Briefcase: I picked up this freebie from the SpotCat booth at a past Man Cave shopping event. It comes with the Bento hold post shown, and I think it’s the perfect finishing touch for this professional look! (Note: if you go to the SpotCat store in-world and join their store group for L$100, among the group gifts is a set of three of these briefcases for men or women, in white, brown, and black.)

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR LOOK: FREE!

All pictures taken at the Essencia Hotel.

Another Fifteen-Minute Second Life Avatar Makeover: Trump Baby!

Look, I realize that I am absolutely powerless to do anything about the malignant narcissist who is currently inhabiting the White House in the United States (and as a Canadian, I can’t even vote his incompetent ass out of office come November).

However, I still do have one potent tool at my disposal, and after 14 years in Second Life, I have become an expert at wielding it: styling a complete Second Life avatar look from head to toe! (Too bad I can’t make any money at it.)

And so, late last year, well and truly fed up with the antics of Donald Trump, I decided to use my skills to create a parody version of Twitler himself!

My inspiration for the following avatar look came from a six-metre-high inflatable balloon depicting Donald Trump as a snarling orange baby (grasping a cellphone from which he launches his tweets), which first was flown in London, during a memorable protest against Trump’s visit to the U.K. on July 13th, 2018 (the balloon is so iconic, it even has its own Wikipedia entry!):

The Trump baby blimp (source: BBC)

This was my Before look, an avatar with a Catwa Stanley head and a Signature Gianni body (who shall remain nameless since entering the Second Life Avatar Protection Program for his own safety after participating in this makeover!):

And here is my After look!

Trump Baby in action

This avatar is wearing:

Mesh Head: the Stanley Bento mesh head by Catwa (L$5,000)

Mesh Body: the Gianni mesh body by Signature (L$4,000; the shape came with the Donald skin applier below)

Skin Applier: Donald by Session for the head, L$399, and a matching Omega applier for the body, L$299

Hair: Donald hair in ash blonde by Alli & Ali Hair (free on the SL Marketplace)

Animation Override: Bento Fat Boy AO by Voir (L$349)

Diaper: Tushiez diaper version 3.0 by the Imagination Factory (L$349 on the SL Marketplace; the diaper even makes crinkling noises as he walks!)

Animated Pacifier: Pa-w-cifier (Pawpers edition) by Little Space Kreations (free on the SL Marketplace); here’s a short video of it in action:

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR LOOK: L$9,748‬ (and WORTH. EVERY. GODDAMN. PENNY.)

Needless to day, I have taken this avatar for several spins around the grid, and he has already been banned from several sims (including a few adult ones!), and politely asked to leave a few others for overstaying his welcome. In fact, he attracts so much vitriol that I only pull him out for special occasions, like this blogpost!

So, what do you think? Should I rent him out for in-world protests, weddings, and bar mitzvahs? 😉 I could just have a booming business on my hands!

Another Fifteen-Minute Second Life Avatar Makeover: A Complete Head-to-Toe Mermaid Makeover for Only One Linden Dollar!

Photo by Annette Batista Day on Unsplash

Mermaid and merman role-play in Second Life is perennially popular (sometimes combined with pirate role-play). I have had a mermaid avatar in Second Life for as long as I can remember, although I must confess that I do not pull her out that often nowadays.

Here is what my mermaid avatar looked like before her makeover, a system-layers-and-flexiprims look cobbled together from various freebie mermaid outfits I picked up over the years (the lovely mesh tail was a recent free hunt gift from Solas NaGealai of BlueMoon Enterprise):

Mermaid: Before Look

Well, I decided to give my mermaid one of my patented fifteen-minute avatar makeovers today, to move from a classic, system avatar to 100% mesh!

Here is what she looks like now:

Mermaid: After Look

This avatar is wearing:

Mesh Head: the Freya Bento mesh head from Catwa (free group gift; the Catwa group is free to join; more information here). TODAY IS THE LAST DAY YOU CAN PICK UP THIS FABULOUS FREEBIE!

Lipstick: HD Lipstick (part of the Freya package, this comes in a wide variety of colours).

Hair: this absolutely perfect mermaid hair is called Spring Briar Fae Hair, which I picked up for free at a Crazy Hair Hunt many years ago now. I combined it with a hairbase from the Catwa Master HUD, tinting both it and the eyebrows on the Freya head to match.

Mesh Body: Classic mesh body by Meshbody (L$1 group gift; The Shops! group is free to join; more information here).

Choker: This beautiful golden Nefert choker is a free group gift from Poison Rouge at the current round of the Très Chic shopping event (you can join the Très Chic group for free). It hides the slight mismatch between the skin tones on the Freya head and Classic body perfectly!

Mermaid Bra and Tail: This is a freebie, too! Just join the Arata Shouten group for free, and check the group notices for this lovely gift (which was my impetus for making this blogpost). You’ll need to alpha out your legs, of course, using the included Classic Meshbody HUD.

Mermaid Animation Override: I picked up this mermaid AO as part of a free hunt gift at FallnAngel Creations many years ago. (If you hunt around at the various mermaid role-play areas in SL, you might find a freebie mermaid/merman AO.)

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR LOOK: ONLY L$1! (for the Classic mesh body from Meshbody). Everything else was free!