Tag: Ayashi

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the Cosmopolitan Christmas Tree

IMPORTANT EDITORIAL/HOUSEKEEPING NOTE, PLEASE READ:

Many of my regular readers are probably wondering why I have written so much about Second Life this month, instead of all the other metaverse platforms I could cover.

First: My faculty union at the university where I work went through a five-week strike which ended in early December, and we are now in a rapidly worsening Omicron wave of the coronavirus pandemic. I am STRESSED and UTTERLY EXHAUSTED and I need to take a break. Second Life is my happy place, and my preferred way of dealing (or, perhaps more accurately, not dealing) with messy, painful, chaotic, dumpster-fire reality these days. I am therefore taking December as a vacation from this blog (with a few exceptions, such as this blogpost).

Second: As I have often said before, Second Life is the perfect example of a mature, fully-evolved metaverse, which the newer social VR platforms would be wise to study and emulate. Do not be so quick to dismiss Second Life as quaint and outdated! At a time when the concept of the metaverse is suddenly very popular again, you can learn many lessons from studying SL. For example, merchandizing avatar fashion (such as that profiled in this blogpost) is now a very hot topic in the blockchain/crypto/NFT space; Second Life content creators have been earning full or side incomes by creating and selling avatar fashion for over 18 years now!

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I do expect to return full-throttle to blogging about any and all aspects of social VR, virtual worlds and the metaverse in January 2022!

Every December, the Cosmopolitan shopping event (SLURL) has a large Christmas tree placed between the entrance doors, which is a sort of Advent calendar, but in a different form. Every day, more and more stockings are added to the tree as decorations, and each stocking is a free gift from a participating vendor. Join the !!Cosmopolitan Club & Lounge!! group for free to pick up these gifts.

However, because the stockings all look alike and are attached to all sides of a three-dimensional, cone-shaped object, and therefore it can be very hard to keep track of what you have already taken and what you haven’t! Here’s a useful tip, from a previous year’s blogpost, on how to tackle the tree:

If you insist on visiting every day, the layout of the stockings around the tree can be somewhat confusing compared to traditional Advent calendars, and you might land up collecting the same gifts multiple times. You might want to use this tip provided by SL blogger Chic Aeon: once you have clicked on a stocking and received its gift, right click on it, Select More from the pie menu, select More again, then select Derender, then Blacklist. You will no longer be able to see that stocking on return visits! (These are the instructions for the Firestorm viewer; I do not know what the equivalent is for the standard Second Life viewer.) This is a genius tip! Thanks, Chic!

Another tip: derender the Christmas tree first; then the stockings will appear to be floating in mid-air, and they are much easier to find and click on! 😉

Today my avatar Moesha Heartsong (the Naomi Campbell supermodel of Second Life!) models some of my favourite gifts from the Cosmopolitan stockings. I do apologize for using a pose stand for these images; I can work much faster this way, and therefore get this blogpost out to you more quickly! I do not know how long the Christmas tree will be up at the Cosmopolitan event, so don’t delay in picking up these fabulous freebies!

First up is the Mei jewelry set from Supernatural, a choker and two necklaces (three separate pieces which you can wear together as shown, or separately as you wish). The Mei set comes in gold and silver versions, and each version comes in four different colours: black, red, pink, and white.

From AVALE comes the Gorra party dress with a dark silver skirt and a colour-changeable top (the included HUD gives you 11 colours). Sizes: Maitreya, Legacy, Freya, Isis, Hourglass, and Kupra.

ZVI’s gift is this cropped top with a choice of 20 colours via a HUD (sizes: Maitreya Lara, Meshbody Legacy, INITHIUM Kupra, eBody Reborn, Kalhene Erika).

Blossom&Seeds offers you this Costa Rica dress in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara, Belleza Freya, and Meshbody Legacy bodies:

From Shybird comes the Mina party dress, which comes in a fatpack with a whopping 64 options (32 colours in silk and 32 colours in suede!). This dress comes in sizes to fit Maitreya, Legacy, Kupra, and eBody Reborn.

The Eliza outfit (in the stocking from Meva) consists of a red dress and a white jacket with a belt. The dress and jacket can be worn together as shown, or you can mix and match with other items from your avatar’s wardrobe.

Off-Line’s present is this Nali dress in salmon, which comes in opaque and sheer versions (sizes: Maitreya, Legacy, Freya, Hourglass, and Kupra).

The present from Amias is this delightful grey Deer Sweater! There are versions for both male and female avatars: Maitreya Lara & Petite and Legacy & Perky for the women; and Belleza Jake, Signature Gianni, and Legacy for the men.

Seniha very generously gives you a complete fatpack of the Rosse outfit, consisting of a bodysuit and boa/fur stole, each of which comes with a HUD with a dizzying array of colours and textures to choose from! You can tint the top, belt, and bottom of the bodysuit separately via the HUD, for even more options!

From Little Fox comes the Darling set of top and matching panties in cherry red (Maitreya, Legacy, Freya, Kupra sizes).

The gift from Masoom is this pink Minerva gown (which comes in both regular and windblown versions). The gown comes with a gems HUD and a separate package of tintable panties to wear underneath. The Minerva gown comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara, Belleza Freya, and Slink Hourglass mesh bodies.

The stocking from Poison Rouge contains this haute couture Alma de Rosa hat in coral pink:

This is the Makina pigtail hairstyle from Ayashi, which comes with the HUD as shown, with eight different anime colours and a tinting feature to make your hair any colour under the sun!

Petite Maison offers a lovely selection of home decor (seven separate objects):

And finally, for something completely different, we have this set of unisex Bakes on Mesh cosmetics from Poema, the Editorial makeup pack! You’re all set for your next Vogue fashion shoot!

Again, I don’t know how long the Christmas tree will be up, so go TODAY.

Happy freebie shopping!

UPDATED: Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: FaMESHed 7th Anniversary Gifts!

One tip I always share with avid Second Life freebie hunters is to check when the various monthly shopping events celebrate a yearly anniversary. This is often a time when you can pick up dozens of free gifts from the many content creators participating. One of the best-known and longest-running shopping events is FaMESHed, and it just so happens that they are celebrating their 7th anniversary this month!

You can join the FaMESHed Update Group for free, and with that group active, you can visit the FaMESHed sim and pick up over 60 different gifts from many talented, well-known designers, all for free!

However, I would caution you that the current round of FaMESHed runs from May 1st until May 27th, so you have plenty of time to vacuum up all the freebies. Today the sim is almost impossible to get into (unless you are a Premium member), and the lag is absolutely horrific. You’ll be clicking and reclicking several times in vain on each giftbox to get your presents, and only after a delay of 5 to 10 minutes each! If I were you, I would wait until later in the month when it’s less busy. Just mark it in your calendar so you don’t forget!

What I can do is show you just a sampling of the sixty free gifts available, so you can decide for yourself whether or not it’s worth the hassle to get into the sim and brave the lag. In all these pictures Vanity Fair is wearing:

First up is with a mint green minidress by Neve (which comes with a HUD with four colour and pattern choices), paired with the Camila hair by Limerance (which you can tint as you desire using the included HUD), along with sunglasses by Minimal and the So Feng heels by BREATHE:

Next up is the Soho dress in olive by Junbug, paired with the Misha hairstyle by Elikatria (which comes in four sizes, with a HUD with 20 different colours):

For a completely different look, here’s a blue top by Giz Soern, worn with high-waisted cargo pants in camel by COCO Designs, the Jessie Anime hair set by Ayashi (which you can tint any colour you like), and as the finishing touch the Savannah fringed bag by Aleutia:

Vanity Fair’s second-last look is the daring, skin-baring Vivien dress in nude by Kaithleen’s, paired with a pastel beads necklace by Meva and resizable Nina silver hoop earrings by Miu (they also come in bronze, gold, and pink). The finishing touch is a pair of vintage peep-toe heels from Eudora3D, and a round wicker Africa purse by Belle Epoque. (The hairstyle in these pictures is Lady by Truth Hair and it is not a free gift.)

The final look features the Hush bra and panties in eggshell by Dead Dollz, paired with the Bahia blue fishnet heels by Essenz, to which I added the Annoushka silver earrings by Ilaya and the Nicky crystal bracelet by Kunglers:

So, if you like what you see, head on down to the FaMESHed event before May 27th! These and many other freebies await you.

UPDATE May 3rd: Naria Panthar has done an hour-long YouTube video where she shows off all the FaMESHed 7th anniversary gifts. (For some reason I could not embed that video here on my blog.) Note that in addition to many items of clothing, jewelry and hair, there are many gifts of household items like books and pillows for your home.