Tag: EscalateD

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Gifts from the 2021 Valentine’s Shop and Hop Event

Have you joined the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group yet? I will be posting EVEN MORE news and tips on finding fabulous freebies and bargains in Second Life than I post here on the blog! More information on this brand new SL group here.

The annual Second Life Valentine’s Shop & Hop event officially opens tomorrow, February 5th, and runs until February 17th, 2021. Almost all of the participating merchants in the eight-sim-wide shopping mall have a free gift set out for their customers, over one hundred gifts in total, and the following are my picks for the most fabulous fashion freebies from the event!

All SLURLs in this blogpost should take you directly to the location of the freebie in the Shop & Hop mall, so let’s get started…on your mark, get set, go!

Women’s Apparel and Footwear

Here Vanity Fair is wearing the cute, playful Adore You dress from Candy Kitten, which features a broad, laced-up belt, and comes with a HUD to change the colour and pattern of every part, with six texture options for both the top and skirt! it’s sized to fit Maitreya regular and petite, Belleza Freya, and Legacy female mesh bodies.

The gift from Glitzz is this three-piece set called Woke Up, a lacy pink bra and matching panties and a loose white shirt to wear over top, which comes in the following sizes: Maitreya, Freya, Hourglass, and Legacy.

This fun and fuzzy bodycon dress called Mary is the Valentine’s Shop and Hop present from Rosary (sizes: Maitreya, Freya Perky, Hourglass, Legacy, and Kupra). This curve-hugging dress comes with a HUD as shown below, to change the colour of the dress to any of eleven different shades!

Celestina’s Weddings has an opulent, beautiful jewelry set as a gift, which includes the earrings, necklace, and ring as shown, as well as a matching bejeweled purse!

The gift from Valentina E. is the aptly-named Slinky Dress in lavender (which comes in a Maitreya Lara size only):

From ALTER Clothing & Accessories comes the Berry bare-shouldered ruched dress, in a complete fatpack of 29 colours as shown below (sizes: Maitreya Lara; Belleza Venus, Isis, and Freya; Slink Physique and Hourglass; Tonic Curvy and Fine).

From Envious comes this cute Kisses Love outfit, which includes the cropped sweater, the polka-dot miniskirt with garters, and the lace-up platform boots!

This next casual outfit Vanity Fair is wearing consists of two separate gifts from the 2021 Valentine’s Shop and Hop! The lovely ruffled floral top is the present from the Pixicat booth (sizes: Maitreya, Freya, Hourglass, and Legacy), and the embroidered denim skirt with the optional chain belt is the gift from Tachinni Clothing (sizes: Maitreya, Isis, Freya, Hourglass, and Legacy).

This sexy black top, skirt, and harness (all in one piece) is the gift from Asteria (sizes: Maitreya and Petite; Legacy and Perky; Belleza Isis and Freya; Signature Hourglass).

From the swan pond in the middle of the Deep Static booth, you can pick up a gift box with these Delia Valentine’s glasses, which include a HUD with 8 textures for the frames, and 9 different lens tints:

Now let’s take a look at some of the footwear gifts at the Valentine’s Shop and Hop.

ISON‘s gift are a complete fatpack (21 colours, plus 9 bonus colours) of these mid-heel height strappy leather shoes called Kenya, which come in sizes to fit Maitreya, Slink, Legacy, and Belleza Freya mesh feet. (Note that I had to adjust Vanity’s foot size under the body sliders, to get these to look right on her feet.)

From Gabrielle Hamelin come these black floral platform boots, perfect for stomping on someone’s heart for (Anti-)Valentine’s Day! They come in a mid-heel height, for Maitreya, Belleza, Slink, and Legacy mesh feet, plus an unrigged version for all other feet, so they should fit you!

Baiastice always gives such wonderful gifts at every Shop and Hop event, and this round is no exception! At the Baistice booth, you can pick up these deep red, drop-dead, thigh-high Gio stretch boots (sizes: mid-heel height for Maitreya, Belleza Freya, Slink Hourglass, Singature Alice, and Legacy mesh feet).

The gift from the FashionNatic booth are these Uma boots, to fit Maitreya, Belleza Freya, and Legacy female feet (note: not Slink, but you can always alpha out your feet for these boots). You can tint each of four different parts of this boot separately to one of no less than fifty different colours using the HUD, to match literally any outfit! Very versatile!

Finally, from the Son!a Edge booth comes yet another stunning ballgown gift for which they have become renowned, the Athena gown in lilac, which comes in sizes to fit Maitreya (and Petite), Legacy (and Perky), Freya Perky, and Hourglass mesh bodies. You’re sure to turn some heads in this at your next fancy soirée in Second Life!

Women’s Hair

The gift from Vanity Hair is this fun, piled-high, über-teased Miss Lu updo, which comes in a fatpack of colours:

Men’s Apparel and Unisex Accessories

Etham is giving away a men’s wardrobe staple, a plain T-shirt with a 3/4-length sleeve, which includes a HUD with 8 different shades of black, red, and pink for Valentine’s Day. The shirt comes in in sizes to fit Belleza Jake, Legacy, Slink, and Signature Gianni and Geralt male bodies, and a “classic” fit if your body isn’t one of the aforementioned models.

A&D Clothing has a gift on some John Lennon-style sunglasses with round lenses, with a choice of eight different images for the reflections; these glasses are unisex and resizable.

Kungler’s Jewelry has a rather interesting gift: a set of two Valentine’s rings that can be worn together by one person, or split up, to be worn by two lovers! The rings come with a texture-change HUD, and the sign states that they are “highly editable and Bento friendly” (which means that you’ll probably need to do a bit of work to get them to fit you properly). These rings come in two sizes (regular and large) for either the right or the left hand.

Free Store Credit and Gift Cards

Once again, several stores are offering free store credit and gift cards! Among them are:

  • Addams: L$500 in free store credit (with no expiry date!)
  • Blueberry: L$400 in free store credit (expires in two weeks)
  • Bumblebee: a L$500 store gift card
  • EscalateD: L$250 in free store credit
  • Tachinni Clothing: L$500 in free store credit if you join their group (there’s a L$15 group join fee; the free credit expires February 24th, 2021), plus a gift of an embroidered denim miniskirt with an optional chain belt (sizes: Maitreya Lara; Belleza Isis and Freya; Slink Hourglass, Legacy)
  • ViSion: L$450 in free store credit if you join their group (there’s a L$18 group join fee; the free credit expires February 23rd, 2021), plus a fatpack of panties (sizes: Maitreya Lara; Belleza Isis and Freya; Slink Hourglass; Legacy; Kupra)

UPDATE Feb. 5th, 2021: Daisy Haven told me about yet another store that is offering free store credit. Go to the Mangula booth, and click the sign indicated by the green arrow below to receive L$300 in free store credit (expires February 20th, 2021):

Above the credit gift sign are two free gifts of women’s footwear, no group needed! And on the other side of the wall, there are three gifts especially for people who subscribe to the Mangula group—and it doesn’t take up one of your precious free group slots! The subscribe panel is located right at the centre of the booth, below the red Mangula logo, and it is free to subscribe (and there are many other subscriber-only gifts located at the Mangula mainstore location).

Thanks for the tip, Daisy!

Happy freebie shopping!

In these pictures, Vanity Fair is also wearing:

Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Advent Calendar Gifts for December 24th, 2020

Here’s my blogpost with links to four lists of Advent Calendars and 12 Days of Christmas Calendars, plus my “Top Ten” Calendars you should not miss in 2020!

And if you want to learn how to pick up SIX HUNDRED AND SIX presents on Christmas Day, here’s your detailed plan of attack!

Please note that, if you want to get a sense of what each store’s Advent calendar gifts look like before you teleport in, you can peruse Andonia’s exhaustive list of 2020 Advent calendars, which she has published on her Kinky Fox Designs blog. Just press Ctrl-F on your keyboard and do a search for the store name, and you will pull up pictures of most of that calendar’s gifts, to help you decide if it’s worth the trip. Thank you for all your hard work, Andonia!

Now, before we get started, you might want to limber up a bit. You know, touch your toes, do a few deep knee bends. You don’t want to pull a hamstring or something… 😉

Better do some crunches before you embark on today’s virtual shopping marathon! (photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash)

OK, now that you’ve stretched those muscles, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover today! While there are a few stores on the grid which will offer presents on Christmas Day (Petite Mort, Oubliette, Ari-Pari, Byrne, perhaps Entice, etc.), most Advent calendars and 12 Days of Christmas calendars give out their final gifts today, on December 24th.

Remember that the Advent calendar at 7 Deadly S[k]ins is unique, in that it gives out a present every single day in December, right up until New Year’s Day! Today’s gift is the Hope skin in the dew skin tone. (Hey, what kind of a colour name is “dew”, anyways? Isn’t dew supposed to be transparent?!??)

You will need to join the 7 Deadly S[k]ins group for L$1,000, or you can buy each of the previous days’ gifts for only L$25 each.

Once again, I have called upon Second Life supermodel Moesha Heartsong to show you the rest of today’s bounty of womenswear gifts. Why, Moesha is now so famous, she doesn’t get out of bed for less than L$10,000 a day!* 😉

The Christmas Eve present from JUMO is the Faline dress in red. There’s no need to join any group, just come and click on December 24th on their calendar. You can also pick up all the previous days’ gifts for free. Don’t forget that JUMO will have a present for you on Christmas Day, and a final end-of-year gift on New Year’s Eve!

The final gift from the Advent calendar at Virtue is this attractive deep red floral Selena dress (the Virtue group is free to join):

Now head over to EscalateD, and look for the green advent tree (not the red one, which requires a paid group join). Note that you only need to click on the green advent calendar ONCE, and you will receive a folder containing all 24 gifts! (If you do click on all 24 dates, you will land up with 24 copies of all 24 presents, and then you will need to spend some extra time cleaning up your inventory to remove all the duplicates!)

The December 24th gift from the EscalateD Advent calendar is this hair and Santa hat combination, which comes in a full fatpack of colours. Shown in the picture below is the hair styling HUD, which also allows you to change the colour of the Santa hat and the left and right scrunchies:

Today’s gift from Essenz are these Graz shoes in purple (the Essenz group costs L$350 to join, or you buy this pair, or any of the previous days’ gifts, for only L$50 each if you do not wish to join the group).

Now I am going to show you gifts from a few Advent calendars where you can make a single visit and pick up all 24 gifts at one time! Highly efficient freebie shopping!

First up is Blackbird Lace, where today’s gift is this festive minidress with an optional matching scarf! While you’re in store, be sure to pick up all the previous days’ presents.

Among the 24 Advent calendar gifts at Coveted is this royal blue winter outfit (no group is needed, just come slap the dates on the calendar; there’s also a patchwork version of this coat as a different day’s present):

The December 24th gift from DM Design is this lovely Lione ballgown, which includes a HUD with 10 different colours! Again, be sure to pick up all 24 gifts at once! A free group join is required to obtain all 24 gifts of womenswear.

Today’s present from Donni’s Dollies is this beautiful white and gold dress (the Donni’s Dollies group is free to join). On one trip you can pick up 24 gifts, and each day’s gift includes both men’s and women’s apparel!

The Christmas Eve gift from ROA Design is this lace Aealia dress, which comes in three different shades: blush as shown below, plus lilac and aqua. Again, you can pick up all 24 Advent calendar gifts at once! No group join is needed.

The Advent calendar at TrendZy has 24 lovely outfits for women! Among them are the two ballgowns pictured below (no group is needed, just come slap the numbers on the calendar).

Fashion Fantasy has two Advent calendars with 24 gifts each, one for women and one for men. Moesha models two of the women’s presents: a floral halter top from December 8th, and embroidered leather pants from December 19th (no group required; here’s the SLURL to take you directly to the Fashion Fantasy calendar):

And among the 24 gifts from the Fashion Fantasy for Men Advent calendar is this red hoodie (don’t forget to hit Donni’s Dollies for 24 menswear gifts, too!).

But I have saved what I think is the most generous Christmas Eve gift for last! Pop down to Celestina’s Weddings, join their store group for free, and snap up this glorious golden ballgown, which includes the gold and diamond Mon Amour earrings and necklace!

Happy freebie shopping!

*stolen from a well-known Linda Evangelista quote!

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the 2020 Winter Shop and Hop

The Second Life Winter Shop & Hop event opened today, and runs until January 3rd, 2021. Almost all of the 180 participating merchants in the nine-sim shopping mall have a free gift for their customers, and today I blitzed through the entire mall from one end to the other, to bring you my picks for the most fabulous freebies from the event!

Please note that there are a lot more home and garden vendors than in previous years, which I will not be covering here. Today, I will be focusing on women’s apparel and footwear gifts. (If I have time, I may make a second run and focus on the non-apparel items you can pick up for your virtual homestead in Second Life.)

All SLURLs in this blogpost should take you directly to the location of the freebie in the Shop & Hop mall, so let’s just jump in, shall we?

Free Gifts of Women’s Apparel and Footwear

First up we have two gifts that don’t quite match, but what the hell…as soon as I found these items, I immediately put them on and wore them on the rest of my perambulations through the Winter Shop & Hop mall! The frilly magenta Fondle dress is the gift from Toksik, and the strappy red shoes are a present from the Enchanté store:

Vanity Fair models this truly sexy black lace Raelin slip dress from Baiastice (the black panties are included), which comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara, Perky, and Petite, Meshbody Legacy, Belleza Freya, and Slink Hourglass female mesh bodies:

Next we have this warm, wearable red blanket from Belle Epoque (you will need to alpha out your arms and hands!), plus these wonderful powder blue women’s patrol boots with a snowflake pattern, the gift from Lapointe and Bastchild’s brand SWEAR:

The detail on the patrol boots is amazing! These are keepers for sure! I may even design a whole winter outfit around them…

Here, Vanity Fair is wearing a green top and matching skirt, the gift from Entice, plus a pair of Storyteller glasses, the present from BONDI (which come with a HUD to change the colour of the frames and the tint of the lenses):

This tartan December minidress from Faida comes in sizes to fit Meshbody Legacy, and three versions of the Maitreya Lara body: regular, petite, and flat-chested.

The gift from Pixicat is this red-and-black Aspen cardigan, shown here with the Christmas ball earrings from Aleutia, which come in silver and gold versions in a full fatpack of colours, to match any seasonal outfit!

The Adita Santa dress from Luas comes in a fatpack of colours, shown here with the Aster boots from Eudora, which come in your choice of brown or red leather:

This year, several stores are offering more than one gift! AlaFolie has four gifts for you to unpack, including this Christine sweater and skirt outfit (which comes with a HUD with six different colours and patterns), and the knitted woolen Bonnet hat:

From Flower Dreams comes this bold, floral mesh dress called Kim, which comes with a five-colour HUD as shown. In addition, there are four other free gifts for women, all of which are applier/system/Bakes on Mesh outfits, some including wraps or shawls for various versions of female mesh bodies!

And Neve is giving you ELEVEN gifts in total this year: this year’s gift of the Lumos scarf with tiny Christmas lights (which includes a HUD with four options for both the colour of the scarf and the Christmas lights), plus ten gifts from previous years, all in one package! Below, Vanity Fair wears the Lumos scarf with one of those ten gifts, this festive sweater outfit from 2016, which comes with a HUD to change the colour of the top, skirt, sweater and belt separately to make numerous combinations!

Another festive outfit is this cropped sweater and skirt from 2019, each of which comes with a four-colour HUD, so you can mix and match:

And there are still eight more gifts from Neve to unpack! Hands down, Neve is the most generous vendor this Christmas at the Shop and Hop! Even if you have picked up one or two of these gifts in your earlier visits to SL, it is so thoughtful of Neve to make all of them available in one package!

Free Store Credit or Gift Cards

This year, quite a few stores are offering the gift of free store credit or gift cards (once again, all links are SLURLs to take you directly to the store locations in the Shop & Hop mall where you can slap the boards to obtain these offers):

  • Bumblebee‘s gift is L$500 gift card, to spend as you wish in their store;
  • EscalateD Hair is also offering L$500 free store credit;
  • Glitzz is giving away L$500 in free store credit, too;
  • Salt & Pepper is giving you L$250 in free store credit, plus a rather funny outfit;
  • Tachinni Clothing is offering L$150 in free store credit to everybody, and an additional L$350 store credit if you join their group (the group join fee is L$15);
  • and ViSion is giving away a fatpack of women’s leggings, plus L$500 in store credit to anyone who joins the ViSion group (the group join fee is only L$18).

And that’s it for me today! Happy freebie shopping! Remember that you have until January 3rd to scoop up all of these items, plus many more fabulous freebies.

UPDATE Dec. 15th, 2020: I forgot to mention yet another free gift card offer at the 2020 Winter Shop and Hop! The Annex womenswear store is giving away a L$500 if you join their free group here:

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Hair Fair 2019 Freebies and Dollarbies

Is your avatar in need of a new hairdo, but low on Linden dollars? Fear not, the annual Second Life Hair Fair has arrived! This year’s Hair Fair just opened today and runs until Sept. 1st, 2019, and Vanity Fair has braved the crowds and lag to pick up all the gifts to show you. All are either freebies or dollarbies!

First up is my favourite hairstyle from the Hair Fair, called Hurrah by Ade, which comes in a fatpack of colours (there’s also a free pair of sunglasses you can pick up):

Short, simple, perfect!

Next up is Castle by EscalateD, which comes in a rainbow multicolour pack:

Not exactly to my taste, but you might like it!

Now we have No Penny by no.match Hair, where you get one HUD with a fatpack of colours and a second HUD to change the texture on the hairband:

And here is Jay by EMO-tions, a beaded braided hairstyle which comes with a monotone HUD in various shades of white, grey, and black:

You might prefer this soft, romantic hairstyle by Astrology called Pearl, which comes in a full fatpack of colours:

This is different: an animated hairstyle called GoodyHair by {red} Mint which just comes in this one colour combination:

Here we have Easton by KoKoLoRes, which comes in a fatpack of colours:

This one is called Midnight by Mello & Moth, which also comes in a fatpack of colours:

Tameless has this hairstyle called Wendy, which comes in a fatpack of colours:

The long, wispy Safire hairstyle by Sintiklia comes with a “colours and pastels roots” fatpack, which is not really my thing, so I just tinted the default white hair using the included tinter HUD:

Vera is a nice, casual short hairstyle by Exile. Again, it comes in a fatpack of colours:

Tram, which always has such fun and interesting styles, is offering Hagiiro in two colours: pink (shown) and lilac.

And finally (whew!), we have Anyalia by enVOGUE, which comes in various bright colours (one HUD darker shades, one HUD lighter shades). Here I picked a vibrant shade of red from the darker HUD:

The Hair Fair is always a popular event, so you might just want to wait until later in August or Sept. 1st to pay a visit. As you can see, there are some lovely gifts this year—and lots of hair colour fatpacks, which is lovely to see! Thank you to all the vendors who put out such especially nice gifts this year! Last year’s Hair Fair were gifts were, uhmmm, let’s just say they were a rather mixed bag and leave it at that…

If you want a completely different presentation of the Hair Fair gifts, Roodvosje Rosse of the blog GO DUTCH has pictures showing you several of the colour options for most of the hairstyles for both men and women (including a few I didn’t show you in this blogpost).

Vanity Fair is also wearing:

By the way, the cute children’s cereal box top I am wearing in all these pictures is a free gift from Gato. Just click on the store’s subscriber box near the entrance, and it will be delivered automatically to your inventory! It comes in one size, for Maitreya Lara mesh bodies only (which means it should also work for Altamura mesh bodies as well).

Happy shopping!