“We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming…” If you are looking for my blogposts about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, please click here. I have returned to the original purpose of this blog—covering “news and views on social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse”.
Yesterday I received a message from Moonshine Allerhand, the co-owner and designer for four different Second Life stores:
Hey!
We know most of you will stay at home, so I want to gift all my loyal subscribers with L$300 store credit. You can choose your favorite store (Gaall, Vaxer, Sweet Temptations or Chic & Shoes).
You can get the credit only once (March 21-25th) and it will be available for you to use until the end of the month (March 31st).
At each store, there is a large sign advertising the free credit:
Just click on the sign, and on the blue pop-up window that appears, select which one of the four stores for which you want the L$300 credit:
(You might want to visit each of the four store using the SLURLs posted above before you click the Free Credit sign and choose the store; each store has different merchandise.)
Once you have received your credit, just click on the vendor for the item you want (in this example, the Edna sweater and skirt set from Sweet Temptations), In the blue pop-up window, click on the Store Credit button:
You will then be asked to confirm that you want to use your allocated store credit, and the item is delivered to you!
The Edna sweater and skirt set from Sweet Temptations comes in a size specifically to fit Altamura mesh bodies (which this avatar is wearing), as well as Maitreya, Belleza, Slink, and Tonic mesh bodies. The included HUD gives you ten colour and pattern options.
It can be tricky to find free or inexpensive footwear for female avatars, so in this blogpost I will be pulling together all the information I have about finding free or cheap shoes and boots for women.
One wardrobe staple I turn to time and again is this free set of women’s classic pumps by Marquesse, available from the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil on the third floor (here’s the SLURL):
They come in white, black, red, and nude, and fit Slink mesh feet:
Wander around the women’s section of the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil (on both the first and third floors) and you will find many other pairs of free footwear for female avatars, everything from sneakers to thigh-high boots! Here’s just a sample of shoes from Nala Design:
If you join the Rowne group for free, you can pick up this lovely pair of Jai women’s pumps at the Gift Wall in their store (here’s the SLURL), which comes with a 15-colour HUD:
The Jai pumps come in sizes to fit Maitreya, Belleza and Slink mesh feet.
The set consists of flats, mid-height heels, and high heels in four colours: white, red, black, and nude. Here’s a close-up look at the mid heel along with the colour HUD:
Baby Monkey has some nice freebies at a couple of locations. At the Free*Style store you can pick three different sets of footwear—pumps, hiking shoes, and boots—in grey, green, and blue (here’s the SLURL):
Here’s what the Leana pumps look like, along with the colour HUD:
If you go to the Free Dove freebie store, there’s an updated “basics” set of Baby Monkey Leana pumps available in sizes for Maitreya, Belleza, and Slink mesh feet as well as classic avatar feet, along with a 10-colour HUD (here’s the SLURL):
There are many other high-quality freebies in the shoe section at the Free Dove, so be sure to pay them a visit and check out what’s available:
And finally, there are dozens and dozens of pairs of stylish footwear available for only L$10 each in the Baby Monkey sale section, located in a skybox high above the main store on the Keraxic sim (please note: this is an adult-rated Second Life sim, so you need to set your viewer settings to include Adult content if you want to be able to visit the Baby Monkey store). Here’s the SLURL to take you directly there.
Each set comes with a 32-to-35 colour HUD, which should allow you to match just about any outfit you are wearing! This is an incredible deal, so you should visit and flip through the vendors just to see what’s for sale. Depending on the style, there are sizes for Maitreya, Belleza, and Slink mesh feet, as well as classic avatar feet.
Another place to pick up many pairs of free shoes for female avatars is Hilly Haalan. Simply join their group for free and click the panels at the landing point, or the nearby freebie store! Here are just a few examples:
The suede Sonnet pumps (upper right in the bottom picture) come with a 20-colour HUD, and are available in versions for Maitreya, Belleza, and Slink mesh feet. I find myself using them quite a bit.
If you join the Legendaire V.I.P. group for only L$49, you can pick up quite a few pairs of trendy shoes and boots from their group gift wall:
If you join the S@bbia group for free, you can pick up a nice pair of brown penny loafers for free at their store (here’s the SLURL):
If you join the Versov group for free, you can pick up a pair of Jumpov sneakers as a free group gift from their store (here’s the SLURL):
The Jumpov sneakers come in sizes to fit Maitreya, Belleza, and Slink mesh feet, as well as an unrigged pair which you can adjust to fit just about any foot (it also comes in men’s sizes). The included HUD allows you to customize every aspect of these sneakers as you wish!
If you join the Petite Mort & Oubliette VIP group for free, you can pick a couple of neat pairs of sneakers as free group gifts. Oubliette has a pair of floral skull chucks at this SLURL:
And Petite Mort has a nice pair of black floral chucks at this SLURL:
And, if you like flowers on your sneakers, there’s another free pair available at the entrance of the Baby Monkey store at this SLURL:
So, as you can see, it’s not hard to find some fabulous footwear for nothing, or next to nothing, in Second Life! Happy shopping!
So, I decided to grab a spare avatar and take it to the extreme, visiting the following six stores, each of which offers a large number of group gifts, and picking up every single one:
Legendaire (68 group gifts; group is free to join)
Scandalize (86 group gifts; group costs L$100 to join)
Shoenique Designs (29 group gifts; group is free to join)
Virtue (28 group gifts; group is free to join)
Coco Designs (35 group gifts; group is free to join)
Hilly Haalan (63 group gifts; group is free to join)
The Free Dove (where I picked up 152 items; you need to join the Free Dove group for free to pick up the freebies)
Ajuda SL Brasil (where I picked up a whopping 165 items, not counting obviously older system layer/flexiprim clothing styles)
Free*Style Store (12 items)
Sexy Shoppers Freebie Warehouse (63 items; you need to join the Sexy Shoppers group for L$1 to get the freebies here)
What did I get for visiting these 10 locations?
GRAND TOTAL: 701 items of clothing, shoes, hair and jewelry for only L$101 (L$100 for the Scandalize group join fee, and L$1 for the Sexy Shoppers group join fee)!
So, let’s take a look at some of the items we picked up in our shopping binge, shall we? (Please click on each picture to see it in a larger size.)
Look #1:
Mesh Head: Giselle Bento head by Altamura (no longer available for free; this was an Altamura gift from last Christmas at the eBENTO event, and you had to join the Altamura group for L$50 to get it)
Mesh Body: Jenny Bento body by Altamura (no longer available for free; this was a gift last Christmas from the Women Only Hunt)
Blouse: cream embroidered peasant blouse by Petite Mort (free from Ajuda SL Brasil)
Jeans: Thalia jeans from the Baby Monkey capsule wardrobe (free from the Free*Style Store )
Shoes: Classic black pumps by Marquesse (free at the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil; this shoe comes in four colours; note that the Altamura Jenny mesh avatar body has Slink-compatible feet)
UPDATE 11:44 a.m.: A commenter on a cross-post of this blogpost to the Your Second Life group on Facebook told me about another store where you join the group for free, with oodles of freebies! The store is called !Soul, and here is the SLURL.
Thank you for the tip, Susan Giroso! There are 88 group gifts here at this location!
That brings the new grand total to SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-NINE items for only L$101!
Here’s a look at one of the outfits from !Soul, the Delicate Satin Mesh Dress in a floral pattern, with matching boots (there are seven different patterns available for this outfit).
Here is a list of what I consider to be the best freebie stores in Second Life. In these four locations, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find high-quality free clothing, jewelry, footwear, skins and eyes, hairstyles, and even AOs for your avatar. Yes, you can be a truly fashionable avatar without breaking open your piggy bank!
Note that in addition to these four freebie stores, I can also recommend you pay a visit to UniHispana Crea, which has a small but growing collection of freebies for both men and women (more details here).
The Free Dove
First up is the venerable freebie store The Free Dove, operated by Palomma Casanova for over a decade now. Everything here is free. This is definitely a place you want to visit at least once, and probably on a regular basis, as Palomma does solicit and receive new items from designers regularly, and she does weed and update the vendor panels fairly often. Most of the clothing available here is modern and mesh. Note that there is also a men’s freebie section, but there’s not a lot compared to the row after row after row of women’s fashion. You must join the Free Dove group in order to get the freebies here, but the group is free to join.
The Free Dove has what I consider to be the single best collection of free avatar hairstyles on the entire grid, located on a wall at the rear of the cavernous store:
Ajuda SL Brasil
The other freebie store that you should visit at least once is the excellent freebie store at the Ajuda SL Brasil. Don’t let the fact that everything is in Portuguese throw you off; freebies are freebies in any language! 😉 The freebie store is located just a short walk to your left as you arrive at the entry point for this sim. Like the Free Dove, the collection of freebies is updated frequently, so you might want to become a regular visitor to see what’s new. (Note that while everything here is free, not all of it is mesh; some of the clothing available here is the older system layers and flexiprim clothing for classic SL avatars.)
This is where you can pick up a FREE Valentina Altamura female mesh head and body avatar package, just click the large red sign and select “Deliver” from the pop-up menu which appears on-screen:
This freebie store also has vendors for the dollarbie versions of the eBody Classic and the new eBody Curvy mesh avatar bodies for female avatars (the only non-free items in the entire Ajuda SL Brasil store):
The men’s freebie section was recently moved from the first floor to the third floor:
You can take the elevator in the far corner of the store to get there, or just click the large blue Altamura sign at the spawn point to teleport to the men’s freebie section directly:
Free*Style Store
The Free*Style store by Cherelle Capra has quite a few nice freebies available, almost all for female avatars, but BE CAREFUL! She has mixed for-sale items (that you must pay for) among the freebie vendor panels. If you’re not paying attention, you could land up buying something that you had not intended to buy! It’s almost not worth the trouble clicking on all the vendor panels to find the freebies.
Among the freebies available at Free*Style are a basic capsule wardrobe of clothing and three sets of footwear by Baby Monkey, which you won’t find anywhere else. All four sets have a texture-change HUD that allows you to choose grey, blue, or green, and colour coordinate your outfit to your shoes or boots:
Sexy Shoppers Freebie Market
Finally we have a freebie store that I had never heard of before yesterday, when someone in the Second Life Friends group on Facebook gave me a tip. The Sexy Shoppers Freebie Market on the Grouse sim has a small but serviceable selection of freebies, mostly for female avatars. You have to join the Sexy Shoppers group for L$1 in order to get the freebies here.
And there you have it! Four stops, tons of quality freebies! What more could you ask for?
