Once again this year, the popular Bento head creator LeLutka has teamed up with over 50 other Second Life stores to offer you a bounty of Christmas gifts! This year, the Holiday Special runs from December 20th to 30th, 2022. However, please note that last year, all the freebies were unavailable on the final day listed on the poster advertising the event, so I strongly recommend that you do NOT wait until Dec. 30th to pick up these wonderful presents for your avatar!
Yesterday evening, I visited all 54 stores, and I have written up a notecard with a description of each gift, along with an exact SLURL for the location of the gift in the participating store. Please note that in some cases, a sim will have a forced central spawn point, but just save the SLURL from the notecard to your SL inventory, find it in your Landmarks folder and right click on it, then select “Show on Map” from the menu which appears (see image, right). Then, all you have to do is follow the red arrow to find your present!
I also added a few notes to alert you to things like which stores do not need a group join to pick up the gift, and which stores also have other (previous) group gifts which you might want to snap up once you have joined the store group for free. For example, you can pick up the Avi-Glam presents (a nice unisex fatpack of eyes and a male skin) without a group, but did you know that if you join the Avi-Glam group for free, you can pick up eleven free group gifts?
Oh, and did I mention? ALL the stores participating in the LeLutka Holiday Special have removed their usual group join fees (if they had any). Yes, that’s right, you can join all of these groups for absolutely FREE between December 20th and 30th! So, for example, if you join Ives Beauty now, the group join is free, you can pick up the Holiday Special gift plus all the other group gifts of skins and makeup, and after the promotion ends, THEN STAY IN THE GROUP, because it will cost you L$99 to rejoin it later if there are other group gifts announced by Ives Beauty during 2023. This is the time of year to join many of those store groups which you’ve had your eye on, but couldn’t afford to join!
PRO TIP: Did you know that you can turn off the crowd of avatars around you, so all you can see on screen is you and your friends? Just select “Show Friends Only” from the World menu in the Firestorm viewer (see image, left). Poof!!They’re gone! I do this all the time, rather than have my computer get bogged down trying to render all the surrounding avatars at busy shopping events and sales in Second Life.
Anyway, getting back to the list I compiled yesterday… I am doing something a little different from what I usually do (I hope that you will indulge me!).
I went and posted that detailed list of stores, notes, and SLURLs to my own Second Life group, called the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group (just search for “ryanschultz”, all one word, under Groups in Search, and you will find it easily). More information on the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group can be found here. The group join fee is only L$50, and you will find it money well spent, as I often share many bargains and freebies throughout the year, which never make it to this blog!
Now let’s take a look at some of these generous gifts! The gifts from LeLutka and its sister skin store, LeLapeau, are available from one of four sims (please join the LeLutka group for free, and check the group notices for notecards with all the details). The gifts you can pick up here are:
the LeLutka Raven female head (version 3.1)
the LeLutka Quinn male head (version 3.1)
the LeLapeau Elsa women’s skin fatpack
Below, my SL supermodel, Moesha Heartsong, models the Raven LeLutka head, plus three of the Holiday Special gifts from other participating stores (please click on each image to see it in full size):
the Lacey head skin from Koonz, which comes in a full fatpack of skin tones which match Velour body skin (I chose Amber for these pictures);
the Venus muscular limited-edition body skin by Velour, also in Amber (which comes in both Meshbody Legacy and eBody Reborn versions; the Legacy version had some problems in the toes area on Moesha’s Maitreya Lara mesh body, but the Reborn version worked perfectly!);
the Gift hairstyle by Studio Exposure, which consists of a complete fatpack of hairbases, combined with a bun adorned with a large bow, which comes with a colour-change HUD.
And here, one of my male alts (who has the actual, honest-to-God, Second Life legacy name of That Guy 😉 ), is wearing the LeLutka Quinn head, plus two more Holiday Special gifts: the Andrej face skin and shape by Clef de Peau, and the Christian hairbase from Volkstone. (The body skin That Guy is wearing was a gift from last year’s LeLutka holiday event, the Eros Lite soft fit skin in the Moon skin tone, and I picked a version of the Andrej skin in the same Moon skin tone. Unfortunately, there is no male skin gift from Velour this year!) Again, please click on each image to view it in a larger size.
The final look is Lily Pond (yep, that’s her legacy name, too), who is modeling the LeLutka Raven head, plus the following :
The Raven shape from Holloway Beauty for the Raven LeLutka head and the Meshbody Legacy body (I used this shape as my starting point, tweaking the body sliders quite a bit, but the head shape is pretty much still the original from the Holloway Raven shape, I just made the eyes a little bigger);
the Raven head skin from Amara Beauty in the Chantilly skin tone (I used the matching Ipanema body skin from Velour, which was last year‘s LeLutka holiday event gift);
the beautiful Noel eyes from Amara Beauty (they come in a full fatpack);
the Christmas hairbase by Not Found, which goes with this long, long ponytail from Doux! Both are fatpacks, coming a variety of colours. You can pick up each part separately from the L’Etre/Doux and Not Found stores during the LeLutka Holiday Special event.
Please click on each picture int his gallery to see it in full size:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: I have been informed that many of the stores participating in the LeLutka 12 Days of Christmas promotion have already taken down their gifts today, December 24th. You also can no longer access the three special sims where you could pick up the LeLutka gift!
The posters for this event said it runs from December 12th to 24th, but I never know whether or not that means Dec. 24th is included in that date range! I find it very irritating when stores do this, and I do apologize to those of you who had waited until Christmas Eve to try and pick up these generous gifts.
O.K., I am breaking my vow to take a December vacation from blogging to report on a special, time-limited freebie in Second Life! LeLutka has once again this year decided to gift us with two free Bento mesh heads from their Evolution line, Kaya for the women and Logan for the men! These are the full and complete versions, on which you normally would spend thousands of Linden dollars!
It is so hard to believe Christmas is just 12 days away! We know last year we gave away two heads due to the pandemic and to help cheer everyone up, while we are hoping everything will be back to normal soon, we know it will be a little bit longer before it does. We have had a successful year even though we have experienced some bumps along the way, but one thing remains, your support has pushed us to reach new heights, and thanks to you, we are celebrating yet another year in Second Life.
Today, LeLUTKA has worked hard on two new releases (KAYA and LOGAN), but these are a little different… these will be set to L$0 for ALL of our group members from December 12th to December 24th (once this period is done, we will set them to our regular price), while this will not help alleviate the situation around the world, please allow us the opportunity to make this period a brighter one.
We only ask one thing of you, actually, a couple (lol): – Do NOT use hammers as this will impact the performance of the sims. – Take your HUDs off, and anything that will create lag. – Stay time has been limited to 10 minutes per agent, those who remain will be sent home. – And do not idle on the sims, this will ensure everyone gets a chance to grab the gifts.
We have rented a total of 3 sims in hopes that this will assist with the masses, please note: GIFTS WILL NOT BE ON OUR MAIN SIM, as we want everyone to be able to shop for their favorite heads. Take the taxi to one of the following 3 sims for KAYA AND LOGAN:
There’s a lot in these packages! Here’s the contents of the main folder of the Kaya head once you unpack it:
Note that you have 7 more items labelled “Unpack” at the bottom of this folder to unpack: Bakes on Mesh add-ons for LeLutka Classic and LeLutka Evo X heads, hairbases for Classic and Evo X, piercings, gestures—even a Christmas surprise!
Yes, that’s right: these heads come with a HUD to allow you to select whether to use standard-definition LeLutka Evolution Classic skins, or higher-resolution LeLutka Evolution X skins!
The LeLutka group is free to join, but this special offer ends on Christmas Eve, so don’t delay! Expect all three sims to be very crowded, so please be patient.
UPDATE December 13th, 2021: I was able to get a male alt into one of the three sims to pick up the LeLutka Logan head, and I wanted to show you what he looks like, using the default brow and head/body shape included in the package. There are 5 skin tones included in the package, but you will still need to purchase body skin to match (I just picked a skin tone for my Legacy mesh body that came the closest to this head skin, skin tone 3, but it’s not a perfect match). You can also see the eye settings on the included HUD; I have found that the eyes are very adjustable!
One thing which I forgot to mention is that about a dozen other stores are piggy-backing on this generous offer by LeLutka, by offering free gifts of their own! One of these stores is Stray Dog, where you can pick up the following highly realistic skin in three skin tones (again, only the head skin is free; you will still need to buy body skin). I quite like this skin, although it does have a bit of a frowny look to it!
Here’s what the Logan head looks like with the Clef de Peau gift, in one of the Clef de Peau skin tones and adding high-definition eyebrows from the LeLutka head HUD (again, you need to purchase matching body skin separately):
The gift package from Clef the Peau contains head skins in 5 Clef de Peau skin tones and 4 Velour skin tones (Beige, Fair, Peach, and Petal). This is what the beige head skin looks like (the eyebrows are part of the skin; note also that there is a gradual neck face so these skins might work better with a different body skin).
Now, it just so happens that VELOUR is giving away body skins for male and female bodies! The problem is that the tones for the male body skin are called Moon, Pluto, Sand, and Silk! So I had to spend some time testing out combinations, mixing and matching Clef de Peau head skins with VELOUR body skins. Here’s the closest match I could get, the Beige Clef de Pau head skin with the Silk VELOUR body skin. This is the so-called “soft” body skin; if you want ripped muscles and washboard abs, you gotta pay extra for those, sweetheart! 😉
Finally, here is the Not Found head skin on the Logan head, which comes in five different skin tones (the one shown below is the Tanned skin; once again, you have to purchase matching body skin):
Below are my ROUGH NOTES on which stores are offering free gifts as part of this promotion. I have not included a few stores where I really disliked the look of the gift skin or cosmetics (sorry, guys!), and I have not yet visited any of the stores offering the women’s skin gifts (perhaps later this week?).
Note that all of these stores are INSANELY busy right now, so please be patient! I expect things will die down a bit when we get closer to Christmas Eve, which is the final day of these promotions. Even if you get into the sim, you still might have to wait a while because everybody is clicking madly on the same vendor panels to receive their gifts (at No Found, I waited a full fifteen minutes).
Not Found (free group join) BoM male and female skins for LeLutka Evo X (head and ear skin; body skin sold separately) See above for a picture of the men’s skin (I couldn’t show you the women’s skin because the sim is currently, ironically “Not Found”!). UPDATE Dec. 22nd, 2021:Here’s the new SLURL (thanks, Dreamer!)
Clef de Peau (free group join) BoM male and female skins for LeLutka Evo X (head with neck fade and ears in 5 Clef de Peau skin tones and 4 Velour skin tones) Body skin sold separately, but note the VELOUR body skin deal below! (Please see above for a picture of the men’s skin, and below for a picture of the women’s skin.)
Avi-Glam (no group needed) Nice eyes in purple, green and brown (LeL, BoM)
DeeTalez (free group join) Women’s skin for Evo X (see image below)
VELOUR (free group join) men’s Eros Lite skins and women’s Ipanema skins in four skin tones each (also a Black women’s head skin gift). The men’s skin comes in versions for Belleza Jake and Legacy in the following skin tones: Moon, Pluto, Sand, and Silk. The women’s skin comes in versions for Maitreya, Legacy, Kupra, and eBody Reborn, in the following skin tones: Brownie, Chantilly, Ebony, and Porcelain (also a no-nipples version). A package of ear skin and neck fixes for the female skin is included.
The gift from VELOUR is male and female Bakes on Mesh skin for a variety of mesh bodies
Nuve (temporary free group join) A very generous gift of women’s skin for Evo X (see picture below)
Lara Hurley (free group join) Women’s skin for Evo X (se picture below)
Bold & Beauty (temporary free group join) Women’s skin for Evo X (see picture below)
Glam Affair (temporary free group join) Women’s skin for Evo X (see picture below)
Stray Dog (free group join) Men’s skin for Evo X (head & ears only; body skin sold separately) Please see above for an image of this highly-realistic male skin.
Note that some stores which usually charge to join their store group are free to join during this promotion, so you just might want to stay subscribed to them if you have the group space!
UPDATE Dec. 17th, 2021: Here’s what the Kaya head looks like with the default eyebrow and head/body shape, wearing Tome 4 of the included head and ear skin, plus the brown eyebrow tattoo (you can also choose high-definition eyebrows from the LeLutka HUD):
The LeLutka Kaya head with default shape and skin
Unlike the men’s skin gifts up top, the Clef de Peau head skins and the Velour Ipanema LITE body skins do come in two of the same skin tones (Chantilly and Porcelain); the heads also come in the Cloudy, Frost, Ibiza, Rose Kiss, Sienna, and Sunkissed skin tones, and the body skin also comes in Brownie and Ebony. Here’s what the Chantilly Clef de Peau head skin and Velour body skin looks like together:
The gift from Nuve is this Angie skin for LeLutka Evo X, which includes the Bakes on Mesh body skin and ear skin in the package. This generous gift includes 15 different skin tones! Here’s what the Fair skin tone looks like:
Here is the Salma skin from DeeTalez (you must purchase the matching body skin separately, but the gradual neck fade on this skin means you could probably match it with a different body skin). The head skin comes in versions with blonde eyebrows, brown eyebrows (as shown), or a no-eyebrow version. Ear skin, eyeshadow, and lipgloss layers are included in the package/
The Dani lightly freckled head skin from Lara Hurley comes in two skin tones (Pale and Midtone, both with red and brown eyebrow options and matching ear skin). You will have to purchase matching body skin separately, but there is a neck fade in the package which you can use with a different skin (I just reused the Bakes on Mesh body skin from Nuve for this picture):
The gift from Bold & Beauty is the women’s Frozen head and ear skin in 3 skin tones (Amber, Porcelain, and Sand) in 4 different eyebrows each (blonde, brown, dark brown, and browless). Matching body skins are sold separately.
From Glam Affair comes the following women’s LeLutka Evo X head and ear skin in two skin tones (Milk and Fair) in 3 eyebrow options (blonde, brown, and browless). The gift includes a separate package of tintable cosmetics and freckles. Matching body skin is sold separately, but the skins have a neck fade which means you could probably wear them with a different skin.
I also wanted to mention that many stores which are not part of the LeLutka 12 Days of Christmas promotion are also giving away skins for LeLutka Evolution mesh heads over the holidays. Here are just a couple of them:
Koonz (free group join) Two women’s head and ear skins for LeLutka Evo X: Snow (4 Velour skin tones) and Mary (3 Velour skin tones). Body skins are sold separately, but there is a neck blend included in the packages so you could wear them with a different skin, as shown below. Please note that the Velour Ipanema LITE body skins gift mentioned above comes in one of the same skin tones as the Mary skin does (Chantilly).
Koonz’s Snow skin in the Rose Kiss skin tone
Dernier (free group join) Women’s Kaya hear and ear skin for LeLutka Evo X in seven Velour skin tones (matching body skins sold separately). However, please note that the Velour Ipanema LITE body skins gift mentioned above come in four of the same skin tones (Brownie, Chantilly, Ebony and Porcelain); the Dernier Kaya head and ear skin also comes in the Rose Kiss, Sienna, and Sunkiss skin tones.
UPDATE Dec. 19th: I wanted to add a couple more stores which are giving away free skins for LeLutka Evo X (and I also updated the rough notes up top, and added a few more pictures to show you what the skins look like).
ItGirls (no group needed) Women’s Natalia head skin for LeLutka Evo X in 7 skin tones (matching body skin sold separately):
Reed (free group join) Ully women’s head and ear skin in 3 skin tones (Velour body skin sold separately). This skin does not come with eyebrows, so I used the high-definition ones from the LeLutka HUD, as shown here. Please note that the Velour Ipanema LITE body skins gift mentioned above come in two of the same skin tones (Chantilly and Porcelain); the third head skin is called Frost.
Second Life male and female Bento head retailer LeLutka is having a 50%-off sale on all their heads from Nov. 26th to Nov. 30th.
Black Friday is coming up soon and, as in real life, there are bargains and sales aplenty in the virtual world of Second Life! I will be updating this blogpost with information on where you can find listings of Black Friday sales across the grid.
Courtesy of YouTuber NovataSecondLife, here are two Flickr collections of Black Friday sales in Second Life:
One thing that I do find irritating about these collections of pictures on Flickr is that you often have to hunt around in the image to find the store name or logo, while “50% OFF” is often in HUGE letters on the pic!
Perhaps the best and most comprehensive listing of Black Friday sales to date is the one on the Fabulously Free in SL website. Note that some of these sales have already started! For example, Belle Epoque’s 50%-off sale has its final day today, November 22nd, 2021. So please check the start and end dates of each store’s Black Friday sale!
I will be updating this blogpost throughout the week as I hear of especially good deals, and new lists of sales. Stay tuned!
UPDATE Nov. 23rd, 2021 8:29 p.m.: Kalhene is having a 50%-off sale on both their Maitreya-Lara-compatible Analexa mesh body (available here; now just L$999), and their new, curvier Erika mesh body (available here; now just L$1,295). The sale starts today, Nov. 23rd, and runs until Nov. 28th, 2021.
Here is my review of both bodies, which include heads, hair, and a nice starter wardrobe. They were a real bargain before, and they are an even better deal now!
The Kalhene Analexa mesh body is compatible with almost all clothing and footwear designed for Maitreya Lara, and includes a head, a selection of Bakes on Mesh skins, hair, and a starter wardrobe!The Kalhene Erika body comes with three different heads, a selection of Bakes on Mesh skins, hair, and a generous starter wardrobe with ten outfits (the feet are compatible with footwear designed for Maitreya Lara).
Also, While Seraphim has yet to publish its Black Friday sales listing, it did post the following image to Flickr, with a teaser:
Get Those Wallets Ready, Friends! There Are Over 425 Sales On The List And There Are Still 3 Days Until Black Friday!
So, when Seraphim does publish its list, I will be sure to update this blogpost with a link to it! If they do indeed have over 425 entries, then it will be by far the biggest list of Black Friday sales in Second Life! (UPDATE Nov. 25th:Seraphim has now published its Black Friday list! Have at it!!!)
UPDATE Nov. 24th, 2021: Pink Cream Pie is having a 50%-off sale, but the Pink Cream Pie store group will also be FREE to join from Nov. 26th to 29th, 2021! (The group normally costs L$314 to join.)
With your group tag active, you can pick up dozens and dozens of free group gifts on the second floor of the store, including all the group gifts from 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020! So be sure to join the Pink Cream Pie group when it is free to join.
The bountiful group gift wall at Pink Cream Pie
UPDATE Nov. 25th: In addition to a 50%-off sale starting today and running until Monday, November 29th, 2021, Blueberry is giving all members of its Blueberry Store VIP group L$250 in free store credit! Please check the group messages for the HUD to attach and click on to get the credit. The Blueberry Store VIP group costs only L$20 to join, so it’s worth it! Note that the free store credit will expire if not used within two weeks.
UPDATE Nov. 25th, 2021: The Meshbody is having a 50%-off sale on all male and female Legacy mesh bodies, which is an especially good deal! (The regular retail price for Legacy bodies is L$5,000, so that works out to L$2,500 with the 50% Black Friday discount.) The sale runs from Friday, Nov. 26th to Monday, Nov. 29th, 2021. (UPDATE Nov. 26th: Meshbody has increased the discount on Legacy mesh bodies from 40% to 50%, so I have updated this paragraph.)
Also, a reminder: if you are shopping for a new mesh body, that while it is technically not a Good Friday sale, Belleza still has their 50%-off sale on all male and female Belleza mesh bodies (more details here). The male Belleza Jake Bento mesh body is for sale for L$1,500, and the female Belleza Freya, Venus, and Isis bodies are only L$1,250 each, or you can pick up the three-pack for L$2,250! And both the Jake and Freya bodies have excellent support among Second Life fashion designers.
UPDATE Nov. 26th, 2021: I have checked and I can confirm that Maitreya is having a 50%-off sale on the Maitreya Lara mesh body! It is just L$1,375. The petite breast add-on option is L$299, and the flat chest option is L$249.
There’s no notice of this sale in the Maitreya V.I.P. store group, so the news just seems to be spreading via word of mouth. Expect the sim to be very crowded once word gets out on this bargain! (Maitreya had a sale like this last year, too, so I was expecting this.)
Well, Advent calendar season is almost over, and I have spent most of it focused on fabulous freebies for female avatars, but I wanted to blog about some men’s freebies that you can pick up today.
First, please meet Silver Quick, my handsome male alt who will be modeling today’s finds:
Silver Quick is wearing:
Head, Eyes and Eyebrows: the recent group gift of the Alain Bento, Bakes on Mesh head from LeLutka
Body: Romeo by Altamura (a Valentine’s Day group gift a couple of years ago; to use Bakes on Mesh skin on this body, you must first purchase an Omega system kit for Altamura for L$99 at this exact SLURL, and obtain the free Bakes on Mesh kit from Altamura (at this exact SLURL in their in-world store)
Bakes on Mesh Skin: Delphinus by Altamura (included with the Bakes on Mesh kit mentioned above)
Hair: Jamie by Firelight, a free gift available here
Shorts: Alejandro shorts from the starter avatars in the Library folder of your SL inventory
The Altamura Bakes on Mesh kit includes a BoM Omega relay and the Delphinus skin
Our first stop today is NERO N7 menswear store, where (if you join their store group for free), you can pick up a free L$500 gift card, good for anything in the store:
Next, we hit a couple of Advent calendars that are still up!
Donni’s Dollies has an Advent calendar where the odd-numbered dates (plus Dec. 12th and Dec. 24th) have gifts of menswear as well as womenswear (no group is needed). Here is the black and gold tuxedo from December 24th:
No Shot still has their 12 Days of Christmas calendar up, too. Here is one of the 12 menswear gifts you can pick up, a camouflage outfit with boots:
Here’s another nice outfit from the No Shot calendar, which also includes the shoes:
And here’s a business suit outfit from the same calendar, with shoes:
The ACCESS shopping event has many lovely gifts for both men and women (you have to join the ACCESS group for free to pick up these gifts).
Here’s a pro tip to help you quickly find the gifts you want at this and at other events: if you are using the Firestorm viewer, select Area Search under the World menu, then enter a keyword you are searching for (e.g. “varsity”). Then, from the list of search results, right-click the one you are interested in, and select Zoom from the pop-up menu as shown here:
Your camera will then zoom in on the specific giftbox you have selected! All you have to do is click on it and it’s yours! This tip can save you a lot of wandering around at crowded sales events where there are dozens and dozens of vendor booths.
Do a keyword search for “GRAILED” to get this Zion hoodie fatpack by GRAILED, which includes a HUD with 30 different colours and patterns:
And do a keyword search for “Varsity” to pick up this Randon jacket and long sweater combo from Varsity, with two HUDs to change the colour of both the jacket and sweater. You’ll need to alpha out your arms and hands for this hands-in-pockets look!
Our final stop is the Shop and Hop event, where there are a few men’s freebies to pick up. The gift from Etham is this shirt-and-hoodie combo, which comes with a HUD to change the colour of both the shirt and the hoodie individually:
The gift from Mossu is this cheerful Christmas cardigan:
The present from Lapointe and Bastchild’s SWEAR store at the Winter Shop and Hop are these wonderfully-detailed tundra patrol boots, in a camouflage snowflake pattern:
