Tag: no.match

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Hair Buns!

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One ha’ penny, two ha’ penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons
One ha’ penny,
Two ha’ penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

English Nursery Rhyme, 1700s

I haven’t been blogging as much as I like lately, mainly because of how busy I am at my full-time paying job as a university librarian, and I know that there are lots of news and events happening out there in the metaverse which I am not reporting on!

Lately when I come home from work, I am exhausted, and my favourite means of relaxing and unwinding is, of course, Second Life, where I continue to scour the grid for fabulous freebies. (Remember that most of them I do not blog about here, but I do post notices to my in-world group, the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group!)

I am currently working on a special project with my fellow freebie fashionistas of the Freebie Queens Discord server, where we are drawing up a comprehensive listing of SL stores with free gifts. And it was while I was checking through a first draft of this list that I came across a wonderful freebie: a fatpack of hair buns! These buns come in a wide variety of high-quality hair textures, and have a natural, relaxed (some would say, messy) look to them. I think they’re perfect, and best of all, they’re completely FREE!

It’s part of a collection of previous group gifts offered by L’Etre/Doux. All you have to do is teleport into their store (SLURL), join the L’Etre group for free, and then click on the image of the gift box shown below to receive the package:

The gift box contains many items—earrings, chokers, eyeshadow, face glitter, even a witch’s hat!—but I want to focus on the set of unrigged hair buns by Doux. These hair buns come with 7 different HUDs, each with 18 different textures:

  • blacks and whites;
  • blondes;
  • brunettes;
  • fades;
  • naturals;
  • pastels and ombres; and
  • reds.

Please note that the hairbases are not included, but you usually already have several sets with the Bento mesh heads you purchase or get as gifts, such as this lovely Lilly head, a previous Christmastime group gift from LeLutka:

And because they are adjustable (unfortunately, not resizable), you can easily use them with hats and caps, as I did with this Catwa HDPRO mesh head (again, another previous gift):

Of course, these buns are unisex, so you can rock a manbun as you gallivant around the grid if you so desire! This avatar is wearing a Catwa head with a classic Bakes on Mesh female hairbase I pulled from the LeLutka Lilly gift head:

If you are looking for free hairbases to use with these buns, the No Match hair store in SL has you covered! Just visit the store and look for two gift boxes on the ground (exact SLURL):

These boxes are free, and you do not need to join a group to purchase them. One box contains classic hairbases for a full range of hair colours, plus appliers for Catwa heads and LeLutka classic heads, plus Omega appliers; the other box contains hairbases for LeLutka Evo X and Akeruka ADVX mesh heads.

So what are you waiting for? Move your buns and get these buns! 😉

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the 9th Anniversary Round of the FaMESHed Shopping Event

The ninth anniversary of the FaMESHed monthly shopping event is upon us, and almost all of the vendor booths at the event have a free gift for you! Vanity Fair will model some of those fabulous freebie fashionista finds for you today. Here’s the first look:

Vanity Fair’s entire look, from head to toes, consists of gifts from FaMESHED! She is wearing:

  • Hair: Diana hair by Phoenix (which comes in a full fatpack of colours)
  • Sunglasses: PM N1 glasses, the present from the BONDI booth
  • Top: this double-layered blue-and-white top is part of a complete outfit, a gift from Neve (which includes matching shorts)
  • Pants: these two-tone jeans are the gift from the Pink Cream Pie booth (they come in versions for flat feet and high feet), and they match the Neve top perfectly!
  • Shoes: peppermint Ada pumps by Garbaggio
  • Watch: Lana watch with a fabric wrist strap, the gift from Baiastice

Here’s the second look, once again FaMESHed gifts from head to toe!

For our second look, Vanity Fair is wearing:

  • Hair: Lola by Navy+Copper (comes in a full fatpack of colours)
  • Earrings: Leaf earrings by RealEvil Industries (comes with a HUD with 4 metal choices)
  • Dress: Maddy dress by Seniha
  • Boots: these sexy boots are the Farah tassel boots in gold, the gift from the Gos booth

Here’s the third look, again consisting of free gifts from FaMESHED:

Vanity is once again wearing the Ada pumps from Garbaggio, along with:

  • Hair: No Basics hair by no.match (comes in a full fatpack of colours)
  • Earrings: Triple Tear earrings in azurite from EarthStones
  • Dress: the Star dress in mint by Safira

For our final look, Vanity Fair is modeling:

  • Hair: Dana hair by Sintiklia, which comes with a Colors & Pastels palette as shown above (Vanity is wearing the default colour, right out of the box)
  • Dress with optional belt: Charlotte dress, the gift from the Luas booth
  • Shoes: Debra platforms by UTOPIA Design

The FaMESHed event runs from May 1st to May 27th, 2021. Happy freebie shopping!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the Très Chic Fifth Anniversary Event

It is the fifth anniversary of the Très Chic (“very stylish” in French) shopping event in Second Life, and like most anniversary events, many of the vendor booths have a free gift for you to pick up (you just have to join the Très Chic group for free).

The first item I want to show you today is NOT a free gift, but I just loved it and had to have it! It’s rare indeed for this freebie fashionista to make an impulse purchase when perusing the merchandise for sale at a shopping event. This medium-length Mona Muse bodycon dress by SEUL comes in a pleasing variety of solids and prints, and this print called Ascending was an instant buy for me! (Notice I am still rocking my favourite accessories, the champagne glass from Hive and the wonderful, over-the-top diva cigarette holder by Kunst! I just get such a chuckle when I load up Vanity Fair and she’s still smoking away.)

I’m quite sure that the artist who painted this never in his wildest dreams imagined that they would appear on a dress in Second Life! (I’m assuming this painting was in the public domain, or some art gallery somewhere is gonna be pressed like a panini.)

On to the gifts! Here’s what the gift boxes look like:

First up is this outfit consisting of a top and separate, colour-coordinated skirt from Neve, which both come with a HUD with four colour choices each, plus options to wear the top tucked into the skirt as shown, or untucked.

I have added the beautiful golden Nefert choker from Poison Rouge (which gives me a definite Wonder Woman vibe), as well as the ultra-teased, ultra-high Athina hairstyle by Vanity Hair, which includes a HUD with all the essential hair colours, ombre tones, and even streaks!

This Chic top and skirt (the gift from Scandalize) come in plain and polka-dotted versions. This hair-and-tweed-cap combination from no.match is called No Joke, which comes with a HUD of brown colours and would work equally well for both men and women:

The Lake pulled-back hairstyle by Sintiklia comes with a style HUD, four different kinds of separate left and right bangs, and a HUD of ombre tones. The delightful Seinab top and tartan miniskirt from MOWIE come in a fatpack of colours:

Here we again have the Sintiklia Lake hair again, and the shockingly low-cut red Lola dress By AVALE, which thankfully comes with a separate bra, which comes with a HUD with nine colours and lace textures, paired with the the Queen choker by ANDORE, which includes a HUD with six metal choices, and ten choices for the gemstone:

Here Vanity Fair is wearing an eye-catching, asymmetrical pin-striped dress called Anyka, which is the gift from -zk-:

Now that I am finally done and finished with all the bullshit from Google AdSense, I can actually show you this provocative see-through Marika dress from from Mangue, which at least comes with matching panties to protect your vajajay from public display! The dress and panties come in four colours each: black as you see here, plus white, pink, and red. The black Aimy necklace pictured here is the gift from Nanika.

Our final look is a combination of three gifts: the Nadin grey denim skirt by SAVIN, which goes very well with the lovely floral Camomile top by Eternus. This outfit is topped off with the Très Chic hat by Miu:

Vanity is also wearing:

  • the Kimberly Catwa Bento mesh head
  • the Maitreya Lara mesh body
  • Daria skin by The Skinnery
  • Dasha hair or Lady hair by Truth (when not wearing a gift hairstyle from the Très Chic event)
  • and, of course, my favourite forest green Darcey eyes by Suicidal Unborn!

Happy freebie shopping! The current round of Très Chic runs until June 10th, 2020 so you do have plenty of time to snap up some fabulous freebies for your female avatar (and I would strongly urge you to wait a week or two before you try to teleport in, as the sim is currently jam-packed with shoppers!).

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Pale Beauty

I am in a resolutely foul and cranky mood this evening, for two reasons.

First, I realize that I have spent EIGHTY CANADIAN DOLLARS to change the name of one of my Second Life avatars, which, even for someone who loves SL as much as I do, is an filthy, obscene amount of money; and…

Second, I am still struggling with bouts of anxiety, depression and anger at having to self-isolate in my apartment because of the coronavirus pandemic. I started working from home March 16th, 2020, and I feel as if I am slowly starting to fall apart at the seams, and it hasn’t even been ONE FULL MONTH YET. And today Helen Branswell reports for STAT:

A modeling study on the new coronavirus  warns that intermittent periods of social distancing may need to persist into 2022 in the United States to keep the surge of people severely sickened by Covid-19 from overwhelming the health care system.

The research, published Tuesday in the journal Science, looked at a range of scenarios for how the SARS-CoV-2 virus will spread over the next five years. Those scenarios included variables like whether people who are infected develop short-term immunity — less than a year — or longer-term protection. But, overall, the research concludes it is unlikely that life will return any time soon to the way it was before the virus’ emergence.

2022? 2022?!??

And, just to add insult to injury, I have developed an ugly, painful reddish-brown rash on the backs of my thighs from spending 16-to-18 hour days perched in front of my personal computer, sitting on one of my wooden kitchen chairs, and it has has just made me even more cranky, upset and ill-tempered. (I plan to drive out to my office in the science library tomorrow, to pick up my lushly upholstered and much-missed executive office chair, praying to God that I can fit it into the back of my subcompact car, so I can bring it home.)

As a virtual hermit who largely lives his life on the internet, all of a sudden I can no longer sit for long periods in front of my computer! (So much for my admittedly unhealthy coping mechanism.) In between sessions on my PC, I lie on the sofa, with my legs propped up, rubbing a corticosteroid cream originally prescribed for my eczema on my thighs, seething.

So, no, I am NOT a happy camper today. I am not a happy camper at all.

However, I still take some small amount of pleasure from my weird little hobby of designing a complete Second Life avatar look from head to toe. So tonight, I have plunked down an avatar at the side of the (New) Frank’s Jazz Club, listening to the music stream as I lie on the sofa:

Here’s a few more shots of my avatar from the front:

This avatar is wearing:

Mesh Head: The Limited Edition Bento head from Akeruka (L$1 group gift; the Akeruka group costs L$150 to join, and I would strongly urge you to pick up this Bakes on Mesh head before it’s gone, which comes in eight different skin tones and with matching skin appliers for Maitreya, Belleza, Slink, and Omega-compatible mesh bodies included). The beautiful mesh eyes are also included in the package.

Mesh Body: Juliet by Altamura (a limited-time group gift from Valentine’s Day 2019, which I turn to again and again on this blog; at the time I joined the Altamura group it was only L$50, but it now costs L$100 to join their group; this Juliet body is now for sale at the full price). In order to use the Serenity II skin below, I needed to buy and install the Omega system kit for Altamura (available for L$99 at this exact SLURL), as well as use the free Bakes on Mesh relay available at the Altamura store.

Skin: This beautiful pale Serenity II skin with blonde eyebrows is a Bakes on Mesh skin by Alaskametro (available for free from The Free Dove freebie store). This was my inspiration to get creative tonight!

Hair: This elegant updo is called NO.KEY and is by NO.MATCH (it was a freebie during a short period of time last year when the store was giving away a free gift each day).

Dress: This truly lovely retro Celebrate Spring! dress in opal is by steampunk/historical roleplay outfitter Cog & Fleur, and it was a free hunt prize in their recently-concluded Good Eggs hunt.

Shoes: Jai pumps by Rowne (free group gift; unfortunately, the Rowne store seems to have disappeared from the grid).

Necklace: This is an oldie but a goodie: the Glazed Heart necklace from Eolande’s (remember them? they have long since closed up shop).

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR: L$300 (L$151 total for the Akeruka head, L$50 to join the Altamura group to get the Juliet body, and L$99 for the Altamura Omega system kit)