UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the Fifty Linden Fridays Birthday Bash

The Fifty Linden Fridays shopping event, one of the longest-running in Second Life, is celebrating its 12th birthday with a special birthday bash on a dedicated sim, where almost every vendor booth has a free birthday gift for you! Simply join the Fifty Linden Fridays group for free to vacuum up all the freebies!

Here are a sampling of some of the gifts which caught my eye. First up is a hairstyle from Exile Called Erin, which comes in a fatpack of no less than 200 different textures! The lovely Blossom tank top from Flora comes in six different colours.

This Dylan hairstyle is one of three different women’s hair fatpacks available from the Elikatira booth at the FLF Birthday Bash! Moesha is also wearing the gift from Cynful, this purple tube top:

Here’s another one of the Elikatira group gifts, the Penny hairstyle, shown with the present from the Blueberry booth, a fatpack of crop tops with an optional bra underneath:

Now Moesha models the gift from Pixicat, this animal-print River minidress, plus the Happy Glasses from Balaclava!, which come in three different colours.

You can pick up a complete fatpack of these Shelbie platform pumps from Phedora:

The gift from Valentina E. is this green plaid dress called Gigi:

The present from the Luas booth is this tie-dyed yellow bikini:

Finally, the gift from Salem is this beautiful Artemis circlet, which comes with a HUD with 28 different gemstones and eight different metal textures:

If you’re interested in the history of this popular shopping event, Wagner James Au interviews the founder of Fifty Linden Fridays on his blog here.

Here’s your taxi to the Fifty Linden Fridays Birthday Bash sim! As you can imagine, the sim is jam-packed, so you might want to wait a week or two before you try to get in (the event runs until September 3rd, 2021, so you’ve got lots of time to pick up all the birthday presents). Happy freebie shopping!

UPDATE August 21st, 2021: Here’s a handy video showing you all the gifts you can pick up at the FLF Birthday Bash!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Presents From the December FaMESHed Event (Plus a Few Advent Calendar Gifts)

The December round of the FaMESHed Event in Second Life is upon us, and once again, most of the vendor booths have beautiful Christmas gifts for us! There is some really lovely stuff, both for your avatar and for your home. You do have to join the FaMESHed group for free to pick up all the presents.

Here Vanity Fair is wearing two gifts from vendors at FaMESHed: the Christmas Deer sweater from Just Because and the Hanna red heels by Phedora. (The blue leggings were part of the Dec. 4th Advent calendar gift from Appliqué Chic, and are still available today for free, but they will be L$10 after today):

The red Joy throw pillow and the neon Santa hat on the wall behind Vanity are also gifts from FaMESHED, by Fancy Decor and EQUAL respectively.

Now we have the Merry plaid blue zipper skirt (part of the same Dec. 4th Appliqué Chic Advent calendar gift as the leggings in the previous picture), plus a lovely cropped sweater, the FaMESHed gift from Giz Seorn:

Here we pair the red cable knit mohair sweater by COCO Designs with the sexy red thigh-high Cate boots by Garbaggio (my favourite shoe store!):

Next we have the Shayla robe in green from Ricielli, which comes in both closed and open versions (obviously, I’m not going to show you the open one!):

The Scandalize gift is the Nairi dress in black with a separate black lace bralette:

The gift from Neve is this lovely outfit consisting of two separate pieces, the top and the matching skirt:

This is the Jane sweater by RIOT (which comes in green as shown and also in red), paired with the Adriana red glitter shorts by Bombshell. (The RIOT gift box also includes Jasper sweaters for the men.)

Next up is the Scarlett bra and panties, the gift from Belle Epoque, shown with the Punta Cana shoes by Essenz, which comes with a HUD to change the colour of the shoes themselves (3 options: grey, blue, and red), the sole (4 options), and the tie around the ankle (18 options):

Here’s a closeup on the shoes, which like everything Essenz sells, is wonderfully crafted, with much attention paid to details!

Finally we have the Cindy dress in mint green by Kaithleen’s, paired with the Dec. 5th Advent calendar gift from Essenz, the sand-coloured Honolulu shoes:

Here’s a closeup of the Honolulu shoes, which are bit too frou-frou for my taste, but they might be perfect for you!

You do need to join the Essenz group for L$350 to pick up their daily Advent calendar gifts, but all are beautifully crafted footwear, and I think that L$350 for 24 quality pairs of shoes and boots is a bargain.

The hair used in all these pictures is the Dec. 5th Advent calendar gift from Firelight Hair, a curly hairstyle called Melvena (you will have to join the Firelight group for free to use this calendar). The hair comes with a 3-colour HUD to change it to brown, black, or red:

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: The Shop and Hop Christmas Mall Is Now Open!

Have you joined the RyanSchultz.com Discord yet? You’re invited to be a part of the first ever cross-worlds discussion group, with over 150 people participating from every social VR platform and virtual world! More details here


Every year, Second Life hosts a Christmas-time shopping extravaganza called the Shop and Hop. This year’s Shop and Hop runs from Dec. 17th, 2018 to Jan. 4th, 2019, so you have plenty of time to come in, shop the sales, and pick up some fabulous freebies!

shop_hop_dec2018_v2.jpg.2ef228467b31aaff1368afb6cd18b239.jpg

The sims are absolutely jam-packed, sim crossings are a nightmare, and the lag is HORRENDOUS (particularly in the Halcyon sim, where everybody and their dog is trying to get into the Blueberry shop, which is giving away a sweater dress fatpack and a L$250 gift card). But it’s still worth the wait and the hassle to get in! Or you can choose to wait until late December/early January when it’s less busy.

Here are pictures of some of the many freebies available at this year’s Shop and Hop! Every store in the 5-sim mall has at least one free gift for shoppers.

First up is a complete fantasy outfit with wings by Lune Bleue/Silvan Moon Designs, paired with Snowy hair by Limerance (which comes with or without snowflakes, in a complete fatpack of ombre tones):

Shpp and Hop 1 17 Dec 2018.png

(If you find the skirt to be a little too over-the-top, you can detach it, and the resulting dress still looks great! The matching sleeves are a separate item too.)

Next is the Isa dress in olive, the gift from Valentina E, with the Rowne Jai classic pumps (which come in a fatpack of 15 different colours!) and the Era hairstyle by Analog Dog (another fatpack of colours, shown is just the dark browns HUD):

Shop and Hop2 17 Dec 2018.png

Here’s a close-up of the hair (Analog Dog has particularly nicely textured flexiprim hairstyles):

Shop and Hop 3 17 Dec 2018.png

And here’s a close-up of the pumps, which could become a wardrobe staple:

Shop and Hop Jai Heels 17 Dec 2018.png

This is the Blueberry gift, a low-cut sweater dress, which comes in both a tight version and a looser version, with a dizzying choice of colours in the included HUD (and it even includes the panties!):

Shop and Hop 4 17 Dec 2018.png

Next up is a wonderfully detailed black maxi corset from Atreum, paired with a stylish Homberg hat by ICONIC:

Shop and Hop 5 17 Dec 2018.png

Shop and Hop 6 17 Dec 2018.png

Finally, we have another three Shop and Hop gifts shown together in one look: the cheeky “Sorry, Santa” red dress by Envious, paired with the fun Orra hairstyle by Elikatira, plus these awesome Clelia platform shoes from Phedora, which come with a 22-colour HUD:

Shop and Hop 7 17 Dec 2018.png

Shop and Hop 8 17 Dec 2018.png

You can even tint each of the inside, sole, base and front of the shoe separately!

Shop and Hop 9 17 Dec 2018.png

And that’s just a small sample of what you can pick up FOR FREE at the Shop and Hop! If you want to see even more of the freebies from this event, longtime Second Life blogger Chic Aeon presents a completely different selection of Shop and Hop gifts in the latest post on her blog, Chic at Phil’s Place.