Tag: Second Life Skin Appliers

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: INSOL Skin Hunt

One of the pieces of advice that I give out to freebie shoppers in Second Life is that Christmas is the best season for freebies, the time of the year when many stores have Advent calendar gifts and other free items available. (Here’s a complete list of my best freebie hunting tips.)

Well, I am going to amend that advice somewhat and say that one of the best times to pick up fabulous freebies is pandemic season! I’ve already written about The Stay at Home Club, and many other stores on the grid are having “stay at home” promotions.

Among those stores is the INSOL skin and cosmetics store, which is having a Stay Home hunt. Eight tubes of skin applier are hidden all over the sim: in the store and the café, and in the surrounding beautifully landscaped sim. Each skin applier tube costs only L$1 to buy.

However, I must warn you that the tubes are very small and fiendishly well hidden! Also, the store owner discovered the hunt video Cat Pink put out for this hunt four days ago, and promptly moved all the prizes to new locations as a result, so you can’t use that to cheat! You’re going to have to use all the tools at your disposal to find those tiny tubes (here are my top six SL hunting tips to help you out). This is a hard hunt, so set aside an hour or two. I spent about an hour, and found only 3 tubes.

Four of the hunt prizes are skin appliers for Catwa heads, and four are skin appliers for Genus heads (which also work on the free Strong Face mesh head gift from Genus Project, yet another wonderful pandemic freebie that I would urge you pick up). Even better, Insol body appliers in matching skin tones are available for free in store (for Belleza, Maitreya, Slink, and Omega-compatible mesh bodies). Just click the round panel at the front of the store to receive the package of body skin appliers:

This is one of the hunt prizes, the Mila skin applier in the Milk skin tone for Genus heads (here I paired the free Genus Project Strong Face head with the Altamura Juliet body I picked up as a free Valentine’s Day group gift in 2019, using the free Omega skin applier):

Here is another prize for the Genus head, the gorgeous Daniela skin in the Cinnamon skin tone:

Also, a warning: when you do find the tiny skin applier tubes hidden around the sim, just click on them, then pay the Linden dollar to receive your prize. DO NOT RIGHT CLICK AND BUY THEM. I accidentally did that for one hunt prize tube, and it cost me L$900! So please learn from my mistake.

Here’s the SLURL to the INSOL store. Happy hunting!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Male Skins from DNA and Altamura

Every month, L’Homme Magazine SL, a quarterly digital magazine devoted to male avatar fashion in Second Life, offers a number of freebies to members of their in-world group, the L’Homme Magazine SL Readers Group (which is free to join). For November, I would like to focus on a couple of men’s skin gifts.

First up is a skin store that is new to me, called DNA (short for Digital Nude Art). Their generous free gift for November is nothing less than an entire Bakes on Mesh skin package for men!

There’s an unpacker HUD with four file folders, which you click on to receive the skins (there’s one set of skins designed for Signature mesh bodies and another set designed for the TMP Legacy mesh bodies; the Signature skins should work quite well on most male mesh bodies, though).

The package consists of base skin files in a wide range of 64 skin tones, plus 8 “phenotype” overlays to add more definition and realism to the base skins. There are also 8 different eyebrows and 8 different hairbases, both of which are tintable:

So 64 times 8 times 8 times 8 gives you no less than 32,768 possible combinations! That’s pretty impressive for a freebie.

Here’s just one base DNA skin/phenotype/eyebrow combination, shown on a Bakes on Mesh-enabled version of the Altamura Romeo full-body mesh avatar (please note that the hair base I used in the picture below is not a DNA one, but it is one of the ones included in the Altamura Romeo body HUD):

Please note that Altamura mesh bodies do require a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:

  • A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Romeo body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
  • You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)

The November L’Homme Magazine group gift from Altamura is the Orion Ivan skin, in both Omega applier and Bakes on Mesh versions:

The skin is designed for the new Altamura Ivan full-body mesh avatar, but of course it will work well on most male mesh bodies that support Omega skin appliers, or support Bakes on Mesh. Here’s what the Omega skin applier looks like, once again on the Altamura Romeo avatar (using a hair base from the Altamura Romeo body HUD):

This avatar is also wearing the complete summer outfit which is a free group gift from Hoorenbeek (the group is free to join; more details here).

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Multicolour Skins for Male and Female System and Mesh Avatars!

Dressed in my zombie outfit from yesterday, I decided to explore a few monster haunts by searching on “monster” under Places, and I discovered a great place to get skin appliers for your mesh avatar body, in a wide variety of otherworldly hues, at the spawn point for a roleplay community called The Old Road. (The packages include system skins for older, classic avatars.)

Two warnings: First, this is an adult-rated sim, but if you stay in the welcome area, you should be fine. Second, The Old Road sim is dimly lit by default, so you might need to adjust the lighting setting to something a little brighter (see Tip 3 in this blogpost for instructions on how to do that in Firestorm).

Just teleport in, and turn to the right, where you will see several rows of vendor panels, by a store called NM or Nephilim, which I had never encountered before:

You must join The Old Road roleplay group to use these vendors (the group is free to join). Just click the panel and select Deliver from the blue pop-up menu. You can also pay the vendor L$1, and your Linden dollar is automatically refunded.

Please read the symbols on each vendor panel carefully before you buy, as they indicate which mesh bodies and heads each package of skin appliers will work with. For example, some of the men’s skin appliers will only work with ADAM and Slink mesh bodies (and there is no Omega applier). All of the women’s skins do seem to have Maitreya, Belleza, and Slink appliers in the package, and about half of them have Omega appliers as well. Some of both the men’s and women’s skins have appliers for Catwa heads, Akeruka heads, Signature bodies, and Altamura bodies (but, strangely, not Altamura heads). The packages include system skins, so you can also use them with Bakes on Mesh-enabled mesh heads and bodies.

Here’s a zoom-in on a few of the male and female skins, to show you the subtle colour variations, something you can’t get just by using the skin tint HUD on your mesh body. The packages also include system skins for older, non-mesh avatars.

Here’s the male Drink Me system skin, shown here on an Altamura Romeo mesh body and head, which does require a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:

  • A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Romeo body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
  • You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)

The skin comes in three versions of body hairiness (waxed, limbs, and hairy) and in versions with or without eyebrows and a beard. Lots of options! I tinted the mesh fingernails and toenails blue in the Altamura Romeo HUD to match the skin, and wore a pair of blue eyes as well.

The skin maker, Nephilim, does have an in-world store at this SLURL. They appear to have the same skins as those available at The Old Road in a special dollarbie (L$1) skin vendor in their store, as shown here on the right:

The other vendors in the Nephilim store appear to be newer skins, for sale for L$500 each.

So, if you are looking for a special skin colour for your Halloween outfit, or for roleplay purposes, drop by The Old Road or the Nephilim store!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: A Night Out at Frank’s

I still get an incredible amount of personal satisfaction from styling a really good-looking Second Life avatar for as few Linden dollars a possible. (Hey, don’t judge! We all have our little hobbies!)

My litmus test for how successfully I can pull together a female avatar look in Second Life is to take her to Frank’s Place Jazz Club and plunk her down at the bar next to the dancefloor. If I get random male avatars hitting on me within minutes, I know I have succeeded! 😉

So, today I present to you a look that, from the top of her head to the tips of her feet, is all freebies or cheapies, including the mesh body and the Omega skin applier! I was able to do all this for only L$150.

This avatar is wearing:

  • Mesh Head and Body: Juliet by Altamura (Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega compatible with the L$99 Omega System Kit; the Altamura group is L$50 to join)
  • Skin Applier: Mitsu by !OS! (L$1 gift from their Easter Egg hunt)
  • Hair: Amy in mink by Firelight Hair (from The Free Dove freebies store; the Free Dove group is free to join)
  • Mesh Eyes: Realistic eyes by Dossier (from the men’s section of the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil; no group required)
  • Dress: Stretch Tube Dress in berry red (free group gift from COCO Designs; group is free to join)
  • Jewelry: Valentina Special Edition necklace, earrings and bracelet by Lazuri (from The Free Dove freebies store; the Free Dove group is free to join)
  • Shoes: Jai classic pumps by Rowne (comes with a HUD with 15 colour choices; free group gift; group is free to join)
  • Animation Override: Chubby Girl AO by [ImpEle] (free from the SL Marketplace)

TOTAL COST OF THIS AVATAR: Only L$150!