Hello, all you freebie fashionistas of Second Life!
I have news of not one, but two different free store credit offers at two of the most popular womenswear stores on the grid: Scandalize and Blueberry.
Scandalize
The Scandalize group is once again free to join for a limited period of time (only four days!), so I would definitely urge you to take advantage of it! The regular group join fee is L$100, and Scandalize offers, without a doubt, the most generous group gift wall of any store on the grid.
Once you arrive at the Scandalize store, there will be a panel you have to click on to obtain L$300 in free store credit, which you can spend on anything in the store! Here’s what the sign looks like (don’t forget to activate your Scandalize group before clicking!):
Here are the locations of the two panels in the Scandalize store:
Just click on one, and you will get a blue pop-up window to accept your reward. That’s it! Then you can go shop (but it be more polite for you to leave the sim in order to give other people a chance to get in and obtain their reward, too).
I regret that I do not know how long this offer lasts, or if the free store credits expire or not.
Blueberry
The owner of Blueberry is once again celebrating her birthday in a blow-out fashion with a 48-hour 50% Off Sale!
She writes in the Blueberry group notices (I believe the Blueberry group costs L$20 to join):
There is nothing I would rather do than celebrate it with my Second family – all of you. I am giving away L$100,000 — we will pick 20 berries to give L$5,000 gift cards to! 20 chances to win! Simply love & share on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3mPjJBY
Even if you don’t win, EVERYBODY in Blueberry groups are getting L$500 credit!
To get your credit, look for a notice in the Blueberry group called Blueberry Birthday Event!!! and click on the attachment to get a HUD:
Look for the HUD in your inventory and wear/attach it. It will appear on screen. Just click it, and the L$500 credit will automatically be added to your account! (This credit will expire after two weeks.)
Well, as you can probably imagine, the sims where the Blueberry and Scandalize stores are located are absolutely jam-packed with avatars. Even the adjacent sims (from which you could cam shop) are heaving with camshoppers, too! (If you are not familiar with cam shopping, here is an introduction I wrote, with step-by-step instructions on how to do it.) So please, do everybody a favour: once you get in, pick up what you want, and then GET OUT so that others can get a chance to get into the stores. Thank you!
UPDATE Sept. 25th, 2020: Blueberry has posted an update to her group. The 50% Off Sale has been extended for another 48 hours!
If you haven’t been able to get in the sims, don’t worry! We are extending the sale by 48 hours!
Mangula is a Venezuelan womenswear store in Second Life (SLURL) which is well-known for its detailed, high-quality original mesh clothing and footwear.
Did you know that, at the moment, you can pick up well over 40 different pieces of clothing and footwear for free in their in-store hunt? You are looking for black gift-wrapped packages lying on the floor of the store.
In order to snap up these gifts, you first need to do one thing: click on the subscriber group sign located behind the front desk of the store, opposite the entrance. This action will add you to the Mangula subscriber group. Mangula used to charge L$100 to join their subscriber group (as I wrote before), but recently they have decided to drop the fee, and it is now free to join!
Also, the Mangula subscriber group does not take up one of your limited Second Life group slots. For example, as an avid freebie fashionista with a Premium account, Vanity Fair is constantly having to leave and rejoin fashion groups to stay within her limit of 72 groups. I would gladly pay for an account upgrade which includes a higher number of groups!
Don’t forget that, in addition to all the hunt boxes, there is also a very generous selection of free subscriber gifts you can pick up. In almost all cases, these subscriber gifts are full clothing and footwear fatpacks, not just a single colour! I have noticed that Mangula tends to rotate the items on the Subscriber Gifts wall in-store, so you might want to drop by every couple of months just to see what’s new.
Anyway, here I show you just a few of the gifts I picked up from the hunt. Most gift boxes contain three or four items of apparel which can be combined or layered in various ways to give you several different outfit options. Please note that Magnula apparel only comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara, Belleza Freya, Slink Hourglass, and Meshbody Legacy mesh bodies, plus a fit called “Curvy”, which I assume is for the eBody Curvy mesh body (although I could be wrong).
The Olivia dress in red comes in versions with out without sleeves, plus an optional tooled leather belt:
The Paula outfit consists of a gray turtleneck knit dress with a wide leather belt, and a separate, loose denim jacket to wear over it for those cooler days in SL!
This Leila set is a lovely, simple white minidress with a separate black demin jacket (there’s also a longer, mustard-coloured dress in the hunt gift box):
The Zoe set combines a soft pink top (with detachable sleeves), with faded blue denim capri pants:
There are also many, many other hunt gifts, including footwear; in fact, there are several full fatpacks of shoes and boots to be found in the gift boxes!
I am a big fan of Mangula avatar fashion, and I admire their generosity with the large number of freebies they give away to promote their brand. Given the ongoing economic crisis in Venezuela, I’m sure it can’t be easy to make ends meet! So if you can, please consider spending some Linden dollars while you’re already in the store, to support the owner. Second Life might be his or her economic lifeline!
In fact, the only possibly negative thing I can say about Mangula’s beautifully detailed apparel is that is sometimes increases your Avatar Rendering Complexity quite a bit! So, if you want your avatar to be seen by other avatars properly (as opposed to showing up like a “jelly doll” in their viewers), please keep this in mind.
I don’t know how long the Mangula hunt will last (or, for that matter, how long you can join their subscriber group for free!), so hurry down to vacuum up some fabulous freebies for your wardrobe.
As you might know, one of my Top Ten tips for freebie shopping in Second Life is to hit the annual anniversary celebrations of the major shopping events, when most designers have free gifts at their vendor booths as a thank you to their customers.
And, to celebrate, there is a free gift which you can pick up at each vendor booth (no group is needed). Here’s what the gift box looks like, you can’t miss them:
Because Uber is so jam-packed with shoppers and browsers, I would strongly advise you to wait until mid-September to pop by and pick up all the fabulous freebies!
(Me, well, once again I couldn’t sleep last night, a common complaint during the coronavirus pandemic, so I was lucky enough to able to teleport into the very crowded sim at 5:00 a.m. this morning, so I could collect all these gifts to show to you as soon as possible.)
Please forgive my use of a pose stand to show off some of these outfits; it’s the only sane way I could get through the dozens and dozens of gifts without going insane!
My favourite gift from the anniversary round of Uber is this charming embroidered dark blue belted skirt by Giz Seorn, which I have paired here with the Brooke top by Blossom&Seeds (the B&S gift also includes matching shorts in the same blue-and-red pattern). The Devorah sunstone earrings, the Uber gift from EarthStones, complete this look. Vanity Fair is all set to head out to the nearest folk festival!
Next up we have a much dressier look, the stylish lilac Charlize dress by Valentina E, with the black leather clutch by Zenith (which comes in a full-black version and the brown-accented you see here):
Here, Vanity is sporting Kaithleen’s rollneck sweater in mint green, which comes with a HUD to tint the collar, hem and cuffs a different colour. Here, I added the gift from Jeune, the Mara jersey skirt in red. The reds don’t match, but I was a man in a hurry…so there is an (unintentional) Christmas feel to this particular outfit!
The Uber gift from Masoom is this daring, backless olive green Imogen jumpsuit, with sexy slits up the side of the legs (and if that isn’t sexy enough or daring enough for you, it also comes in a sheer version!). The Polynesia high-heeled sandals, the Uber gift from Essenz, are the perfect finishing touch. (The sultry side-eye Vanity is giving you is optional.)
Up next we have the delightful, summery Croissant (?!??) dress, the Uber gift from Neve, which comes with a HUD with four different ombre tones as shown below:
The plunging neckline of this next dress, the lilac Tori minidress (the Uber gift from Pink Cream Pie) is the perfect spot to highlight the long, long, long dangle necklace by Mon Chérie, which comes with a HUD to change the metal to one of 12 different colours, as shown. (The PCP gift comes with built-in panties that you can tint to one of 24 colours—or remove completely—via a separate HUD.)
Another one of my favourite gifts from this round of the Uber event are these wonderful rose earrings from Baiastice, which come with a HUD to change the colour of the gemstones and the roses! I think Vanity will be wearing these a lot, as they can match pretty much any outfit!
Chokers are very useful items to have in your SL inventory, and they are particularly handy to hide, say, a slight seam or mismatch in skin tone between your mesh head and body (which sometimes happens to the best of us). Luckily, you can pick up not one, but two choker gifts at Uber! (Well, at least two. There may well be more…but I confess that I haven’t unpacked everything yet!)
The Reckless choker by Avec Toi comes in a complete fatpack, with 36 colours for the leather, and 8 colours for the metal studs:
The high-fashion golden Diane metal choker is the gift from David Heather:
Osmia’s rather bizarre unisex Uber gift is this bucket hat (safety pins included), which comes in a fatpack of colours. Perfect for your next fishing trip! 😉
And (of course), Uber has so, so many gifts of footwear! Here are just a few of them.
From Mangula, we get a complete fatpack of the strappy Leila shoes, which coms in two versions: the ones that have straps going up your calves, as shown, and a second, shorter version that doesn’t go quite as far up your leg:
Seniha’s Uber gift is a complete fatpack of the Caroline wedges, where you have numerous options for tinting each part of the shoe:
Now for something completely different, these awesome black combat boots with the side pocket, the gift from Memoire! These come in sizes to fit both male (Legacy, Belleza Jake) and female (Legacy, Belleza Freya, Maitreya Lara, Slink Hourglass) feet.
Here’s a few more shoes that I picked up (not fatpacks, just single colours as shown) from Vanilla Bae:
And from NX-Nardcotix:
And from Nerido:
And from Decoy:
And finally, these completely over-the-top pink pumps from Breathe:
But I saved the best gifts for last: this cute little stuffed sheep from Le Fil Cassé, called Aggie Snow, which sits on your head, and an absolutely adorable fat red chinchilla, the gift from Foxwood, which comes in two versions, one you hold as shown here (comes with a Bento pose), and another for decoration!
I mean, look at this not-so-little cutie! Look at him!!!! I may just have to go back and buy the entire fatpack of chinchillas at the Foxwood booth!! Awww…
Like I said up top, this round of Uber runs until September 22nd, 2020, so you have loads of time to swoop down and scoop up all the freebies. There are literally dozens and dozens of other gifts not shown here, including many items of home decor.
and the beautiful Sahara eyes by Avi-Glam (a gift from the recent SL17B Shop and Hop event, but they are also a group gift at the Avi-Glam mainstore; the Avi-Glam group costs L$5 to join)
Please note that I am taking the rest of the summer off as a self-imposed vacation from the blog so I can focus on my other work, except for sponsored blogposts, and the occasional exception such as this post. See you in September!
UPDATE Aug. 14th, 2020: I have received word that these fatpacks of clothing are only going to be available for free until August 15th, 2020, so hurry down today!
Scandalize has always been one of the most generous stores on the Second Life grid in terms of free group gifts, with a group gift wall in-store just heaving with free clothing and footwear. It costs L$100 to join the Scandalize store group, but you get so much in return it really is a no-brainer (or watch and wait for times when they have a free group join, too; they usually do it two or three times per year).
Well, Scandalize recently set up an outlet store on their sim, and to kick it off with a bang, you can join a new, free group called Scandals SL Frees & News and scoop up no less than seventy-twofull fatpacks of older Scandalize outfits, all for FREE! This is such an outstanding deal that I decided to break my self-imposed vacation from the blog to tell you about it.
Here’s the SLURL to the Scandalize Outlet store; when you arrive you will be prompted to join the new, free Scandals SL Free & News group (or you can just click on the panel as shown below. Once you have joined the group, just click on the Scandals tag in the corner of each clothing panel to pick up a complete fatpack (i.e. all colours and patterns, including ombre tones in some cases) of that particular outfit!
Most of the clothing comes in sizes to fit Maitreya Lara, Slink Physique and Hourglass, and Belleza Venus, Isis and Freya mesh bodies. Because many of these outfits show a fair bit of bare skin, they might not work well with other kinds of mesh bodes (such as the freebie or paid-for Altamura mesh bodies, particularly around the pelvic area).
However, there are now several free and inexpensive mesh bodies that are Maitreya Lara compatible. One of them is the Atenea mesh body from LucyBody, which is a free Lucky Board prize (more information is available here). Maitreya Lara clothing and Slink footwear fit this body very well, and for only L$197 you can pick up a Bakes on Mesh applier HUD to allow you to wear any Bakes on Mesh skin with it.
Another option for a Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh body is the new Anya full-body (i.e. head and body) mesh avatar by Kalhene, which has recently opened up a small store opposite the N-Core Design footwear store (here’s the SLURL).
For only L$1,695 you get a beautiful, completely-adjustable Bento mesh head and body, with a detailed HUD, complete with a starter wardrobe of clothing and shoes, plus a set of lovely, realistic-looking Bakes on Mesh skins in a variety of skin tones! The Anya package even includes hair, plus an AO for the face, hands, and eyes! All you need to do is add your own animation override (for the body) and you’re all set.
Compare everything that you get in the Kalhene package with paying L$2,750 for the Maitreya Lara body, alone, after which you will also have to shell out for a pricey Bento head (Catwa heads are L$5,000 each), plus pay for skin appliers, etc. etc. You can easily see what a deal the Kalhene mesh body package is (even if you decide to just use the body, pairing it with a different Bakes on Mesh-compatible mesh head).
The Kalhene Anya mesh body
(Note that Kalhene is also selling Alexa, a flat-chested/transgender mesh avatar, which is compatible with Maitreya Lara with the V-tech flat chest add-on, for the same price, L$1,695.)
Now that we’ve discussed Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh bodies, let’s take a look at some of the clothes I picked up for free at the Scandalize outlet store! Here is the Axcid dress, which comes in two separate parts, the dress and the sleeves, in a complete fatpack of colours:
The Clae outfit consists of a cropped leather jacket with a belted miniskirt, which comes in a variety of colours and patterns (the jacket comes in a wide range of colours, including black):
The stunning Scarlett full-length ballgown comes in a complete fatpack of solid and ombre tones:
Finally, we have the sexy Kya romper, where the top, belt, and shorts can be configured via HUD to a wide variety of different colours and camouflage patterns!
I have heard that these 72 Scandalize clothing fatpacks are only going to be made available for a two-week period, so don’t delay! Hurry down and snap up these fabulous freebies before they’re gone!! Happy freebie shopping!
