Elika's back.

Yep, she's baaaaack with hair stuffs. The question is...can she take back the mindshare and customers she lost (mostly to Truth, Analog Dog, and Damselfly) by being away/shut down for so long? We'll see. Personally, I think she'll get back some customers but not be as dominant as she was in the old days.

Here's the gist, new textures, more modern primwork. There are fairly nice browns...but....the reds need more work. She simply doesn't have a dark enough red to replace the old ETD Mahogany, the color I based my entire look around.

The good things:

Color numbers: This could let her add new colors, say she could do a dark brown with red highlights and simply call it 10RH. She could do colors inbetween colors and call it say 9.5. It also helps the customer, knowing a 5 is darker than a 1. Pop quiz, which is darker...sienna or chocolate. :-)

The prices: L$200 for 5 colors. Brilliant, a fair good price at the sweet spot in pricing. Most sales of stuffs in SL are of items L$200 or below. More hair makers should adopt the pricing.

The Bad:

The textures...welllllll....she could use more colors, and the reds could use more work I think, or some darker chocolatey reds. A la Clawtooth Hot Chocolate or Truth Blood. The browns seem a touch mousey and faded and not as vibrant and rich as I expected them to be, but she does have a color that could replace the old ETD Chestnut.

The Branding: Elika had a perfectly good brand...ETD. It was simple, it was easy to remember and referenced her name, Elikapeka Tiramisu Designs. It was also fast to find with an inventory search. Why she went with "[e]" and Elikatira is beyond me. Everyone is just going to call it ETD anyway, and slap her new hair in their ETD folder. Never rebrand unless you absolutely have to! (I was opposed to Dazzle rebranding as Last Call too! The name Dazzle had cachet and flair!) And if you do, the new name should be snappier and easier to remember. Frankly...IMHO she should just go back to using ETD.

That said, it's Elika hair, at good prices, and you really can't go wrong with it. She's also going to be doing other stuffs like shoes again, that'll be good. I can't tell if it's Willow modelling the hair in the displays, but she doesn't call the Willow Packs, Willow Packs anymore. :-(

SLURL to ETD Main Store...I mean Elikatira

Oldbie stories

There's a bittersweet post about Oldbie Stories on New World Notes
SL is very ephemeral, there is much that has been lost of beauty, wonder and fun. That's one reason I don't delete much in my inventory and started this blog...to remember.

I came into SL on July 19th of 2006 via a secondlife protocol link to join a vodcast releated chat, so I missed out on newbie island and landed at CC Chapman's Podcast Palace in Shatgogae. It's no longer there, of course.



My home point was in Waterhead welcome area, which is still around and still much the same.





A lot of the older stores aren't around or have changed locations, but my August 2006 LM to Adam n Eve is still quite functional because they're still in Genesis. SLURL to Adam n Eve in Genesis



My oldest Caledon LM dating to late July of 2006 is still quite functional since Caledon On Sea is a hubbed sim



I'm wearing the Spring Flowers dress from Torridwear which I bought about a week in SL. Torridwear is gone....the last thing to go was her poses I think.



My skin is a 2006 era skin from Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot of Tete a Pied (New York shade, Paris makeup, red brows), Fleur and Currently 5th & Oxford They're still around and I still wear their skins SLURL to 5th & Oxford The Tete a Pied makeup box, that you could buy skin from, sits on my vanity table in my apartment in Caledon.

The pearls are by Raven Rosebud of Raven's Creations, who is still in SL, but her store is now Sub Rosa SLURL to Sub Rosa

The hair is "Audrey" from Six Kennedy's Gurl 6. It is still in GurlyWood: SLURL to Gurl 6

And just for fun...I cow danced in Lalique: SLURL to Lalique, home of Luth Brodie's Reel Expression



Sigh, not even Elika calls her "Willow Packs", "Willow Packs" these days. For you newbies, "Willow Packs" were what you call "Fatpacks" they were so named after hardcore SL shopper and blogger Willow Zander

In the old days...things were different, with fewer people logged in at one time (5000 to 7000) it was easier to make a name for oneself. Heck, marketing fashion stuff was easy, you could drop review copies on about 4 people (Willow Zander, Celebrity Trollop, Sabrina Doolittle and Salome Strangelove) and be done! The fashion market is bigger, but more fragmented due to the huge number of stores and amount of stuffage on the grid.

Oh yeah: IIRC "stuffs" and "stuffage" as terms related to SL fashion started on PXP I think, as did "kyoot" What's PXP? Pixel Pinup Online, one of the old big 3 fashion blogs: PXP (Willow, Canimal Zephyr, Arbel Vogel and others, Second Style (Celebrity Trollop and eventually others) and Linden Lifestyles (Sabrina and Salome with assistants) I think the squint-eyed junk in the trunk tattood and pierced grungy look was popularized via PXP (in response to the pretty sparkly party dress look of Dazzle and other places)

I've been seeing more "Tableau Girls" lately, you know what I'm talking about. The cutesy oracul AO, the hand drawn casuals, the "touch of anime" look to their skin, the hair with the headband, the petite cutesy girly shape. For a while there, they seemed to have disappeared, but now they're back.

It would be fun to have an oldbie fashionista gathering of some sort.

Viewer 2.2 Awesome

Now normally when I change clothes in SL, I use the Add to feature, so I can change wherever I'm at and not be nekkid. Well last night I was changing and adding some jewellery....and it didn't replace my old jewellery like it normally did...it went on the same attachment point.

Also, some may not know but you can have multiple clothing items on the same spot...just right click "Add" That applies to skin and the new makeup layers as well. That's right...it would now be possible for skin makers to do their own separate lines of eyeshadows, blush, lippies, etc.



I'm actually wearing four sets of earrings in that pic, and two necklaces on the chest point (and another on the spine) Just before I took that pic I was wearing 2 makeup layers over it...just because I could.

Thank you Linden Lab.

Shiny Things Delphine

Shiny Things Delphine is a 2.foo alpha compatible, high heeled, almond-toed, mary jane pump with a slight platform that is very classic but still subtly sexy. The heel is probably equivalent to about a 100mm heel in RL. So far they only come in leathers. We need suedes and satins Fally!
Love them, they are fabulous shoes!





SLURL to Shiny Things

Icing Equestrienne

Have I mentioned Miko Omegamu is back to making retro pretty stuffage in SL? Yes, yes she is. And if you've seen me in world you've probably seen me wearing some of her recent stuffage, like the Mad Men inspired Peggy dress.

This is Equestrienne a very lovely riding habit. You can wear it either with the skirt (with our without the bustle or with the breeches. I paired it with Lassitude & Ennui's very realistic looking Severan riding boots which are now 2.foo alpha compatible.



SLURL to ICING main Store in Mischief

SLURL to Lassitude & Ennui in Nouveau

Wearing purple for GLAAD Spirit Day

GLAAD Spirit Day


What is Spirit Day?

The idea behind Spirit Day, first created by teenager Brittany McMillan earlier this month, is a simple one, not dissimilar to the idea of "Spirit Week" held in many high schools, and can be summed up in three words: Everyone Rally Together.

Spirit Day honors the teenagers who had taken their own lives in recent weeks. But just as importantly, it's also a way to show the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youth who face the same pressures and bullying, that there is a vast community of people who support them.

Purple symbolizes 'spirit' on the rainbow flag, a symbol for LGBT Pride that was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978.

As one of the event's Facebook pages says: "This event is not a seminar nor is it a rally. There is NO meeting place. All you have to do is wear purple."

Wearing purple on October 20 is a simple way to show the world that you stand by these courageous young people and a simple way to stand UP to the bullies. Remember those lives we've tragically lost, and show your solidarity with those who are still fighting. 'Go Purple' today!

http://www.glaad.org/spiritday

At the Cup of Goodness:



Myself, CoG owner Elisabeth Beurling, Icy Rage, Zana Starsider, Dana Starsider, all showing our support. Thank you to everyone there.

Two lovely avatars.

There are blogs out there that Fug SL avatars, but I sometimes like to show lovely ones I run across.

At the "Cup of Goodness" Sami Mohindi, wearing a lovely Pixeldolls dress, Truth hair and what she said was a Rockberry skin, romantically pretty:



Linda Whitehead, who had paired the top and sweater from Icing's Robot Love with some trousers:



And here I am with her, having paired the Robot Love top with a pencil skirt: