Ava Rage makes me the Queen of Shopping, and inspires my new profile shot.

While I haven't been blogging about SL, I have been doing my usual bit of shopping, socializing, talking about shopping while socializing, thinking about shopping, and perhaps doing some shopping.

One of the ways I do that in SL is groups, the Fashion Emergency, and the Maitreya Lara group in particular.  In these groups I talk with other fashionistas like LaDonna Upshaw, Vivienne Graves, and the maker of posestands, and other photoprops, Ava Rage.

These people have been among my fashion enablers over the past years.  Now recently we were talking skins and Ava mentioned she uses the Lumae Eirtae.  I told her that while I had the Eirtae it wasn't quite me and I mentioned it was the Melusine that I'd picked up at some fantasy event...and then she said something like "CC, that's a special edition version, theres a regular version!."  Then I have my Don Draper moment and say "What?"  Then, relatively quickly, meaning the next day, I go visit Lumae.

Now my readers and flickr followers have seen Lumae's fantasy skins here before, the Dark Elf-ish Hecate, the Devilish Naamah and the Wicked Green Orismer.  I liked them quite a bit and liked them after I picked up my Catwa Tumble head.

Now the important thing about skins and appliers for me is "Does it come in a pale enough shade?  Does it suit a redhead?  Is it fairly priced and of goodly quality?"  Yes, yes they do.  I eventually picked up the Eirtae and Ruby sets in T3/Shell and T4/Fawnshades. The T4's because I discovered the T3's weren't quite perfect for some modern looks.  When I mentioned picking up the T4's to Ava she said something like:  "You tanned Freak!"  Which made me laugh because the T4's are STILL pale.  They come with appliers for various bodies, and heads and also for Lumae's ears!  So yes, you can use these skins if you're an Elf like The Blogging Elf.  I would describe the main difference as the Eirtae's being more romantic and softer and the Ruby being more aristocratic and modern, with cheekbones sharp enough to slice bread!

Here we have the Eirtae in T4 with some Pink Fuel Glossy Pout lips and Smokey Boudoir eyeshadow.  Gives me a Gogo from Juicybomb meets Megan Fox sort of thing especially with the Catwa head's slightly parted lips option. Hair is Exile Bewitched.

Here's the Ruby in T4 with some lippie from the Catwa extras lippie hud.  This is about as low femme as I get.  Rather Mariska Hargitay (short hair version) here.  Rowr.  Truth Gaea hair.

Here I'm wearing some the Ruby in T4 with eyeshadow and metallic lipstick from Alaska Metropolitan, from the Anybody Event.

And here is the one I'm going to use for my profile, a very traditional pale "Celtic Rose CC-ish" look with red lips.  And I think I look Kate Winslet's "Rose" from Titanic!

Thanks to Ava, I'm the Shopping Queen.  This is her Chalkboard set.  There are several phrases (coffee, vodka, family, love, etc) , backgrounds, floors, poses you can use.  I find it fun and mentioned wanting MOAR phrases.  We'll see.  Get it at SecondSnaps.  And yes, with Shopping Queen I had to pull out a Tiara.  Don't look at me that way, I have a Tiara and I know how to use it!  Though in all honest I don't really shop all that much compared to most in SL.

SLURLS:

Lumae at Belita

Pink Fuel at Illusory

Exile at Covet

Catwa 

IKON 

TRUTH 

AnyBody 

Second Snaps

Quick Casual Friday, for Mrs. Upshaw-Bouscario

Another quick post while I have the pictures ready.

While I'm known for not dressing casually and usually, but not always, being the most dressed up avatar at my usual hangouts, even I wear jeans sometimes. It depends on my mood, mostly and who is around me.



The cardigan is the Comfy Cardigan from Fri.Day.The camisole is from the late lamented L`Abel brand from Neferia Abel....that was her branding on her modern stuff, it isn't available anymore. How I miss L`Abel, but I did manage to pick up most of her L`Abel inventory in the closing sale.

The Jeans are a new acquisition from Tres Blah, the Juju's, that my friend Clarice gifted me with. That's the black but they come in other washes, and I'll probably be picking up the dark rinse at least. You have choise of three different prim style leg attachments, straight, Flare, and rolled up. (Didn't take the time to do all 3.)

The flats are the Basic.Flats from fri.day.

The hair is a cute modern shaggy style called Gala from Queue Marlowe's Analog Dog, under her "just .b" brand. That's the Fox color, and as I have said, I like Queue's reds.

The skin is the same as the last post I think, yes, yes it is. 5th & Oxford, Fair Subtle 6.

The whole outfit reminded me of the outfits you see the actresses in Swiffer/cleaning supplies/Glade candle commercials wearing, you know, the whole "I'm a cute young mom in a cami and cardi, hip jeans and ballet flats" look. So I pulled out my retro-vac from RC (Redd Columbia):



SLURL to Analog Dog Hair

SLURL to 5th & Oxford

SLURL to Fri.day

SLURL to Tres Blah

SLURL to RC

Beer Barrel Goth

I was in one of those moods, trying to figure out what I wanted to wear next....I was actually wearing trousers, a simple shirt and short hair at the time, believe it or not. Donna Upshaw-Bouscario of FE made a suggestof jeans or goth...said I had to get past the "Ice Princess" That made me laugh, because Grace Kelly is one of my style icons.

So I headed into inventory, and remembered I had a recent dress from Silentsparrow, Selador, I first saw it on retro-fashionista Ceejay Writer in Seraph City. It comes with 3 skirt options.
:
The more gothy victoriany steampunky Woofy version. (Thats what it's actually called in inventory, Woofy!) Nice layering effect on the skirt and underskirt.



Circle, your basic circle skirt:



And pencil, which is what Miss Ceejay was wearing when I first saw it and NEEDED it. I so love a good pencil skirt:



You probably noticed there's a pastie option, which is on the undershirt layer, along with the regular low cut pretty bodice. Boobie shot!



I had these antique embossed tall laced boots from Arwen's Creations. Sort of Victoriany sort of steampunky, with a high, but sturdy heel. They are VERY nice and I want them in RL. I have 3 pairs of these and keep intending to go back and the other colors.



With Truth Andrea Hair, which I think of as Counselor Troi hair, and a 5th and Oxford "Fair NightFall 1" skin heavy on the dark eyshadow with fuchsia lips.



When Mrs. Upshaw-Bouscario saw my pictures, she described them as "Beer Barrel Goth", explaining the post title.

SLURL to SilentSparrow

SLURL to Arwen's Creations

SLURL to Truth Hair

SLURL to 5th & Oxford

Twins, ICING Shimmy and a hair Lament...also starring LaDonna Upshaw!

Fashionistas are insane...I've said that before...or maybe it's just me...anyway it goes with the territory.

It all started with someone looking for a veiled hat...and then mentioning Icing Joan which has a VERY nice hat..and Icing Shimmy which is also nice and matches the Joan colors. So I ended up at Icing hoping to run into other fashionistas and hang out and ran into LaDonna Upshaw. She wore Joan, I wore Joan. Which has been seen on this blog before...I love it so. LaDonna makes VERY nice furniture...her dining room sets are to die for so check out her store Sweet Romance Furniture on South Sea Isle! (and yes, she knows I'm blogging pictures with her)



Twins we were...after I decided to go tan and put on ETD Tyra...which leads to our hair lament.

Neither LaDonna or I have found a good replacement for ETD Tyra in the "low sophisticated updo you can wear with a hat" niche. Not Truth, not Damselfly, not Analog Dog, not even Elikatira has one and I expected her to redo it!

That opinion was shared by both of us, but the following opinion is mine alone. It gets worse....I was wearing Tyra in Mahogany....which Elikatira does not have a replacement color for. None of the Elikatira reds are that dark, and they're all dusty and muddy like her browns as well. and not...shiny. I like shiny clean hair! The only reason I haven't returned to Elika as my hair crack dealer of choice is that her reds are sub par. There, I said it, and I've been wanting to say it for ages. I cannot buy several Elikatira styles that I LOVE the styles of, because of that. I want Elikatira Rhythm soooooo bad. If you like blondes or black's or blues or pinks or a few other colors you're good...and I do recommend ETD (I mean Elikatira) to people. But for me..I can't buy her hair.




This is the new Icing Shimmy, square neck, puff sleeves (which might need adjusting depending on shoulders, slim skirt. You can take it cocktail, or you can wear it as vampy office wear with a pen necklace and updo. It nicely shows off teh boobehs without being slutty. The Joan hats work well with it. LaDonna and I look sooooo goood in it. And Yes, I have the fatpack. Miko owns me and my L$ balance.

Shimmy dress is available at ICING

My skin was a A 5th & Oxford Tan Kitty skin

Shoes were G Field Eve Pumps,