Saturday, January 18, 2014

Re-Skinning Again

My avatar's skin history is filled with freebies and homemade editions (and a buttload of fantasy skins). It wasn't until April 2009, about two years after I started on the Main Grid, that I finally bought a professionally made skin. After shopping and shopping and shopping, I gleefully dropped a ton of money on two Curio skins (two for me and two for my then-twin alt, Usra), a tanned and a pale one, and debuted them on my blog the next day (here). Quite happly I stuck with them until frustration over matching tones on my SLink mesh feet and hands as well as the introduction of "primplants" that use a system like SLink's to match skins. Shopping commenced. Sadly, Curio hadn't introduced anything despite many rumors that they would. Eventually, I settled on Unbra's "Indigo" line, first blogging about them last July (here).

The Unbra line is still very nice and I've recommended them to many people, including an alt of mine that ponied up the $Lindens to get a set. But I was never super happy that all the faces seemed to have liberally applied makeup. Not just eye shadow, but a generous smoothing foundation. In Real Life, I own one lipstick and I always have to dig for it when I need it (funerals, weddings, and the very rare actual date night). I really wanted a makeup-free skin.

The Skinnery (SLurl) had a nice skin that fit the bill for the September Arcade Gacha and I would love to have used that one, but I gave it away and figured I'd never hit the jackpot with getting just the right one again. I kept pining for updates from Curio and kept my eyes open. When Angela, my wife, started looking for skins I insisted she visit The Skinnery and while there I grabbed a few demos myself. That was a few months ago and I finally took the plunge after looking at the just-released Curio skins I've been awaiting (see here).

Left: The Skinnery's Sasha. Right: UnBra's Indigo C62.
The Skinnery's "Sasha" won a narrow victory over two other really nice ones, including one that is a bargain at the Cosmetic Fair (see here). As you can see above, it pairs up nicely with the UnBra skin so I won't be using Sasha as a replacement, but rather a daily skin while using the older one for dress up occasions. The skin came with no makeup options but the set does have some freckles/blemishes options I have to look at a bit more closely and ways to change the eyebrows. I can always buy matched makeups or rely on the small lipstick collection I have now.

I'm also using the opportunity to go back to elf ears full-time and I might change my preferred eyes to something a bit more realistic. I don't see any need to alter my face or other body numbers, but I might tweak my height down a notch and finally pack away hair I haven't worn in a very long time. All this hullabaloo but I'll still me me, Uccie.

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