The Skinny on Skins!

** "Resident-Run Websites
If you have your own site about SL like a blog, social portal, or even forums, you can announce, discuss, and promote it here!" Thanks - Lizard Howl

Hi everyone.

We published 11 new reviews last week! Yay! Keep those submissions coming!

Please contribute to our efforts by writing a review of your favorite store (or your own store!) and submitting it to our website.

www.SecondLifeReview.info

Check out Hottie's article The Skinny on Skins and our selection of 8 notable Second Life Skins stores.

What's hot?

What's not?

Who has the prettiest skins?

Who has the worst lag?

Find out now!

www.SecondLifeReview.info/Skins.html

Great Idea! I've been on a quasi-quest to find good skins, but seem to have run into a wall (primarily because I've found some skins that I really like and haven't found anything better - yet. But I'm still looking!)

Unfortunately, the reviews posted so far haven't been that helpful. The amount of lag isn't helpful - I lag everywhere. :/ The fact that demos cost $L1 isn't really important - if you can afford to spend $L1000+ for a skin, then the demo cost isn't an issue.

What I'd like to see are screen shots, lots and lots of screenshots!, on the same model, in similar lighting conditions (the personal lights are nice, but world lighting changes still make a difference on how skins appear. The biggest "externality", i.e., a factor that isn't focussed purely on the quality of the skin, is price, of course, but second is the in-store lighting, especially for stores that give you lots of demos with non-descriptive names, like "Tasha_001" thru "Tasha_015", with bad lighting and no posing stands, so you have to go elsewhere to be able to fairly compare the skin with others. Edited note: And then can't remember that "Tasha_003" is similar in skin tone and makeup to someone elses "Fair York".

I'm looking for quality skins too and scared of spending over L$1000 on a skin I don't like.
I've got some decent freebie skins plus a Japanese maiko skin and a steam punk skin. However I would like some premium skins just to make my human avatar look really good (I'm a polymorph).
I'm after full lipped skins with a look of Scarlett Johannsen or Angeline Jolie.

I believe that Alady has shapes for Scarlett Johannsen and Angeline Jolie both there. I know they have Angelina. The shapes are in the 350 to 795 range, if I'm not mistaken. My only problem with them is that they are no modify. However, the packages do come with a number of body shapes and heights, so in my opinion, they're worth the price. They do have demos available. I chose one of their shapes and then went around collecting demos of skins. So, all you skins vendors, that was me clobbering you with 1L sales. =)

The shape affects the skin and vice-versa and the only thing that I know to do is to just try on as many as possible to find the combinations you like. The two combined make a huge difference, so just buying the skin won't do the trick if the shape doesn't match as well.

Some people say a shape is a rip-off, since you can make your own but some people just don't have the talent to do it themselves. I prefer to try them out and see what I think.

I'm currently using an Alady shape with an Insolence skin. It wasn't cheap but I'm pleased with my appearance now.

I knew of these Alady shapes...I'm a member of the Alady group. I'm looking for a skin that will match up well. Until then I'll stick with my Cryonica freebie shapes.

The store I reviewed called Luscious and Lords has a skin/avatar combo designed after Angelina Jolie. Its called Angelika I believe. I think that the shape may be mod. Check it out. They are sold in 4 packs currently so they are about 3K but talk to the creator...she says she will be selling them individually soon and she is really helpful.

Oh and everyone who is on a quest for skins please do submit reviews of the places you go to. Two reviews could pay for your skin! There are still vast multitudes of skin stores out there deserving a review!

I hope I can be forgiven, but the following comment comes to mind.
Skins--- Female:
Big....
Big butts, big boobs, big eyes, big lips, big hair.

As a RL guy, I really appreciate it when I meet up in SL with females (I can usually tell after a chat) who are not into the "Bigness" There are so many beautiful women who do not pump all those features up like they were some kind of "Beauty Balloon"

And for the male avvies:
Big bodies, big shoulders, big muscles, big "packages"
In other words... pumped up.


Okay- throw those rotten tomatoes if you must.

BTW-- I think I look a little like Ruth.. What's up with that?

*PULL* Tomatoes incoming!

ogood, We blown up fems can join the the "lettle" emo, Neko, "I was raised on Disney" fem avi look! Thanks!!!

Enjoyed your site Lizard posted, is kinda nice to get a little beforehand idea of a place,
I hope lots of ppls submit reviews, infos and experiences.

foehn thanks for the kind words

the good news is we are starting to get more reviews submitted which is great

We will be publishing a few of those tomorrow.

Also stay tuned for Hottie's round up of best places to buy HAIR!

www.SecondLifeReview.info

"Big" is from the shape mostly, not skin. The icons for skin and shape are counter-intuitive, and hence confusing. Skins are textures on the shape, and hence can enhance things like big lips made via the shape (i.e., the actual size and shape of lips are made via shapes, but skins can enhance the effect via heavy lipstick).

As a RL female, I suspect that a lot of SL females are really guys and that's why you need to chat to figure us out. "Big" isn't necessarily a clue - my avatar is very tall BECAUSE I'm only 5'2" in real life. However, when I first started playing SL, I was pretty much disgusted with overly sexually-idealized female forms, so went with more demure, realistic female forms.

Boy, was that a mistake. It was like waving "I'm a real life female" flag over my head. I'm happily married, and although quite happy to meet new friends, I'm not in the least bit interested in making friends with someone who's primary concern is that I'm female in real life.

So in addition to being tall, I got big tits now! And dress like a slut when I want to cruise around and look at things and don't want to be bothered with friendship requests and agonized tells when I refuse. ("tells" are called something else in SL, but I don't play SL often, so I forget. I usually play MMO's.)

But I did have to draw the line at big hair, although it was really hard to find good hair that wasn't big and didn't fly behind me like a flag in a strong wind. I've had long hair for most of my life, and never seen it do that indoors.

I'm not really sure what being a polymorph has to do with it. My husband's avatar is a human red-head, whereas mine is a Eurasian brunette. A skin that looks good on me is horrid on his female avatar, and vice versa.

And by now, after reading what others have posted, you should know that the "full-lipped" look is more a function of the shape, not the skin. Although some lipsticks can increase your lip size, very good skins won't do that.

Don't buy ANY skin that doesn't have a demo. Shapes are harder to demo, since they are so easy to copy through simple observation. (Want big lips? Just move a slider in Appearance mode. Want cherry lipstick with a nice crisp lipliner? You need an artist with a good graphic program, who then uploads the completed "portrait" into SL.)

Your form for submitting reviews is too limited (a screenshot of an avatar placed in context of the review is of more use than a screenshot of the store uploaded out of context of the review. And better yet, more screenshots for comparison purposes, especially for items that are purely graphic, like skins) and requires answers to questions that are not relevant - like: How do you rate the people? Possible responses: "Awesome, they rock." "Good a nice bunch." "Poor rude." You need a "Don't know, don't care, I bought it and never had to talk to them" option.

Those are not skin reviews...they're store reviews with skins mentioned as an after thought.

THESE are skin reviews:

http://lindenlifestyles.com/?p=558
http://lindenlifestyles.com/?p=509
http://lindenlifestyles.com/?p=333
http://lindenlifestyles.com/?p=317
http://lindenlifestyles.com/?p=284

Ah! That explains it, thanks! No wonder I wasn't finding the info useful. I'm more interested in the merchandise, not the stores!