an observation/question - skins adds

So...I was wandering around yesterday and came upon some skins I hadn't seen before....The adds for the female skins were decent....by which I mean the shapes used to display the skin were 'acceptable' but not really the best to enhance the particular skin. I bought a couple after trying them.....
Then I looked over the male skins...... the shapes used for the male skins were just terrible. (and I apologize tho I'm not naming the creator, but this was my immediate reaction) So it got me thinking....I'm sure the male skins were on a par with the female skins in quality....but the avatars in the adds looked so bizarre that it made me wonder.....what are people basing their purchases on?

I see this little glitch a lot when browsing skins. Some of the skin makers seem to really nail it with the shapes they use for their adds.....while others just totally miss the mark and I have to believe it must impact their sales. If I see a skin in an add....on a misshapen face....or one that is just not appealing with the skin....I'm not gonna buy it. I wont even try the demo because that first impression leaves a strong enough perception of the skin that I'll look elsewhere for an add that really enhances the use of the skin.

So.....question....when you are choosing skins....do you notice this? And if you do....how does it impact your decision making?? Sometimes I am tempted to contact the creator and offer to do a shape that really shows off the skin.......but I always refrain because I know that would be an insult and I have no desire to hurt ayone's feelings......
On the other hand....maybe I should market myself for that purpose because even among the skins I've bought (and they are MANY lol) I have tweeked my avatar to make the absolute best of the skins beauty.

Am I being too picky here? LOL

when I buy skins I don't really pay attention to the way the skin looks on the model. I look at the makeups, grab the demos for the ones I like, and go home. There I get nakie, put them on, and look at them carefully. If they don't work with my shape, I don't buy them.

I'm not a guy tho

I do the same, although I try the skins on just outside the shop, after I zipped up a few kilometres. I'm all alone up there, too, and it's easier to find the way back to the store to try out some other skins.

Good skin creators don't necessarily make good Shape creators. I have seen this time and time again. Some really harm their business at the very last hurdle....the "Display Boards".

Then again there are too many that followed the "Dept" store model making everything under the sun.....and you begin to wonder what this particular creator specialises in? What's their forte?

I look at the makeups too.....but honestly the add will be turn off if the face shape isn't appealing. If I like it, I usually just try the demos right there on the spot....I'm only interested in the face anyway.....I'm not naked very much in SL so I don't worry about any other bits LOL

But the flip side of my observation is that every skin is going to look great on 'the right face'. Sometimes you have to create the right balance to get the look you want and that can be tricky. Case in point.....

I was recently asked to do a custom shape and I found a skin in my own inventory that best represented the look this person wanted. The face looked great.....but I then found out she already had a skin that she wanted to continue using....she just wanted to 'look' like this particular celeb. So.....I had to go grab the demo of the skin she uses and re-work the face to make the best use of the skin. I felt kind of awkward about it because I didn't really like her skin choice.....(to me) it looked very flat and lacked detail. But....as it turned out she was thrilled with what I produced and was able to use the skin she wanted.

I guess my point being that any skin can be ultra flattering on the right face.......but that very same skin can look horrid on the wrong face. I guess I don't understand how an artist who can create a skin texture (and I cannot....I suck in PS cause I have no patience to learn skins lol).....and not have the critical eye to form a shape that really shows off their creation. *shrug* I dunno...... maybe it irks me because I am a perfectionist......but I also just kinda feel a pang when I see those rough adds. I want so bad to fix it and make it pretty. LOL is that wrong? LOL

A friend and I demo skins and it's a running joke, if it suits her, it's bound not to suit my shape.
And have run into "oh Sure these are great ...for the maker, not anyone else.."
I look at the over all skin, seams, in different suns.
If the face is killer, I might let the bod slide a little, but not often.

the thing is though, what may be appealing to you, may be repulsive to another, and vice versa

I tend to try demo's, regardless of how it looks in the ad

If it doesn't look good on my own shape, then I just discard the demo and move on.

some do not specialize in anything, some just like to make a little of this and a little of that, with a lot of variety

myself I like to go to a store that has a lot of different stuff.

I dislike going somewhere that has one style of clothing, or one type of skin, or only hair, or just this or only that.

I like seeing it all in one place.

More fun for me that way.

(then again, everyone is different)

When it came time for me to 'outgrow' my freebie skin and make a tall shape I had a very hard time finding anything I was willing to pay for. It's true, I was completely discouraged and even repulsed by most vendor boards. Really, what I was doing was having a problem visualizing the skin on my own face. When I did find demos, I found the 'DEMO' markings too distracting and still had a hard time deciding which was "me". (>_<

After a couple weeks of frustration, I started checking blogs and such, found Eloh's PSD files, and the rest is history. =^-^=

Even now when I find bargain and freebie skins, I usually turn them down. Only one time I got a full-value free store card to get a single skin. I went and got the most pale, blackest makeup option I could find. And, really, still don't wear it very often. (=_=)

I've actually not bought skin because the demo branding was just too much. Just couldn't tell what the skin actually looked like on me. One even has lines drawn on all over the body.

I've had a related problem, though. There was some odd demo mark on the skin, it wasn't the normal word, or lines, or whatever, it was a neat tattoo. I couldn't wear the skin as is because it also had demo written on it. I thought the tat was part of the skin, and so bought it. It looked really neat, really went with a vampire hunter I was creating. Turned out the tat was a demo like thing, not really part of the skin. I IM'd/notecarded the creator but couldn't get that skin with the tat but without the demo stuff.

So . . . I've taken to not buying skin unless the markings are obviously not part of the skin, and the demo markings are not too distracting.

I'm glad I think that I have finally found skin I like, because I had reached the point of giving up on the whole thing.

Ok, I started rambling.

Adboards - yes, I pay attention to everything. The hair choice, the shape, etc. I actually do also take into consideration the hair issue. An add for a skin where they hair plunges down through the arm to stick out the other side. If they didn't take the time to fix that, when they aren't trying to sell hair, but sell skin, well . . . heh, my mind is strange.