Ever Been Disappointed in A High End Skin?

The other day, I was given a gift from one of the very well known skin makers. I will refrain from naming the store.

I had never actually purchased anything from this place before because up until recently I had never spent a lot of money on a skin. The most I'd spent was a few hundred at SinSkins and I was always very happy with theirs. All others were freebies and most have been quite good. The first time I spent big bucks was the other week when Free Speerit came out with their new line and well, I went bonkers and bought several and am quite happy with these. \

But, I digress.

So, this store had a gift of a skin and several other items (eyes, lashes, manicure) if you had their store in your picks and I went ahead so I could try out their product having heard so much about it and seeing it on a lot of Avatars around. When I put the skin on - OMG it was AWFUL. Really pitiful. Granted it was full permissions so I can muck around with it but the fact that it was so ugly to begin with was shocking. Huge bushy eyebrows, muddy skin tone and worst of all, the skin color itself was uneven all over. Sort of patchy looking. It wasn't the color that was the problem at all - it definately was the quality.

I'm about to toss it in the trash - maybe I'll play with it first and see if I can correct it but really, I'm just amazed at the low quality of this thing.

Has anyone else ever had this happen?

Yes. I bought one I loved in the demo, but when I bought it...I ended up replacing it within two weeks.

Yes. It's a major reason for trying demos first.

It's far too common for skin makers to make a skin that works only with a limited number of shapes, but not give any tips as to the shape settings to use with it. Patches in the wrong place, strange facial features, and horrible seams around the nose area are common in those cases.

Hmmm stupid question that really has nothing to do with your OP but needed to ask. Do people often change their skin in SL? I change whole avatars a lot,but my human skin is always the same. I read about people owning many skins. I own a few myself,but only because they were freebies,though I never actually wear them. Just curious.

Maybe that's why it was a freebie? Personally, I don't buy overly expensive skins. I happen to wear a pretty expensive one, but it was gift to me by friends. I wouldn't have ever spent that sort of money on it myself. There are plenty of acceptable skins that are quite a bit cheaper.


http://www.secondscripter.com

a prim bandage could be useful for that

I find I'm frequently disappointed in life regardless of what I'm wearing.

Laughing here, because I'm pretty sure I know the one you're talking about and I had the same reaction. I tried it on and it looked like my av had some sort of skin disease.

I will say, I got one of their skins in hunt last Christmas and it was really nice, so I'm not sure what's up with the ones in the freebie area.

I change mine all the time. I do have one I use pretty often, but I've gotten some really pretty ones through groups that just look better with certain themes, so I guess I have about 8 on regular rotation.

Initial SW? If so, that makes me feel a bit better knowing someone else had the same issue and maybe it wasn't just something about my Avi.

/me waves as Rio!

I wore the same skin probably for the first 6 months here. Then, I started collecting freebies from designers. It's the makeups which got to me. Having a different look, to match a dress, or mood. Goth, more demure, high end sophisticated, one with a beauty mark, something tanned, etc. For the most part, I always look like "me", I don't go for anything too far from where I started out but I do enjoy having different looks now.

I searched for months for a skin I really really liked and finally got it as a group gift from Chai. The funny thing is I blew plenty on skins I ended up not liking as much as well as a nice skin from the artist that is just too glamorous to suit me.

Hmm maybe I'll be a deviant today and see what skins are out there. It never occured to me to wear different skins. I live in bubble.



/me waves back at Elora

call me a conspiracy theorist, but is it possible someone else made the skin but somehow faked the creator name? Like modifying an existing skin somehow with their own. Then giving it away free trying to discredit the person? Maybe I've been reading teh forumz too much, but seems to be lots of nasty tricks around.

Rio, you should join some of the skin groups. Many of them give out freebies to try on a regular basis. Chai, mentioned above is one. If you join the Free Style group (I can send you an invite) they are always telling you about or giving freebies of all kinds of things, including skins. Great way to try things. Or, just go and get some demos. But I've gotten lots of incredibly good freebies, most of mine I paid nothing for and they are quite high quality.

No, it came directly from the store, on their wall.

I love my modified freebie skin and my modified freebie shape, and it shows... Or... I show it off often. (^_^)

I've looked at for-sale and 'store gift' skins for quite a while before I found the PST templates I use now... Nothing ever impressed me enough to want to spend monies on it. (=_=)

I did a couple of touchups on my shape this past weekend that finally got rid of my hip-spike-oddities and now I'm even happier than ever. (^_^)y

Um, not me, but I'm VERY picky about my skin, so demo, demo, demo before I buy to not be disappointed...How frequently do we change our makeup in RL? Some occasions require heavier, some less, I'll obviously wear a more tan skin to the beach, lighter in winter, an elegant look to a formal, a clean professional look to meetings or work type stuff, it all depends on the situation and circumstances and whom I'm with?

I have some friends who change their skin (and hair) as often as outfits, but not me, I wouldn't feel like myself then!

I'm frequently disappointed by skins in general, which is why you see me (CS) Vogue 95% of the time. And, yes, I own all but (I think) 4 of the 100+ skins in my preferred skintone and change which one I'm wearing almost every day. Makeup options, ffs!

It varies all over the place. I have only a few skins, and normally always wear the same one (from SecondSkins Labs) but my wife owns (literally) thousands of skins and sometimes changes five or ten times in the course of a day.

P2

I've had shapes really affect my skin. I have one I absolutely love, and have recommended in the past. When my alt got a demo from the same store, it looked really bad on her - if that had been my first experience with one of those skins, I'd have written it off. But on me, it looked really good.

@ Rioko - I have a few skins I like, but I used to wear the same one about 99% of the time. It came with four makeups, but I wore one almost exclusively. A while ago my old shape really started to bug me (it was sort of bow-legged, and the face was kind of flat and artificial with the new lighting) and I gave myself a makeover. My current skin is an inexpensive Eloh Eliot mod, and has something like 8 makeups. I do find myself selecting makeup to suit my current outfit much more than I used to, and I'll throw on one of the old ones every now and then, but I wear the same skin pretty much all the time.

Skins make a huge difference even with the same avatar shape.
That being said, I've used the same skin for over a year -- and shape... but then... I'm perfect.. so why change?
I'm so perfect that LL will have to change the way prim skirts work just to suit my bum. No way am I changing me. (1) I'm nomod, (2) I'm moi!

I have tried out other skins from time to time, and it's amazing how they alone can the whole look. Skin and hair are key.
I have come across skins that were designed to for a particular shape, and this seems VERY logical to me. I never followed up because I'd probably have an expensive stranger on my screen.




And hey! .... misinterpreting the thread title ..... I've never been disappointed even in my medium-end(?) skin.

I bought a pack from Naughty, and eventually bought other singles. I flip them around to change the makeup. I've never been disappointed. But then, those are the only skins I wear seriously.

I have others for modeling but most of them are just not the same quality. But then, I can't call them "high end" either.

I'm happy with my skin - I never change it - my appearance always remains consistent - I only change my clothes or vary my hair between loose, ponytail or bun.

It's always a good idea to try a demo skin of the same type that you are considering purchasing. Take it home, put it on, strip, and check it out in a variety of poses and lighting conditions. If you like it, get it. But if it looks wrong on your avatar, don't.

What looks fine on some avatars may look very bad on others. Facial features will change the appearance of a skin a great deal, as will certain avatar shapes.

A lot of older pre-windlight skins are still sold, but don't look as good with Windlight as they did on the older clients. In particular, a lot of the skins that seem to have too-heavy shading are pre-windlight skins, that needed that shading to not look flat and lifeless with the older clients.

And most skins have their bad points, no matter how good or expensive they are. One of my favorite human skins looks fabulous when I am clothed and/or standing up or laying on my back. But in a number of more, *ahem*, active poses, the shadows that were either painted by the maker, or that were part of the photosampled original art, just look wrong. I mean, it's fine to have a shadow under your bum when you're standing, but it looks pretty odd when you're in some other positions. And finding a good skin that has "position neutral" shading is almost impossible. You *need* that shading to look right, in many cases.

I have some skins with tan lines, some without, some that are great for facial closeups or that have nice makeup, and some that are better for more distant shots. Some that are very graphically detailed, and some that are no more detailed than a barbie doll. The ones that I use the most tend to have several makeup options to choose from.

And Human isn't even my primary form! I'm usually a furry, and there my skin changes depending on what sort of furry avatar I am wearing at that time.