It’s still January, so I can say “new year, new face!” I haven’t switched to a new mesh head, as I still adore Lelutka’s Billie Mesh head. However, I have decided to break away from the skin I’ve been wearing since November (which isn’t a long time) and try another brand. This is the Zoe skin from Avarosa. I think I will wear this skin for a while; it’s very cute with some tattoo enhancements.
Left: Avarosa Skin | Right: with extra face highlight tattoos added
I added plenty of extra face highlights to the skin from Izzie’s and Glam Affair. Glam Affair includes face gloss and face shine layers with some of their skins, which I add when I want some additional highlights.
I demo skins every single week, always open to changing my face if I find something I like better. It frustrates me that most skin brands do not offer a browless version for demo. Dear skin designers, I do not like thick brows. Sometimes I can imagine the skin without the default brows, other times I simply move on without purchasing.
If you want to wear this Avarosa skin and get a good match with Velour body skins, just disregard the skin tone name and judge the tone with your eyes. I am wearing the Velour body skin in Valley tone, while this head skin is in Snow tone. I also wore the Velour neck fix and tinted it to match.
Still feeling the sparkly new year vibes, I decided to don this Holiday Gown from Werx. I rarely find full PBR clothing appealing, but I thought the texture on this dress was exceptionally well done. It shimmers just the way I like it, and the colors are as expected. I’m ready to party in this dress, although it’s not the type of attire I can wear with underwear; we’ll pretend it’s still classy.
This Lili Sheer outfit from Mutresse is very well-made and designed. I’m impressed with the thoughtfulness that went into designing this item to have maximum customization options. I’m wearing 3 parts – the Lili Sheer Blouse, Skirt, and Sleeves. They can be worn together or separately, paired with other items.
Why am I so impressed with this item? Just take a look at the HUD! Each of the main parts are texture-changeable, and the edging is also color-changeable. This lil’ detail about the edging thrills me; I just loooove when things have a stellar HUD. Also, my inventory can’t really deal with ‘fatpacks’ with over 100 pieces — thank god for all-in-one HUDs!
I’m at the beach, cos my last few pics were shot on my platform, so I felt like I needed to go somewhere with a more interesting backdrop.
When it comes to music events in VRChat, its hardcore partygoers are happy as long as there’s good music and positive vibes. With only a few optimization hiccups, Slyfest provided such a space this weekend, with a 3-day roster and slick social presence to boot.
Slyfest is a virtual festival aimed at bringing IRL and virtual djs together. It isn’t the first venue to do this, but the ease of real djs announcing they were playing at an event in VRChat was impressive. Loner Online, a well-established dance scene with its own heavy social media presence, is one of the only other venues which does this regularly. The club paired itself with Slyfest for the event, so it’s no wonder this was observed again. Real-life djs also sometimes announce spinning at other weekly virtual clubs, but the crossover isn’t that frequent.
Slyfest’s map design felt top-notch:
Usually in a virtual club like this, you would peer out the window and find a background shader put up to cover the vista, with the exception of places like DDVR and Loner.
Slyfest’s vista is a gently rolling sea with jellyfish floating slowly towards the surface. It’s beautiful.
There was the expectation that the main floor would be different from TheSlyThief’s tribute map to Porter Robinson’s Secret Sky Festival. The same round dance floor was found again in Slyfest, with two whales from the previous map swimming around at the top. None of this was a paid experience, so there’s not a lot of room here to complain. I probably would’ve kept the same tech but changed the shape of the floor, though, to make it a bit different.
The normals on the map were beautiful, and everything was optimized pretty well when the festival wasn’t at capacity (to provide ease with lower end computers, I would have a button to disable video on surfaces except for the main video screen next time). No one can complain at how luxurious the map’s textures were. This is still top of the line work.
Both Slyfest and Virtual Bass should be showcased as the kind of quality VRChat is capable of with digital events, along with Ghost Club.
The real star of the show with Slyfest was the energy. When there were technical issues, people stayed in the Twitch chat and played word games or provided encouragement while the staff figured out the problem. Every festival day was completed with a group photo and shared around with thank-yous. Pregaming, as with other EDM festivals in the game, became its own event. I even wound up at a small apartment with a group of streamers to pass the time until the day 1 festivities kicked off. These events aren’t built-in to virtual festivals, but the way they organically happen are special.
Slyfest is still going with day 3 events. If you don’t want to log into VRChat to attend, you can click here to listen in and watch the festivities.
I haven’t received an update from the Maitreya V.I.P. group in-world for quite some time, so when I saw a notice come through, I read it immediately. It appears that the new push-up breasts is attached to the Vixen dress, an old release. I didn’t even own this dress, but if you did, you could send yourself an update. I purchased this dress solely to try on the push-up breasts, even though I think the dress is somewhat outdated and the texture doesn’t look great. Nonetheless, I am excited that Maitreya Lara wearers are finally receiving push-up options, even though I may not wear this add-on all the time. I am surprised this hasn’t been released as an add-on right away, especially considering the popularity of the Juicy Boobs push-up version for Reborn.
We have updated some clothes at Maitreya again and there is one very special update, because it also contains a NEW add-on: the Push-up!!
At this point the Push-up is only available as part of the Vixen dress (push-up version). If people like the push-up (for LaraX, PetiteX and Lara), we’re thinking about releasing it as an add-on for the mesh bodies. We’d also share it in our creator kits, so designers in SL can create apparel for it. -Maitreya notice
When I tried on this dress, I noticed there was a line along my shoulders where the push-up body part meets my LaraX body. I opened Onyx LeShelle’s profile, the creator of Maitreya, and her profile said, “For questions about Maitreya, you can leave me a message.” I like that I can message the person to whom I paid for support directly. It’s nice to be able to connect with the creator to receive real help. She responded to my question promptly and told me how to fix the issue. It’s simple; just re-select the materials on your body if you see a line.
For all the fans of the Maitreya body, we certainly have something to look forward to in the future!
I went to buy the new Yukata from Edelweiss, and landed right at the Summer Festival. This place is amazing! I think it is ending soon, so grab a friend and come collect some yummy prim food! Join the Edelweiss group (there’s a sign near the entrance) and click each vendor for your free food gift.
How do you feel about a possible Teen Grid/Main Grid merger? Do you want to play SL with people under 18? Do you think this will have positive effects for current SL residents or negative effects?