I’ve officially given up on cleaning my inventory. Easter hunts completely wrecked it, and I’m done wasting time trying to fix it. I’m sitting at 106k today, which… I wish was lower, but at this point I don’t even know what to delete anymore.
I did a little shopping this weekend and it made me realize how much I appreciate brands that release a proper pair of pants. I love ISON for that. Most of their stuff actually covers everything and still feels really classy. I can’t even remember which event I picked up these Maisie Corduroy Trousers from, but they’re really good.
Normally I’m very basic. I just wear whatever the newest release is that everyone else is wearing that weekend. But this time I decided to dig deeper into my inventory and put something together that probably nobody else is wearing right now. I remembered this amazing fur coat from Dami, an old gacha from forever ago. The whole outfit ended up being a mix of old and new, plus a few freebies thrown in.
I think I like Gogo as a blonde, but it’s getting harder when some hair brands just don’t do good blonde textures anymore. I don’t know what happened to Stealthic, but the blondes just aren’t hitting like they used to. It didn’t work for this look at all, so I switched to a light brown instead. This hair was supposed to be part of Fifty Linden Friday, but I still ended up paying like L$199 because I needed the full pack just to change the style. Not really a sale if you can’t even use the features, right?
Overall I’m feeling a little burnt out with my inventory, and honestly with where clothing is at in Second Life right now. It feels like we’ve hit a bit of a standstill. I should already have everything I want and need at this point. And yet… I still keep buying things. I guess I’m doing my part to keep the economy going.
Let’s talk a bit more about the new Ridgewood Enclave Commercial shops.
It’s clear that Second Life is still learning and refining things as they go. Since launch just a few weeks ago, we’ve already seen several covenant revisions, likely to better serve residents and clarify expectations. Personally, I’m fine with the rules as they stand, and I plan to keep my current shop long term. I’m Premium Plus Lifetime, after all. I’m not going anywhere.
When I first blogged about these shops two weeks ago, I was settled in a different region with my friends. We hadn’t planned to move. These shops are always in high demand, and being together matters most to us. But when new regions released last week, an opportunity came up, so we decided to move together. We abandoned our shops and claimed new ones at Plaza Mercantile.
I couldn’t be happier. We’re together again, and this time the region has a central pool and plenty of parking, which makes it feel even more complete.
My EEP Shop @ Plaza Mercantile
I don’t have huge commercial ambitions, but I do enjoy having a shop in Second Life. For me, it’s less about business and more about shared experiences with friends. Right now, that experience just happens to be setting up our shops together. From the start, I knew that our enjoyment would depend on clustering near each other so we can promote and support one another. Unlike Linden Homes, where location can be everything, Linden Shops feel more about community than coordinates. That said, I still wanted both. Great neighbors and a beautiful location. I feel like I’ve found that here, and I don’t plan to move again unless a new theme is released.
Tonight, I spent far too long learning how to properly drive and park my cars in front of the shop just to get photos. The 30 minute auto return is honestly a bit tight. My car kept disappearing before I could even take a picture. Still, I love the idea of being able to park outside. It adds so much life to the region.
My JuicyBomb Shop HQ @ PLaza Mercantile
Even with the current demand, I don’t think Second Life should overdo it with these shops. Yes, they’re incredibly appealing, especially since they’re free with Premium Plus, but part of what makes them special is their scarcity. If there are too many, it risks turning into a sea of empty storefronts, and no one wants to be in a dead mall.
Right now, my region feels active and lively, partly because I’m blogging and sharing it on social media. But maintaining that energy across many regions is another challenge entirely. The Lindens and Moles will likely have their hands full enforcing the covenant, so they’ll need to balance expansion with sustainability.
One last thought. I still think these shops should be placed a bit farther from residential areas. Not everyone wants the glow of a neon storefront outside their bedroom window.
It’s already been a year since Glam Affair collaborated with Not Found to create the Ethereal Essence body skins. I tried wearing it for a while back then, but the shine was a bit too much for me, and I couldn’t get past my initial impressions. I ended up switching to Session Athena body skins, which I still love. That said, I’ve been wanting to go back to Ethereal Essence because the tones match my face skin perfectly without any blending or adjustments. I really wish Session would release something in those tones because they work so well together.
Anyway, onto this new body skin. I say this every time, but did I need another one? No. Did I want one that was actually made to match my face skin perfectly? Yes. I tried on the new Idol body skins from Ethereal Essence and the first thing I noticed was the reduced shine. There’s still some shine around the collarbones and shoulders, but the torso looks so much better now. This body skin also comes with several add on options to adjust or enhance the navel, vagina, cleavage, bone definition, thigh folds, and more. Overall, I’m really happy with both the options and how it looks. I would still add a few of Izzie’s tattoos that I like, such as body veins, foot tendons, and other small details that most people probably will not notice, but I will.
If you’re wearing Glam tones in the 001 to 020 range, definitely check out the new Ethereal Essence body skin because it is a perfect match.
Also don’t miss the Ethereal Beauty Hunt from March 29 to April 12. To celebrate the launch of the Idol body skin line, a few brands are doing free hunts for skins and cosmetics. There is a really nice Glam Affair skin available for free. I’m wearing the lipstick from the Linny gift skin in this post. You can get all 20 tones, you just have to find the gifts hidden around the Glam Affair store.
I was playing around with the Solaris glow in ReShade the other day when it hit me that I can already do this in the Aperture Viewer. This is still my favorite viewer right now, but it looks like the creator’s stepped away from the project since last year, which is really sad. It feels like every third party viewer I end up liking either doesn’t get updated enough or just gets abandoned completely.
This post isn’t about TPVs though, I just needed to say that.
You might’ve heard about the newly released Ridgewood Enclave Commercial shops, or maybe you haven’t. Even when something’s “big news” to some people, most Second Life residents stay in their own bubble and don’t follow updates or read blogs. And that’s fine. A lot of people just want to log in and play Second Life at their own pace.
I’m not one of those people, especially when it comes to Bellisseria.
Last week in the middle of the day, my friend messaged me saying “omg, shops dropped!” We’d been waiting for these for months after the Lindens hinted at them during a land meeting. Even though I already knew I really don’t like the Ridgewood Enclave home theme, I still opened the map, teleported, and claimed a shop.
My Shop
It’s free for Premium Plus, doesn’t count against your tier or your Linden Home, so you really do get to have everything here.
I’m not going to complain about a free perk. The experience has been nice so far. I ended up on a full block with friends because we all rushed over at the same time and grabbed one.
Some people are upset that they didn’t get one, or that the Bellisseria Citizens group heard about it before the official blog post went out. It sounds like it was shared a couple of hours earlier. But honestly, that’s just how things go sometimes. If you’re in the group and paying attention, you’re going to hear things sooner. If you find out later, then unfortunately on a limited release, it’ll be sold out.
There will be more shops. Probably Monday, based on what was said at the land meeting today.
Even though it’s been less than a week, residents are already creating events and websites around the new shops. I’d barely started moving in before I was getting messages asking me to pay for advertising or join groups to promote my shop. No thanks. I don’t want to advertise anything. I just want a quiet little shop. I’m a Lifetime Premium Plus member and I’m just enjoying the perk.
I also think Linden Lab shouldn’t make too many of these. I know the demand is high right now, but the number of shops should stay small compared to homes. If there are too many, Bellisseria starts to feel less like a place to live and more like a mall.
Sparkle’s Shop, the prettiest
When something’s limited, people get weird about it. Sometimes ugly. Or maybe some people just aren’t used to how Bellisseria works yet. If I had to describe it in two words, it would be “sold out.” And that’s not a bad thing.
Some themes are always sold out, and that’s fine. It’s better than being undesirable. We’ve already seen what happens when there are too many. Chalets, Fantasy, Log Homes, Houseboats. They were all in high demand at one point. Now there are more than people want.
We don’t need everything all at once. People move on, and when they do, the community around something new fades too. It’s better to let something stay a little rare.
Also, we don’t need to overcomplicate how people use these shops. If someone wants to pretend to sell virtual coffee, let them. Commercial doesn’t have to mean serious business. We’re all already paying customers anyway, no one deserves a shop more than others.
“Your shop, your way” feels like the right idea. With some rules, just not a million of them.
At the end of the day, this is supposed to be fun.
A small miracle has happened. Glam Affair just released a new skin called Lumi at Collabor88 and it’s pretty much perfect for me. For once, I didn’t have to start layering on tattoo fixes the second I put it on. I actually removed almost all of the usual tattoo layers I normally wear on my face, which honestly never happens.
The skin has a bit of texture and a light dusting of freckles. Normally I’m picky about that kind of thing, but I don’t hate it. Lately I’ve actually been liking skin textures when they’re done well, and this one is. Right now, Glam Affair is easily my favorite skin brand in Second Life. I mean… obviously I’m going to wear my favorite. A lot of other brands are making very similar skins lately, and their ads are almost indistinguishable from each other with all the realistic hair and AI-enhanced images. But when you actually try the skins on, you can really tell the difference between a brand that’s above the rest and the others that feel more like a blurry imitation.
I’m also weeks behind on shopping and blogging because I’ve been completely lost in Game of Homes. There’s been some drama with the newest theme, Copperfield Heights, but that’s a story for another day. I do want to tell it, but it deserves its own post.
Look at this fabulous pose from the Different pose pack by Always Never. Normally I don’t credit poses, but this whole pack is fantastic and, as the name implies, it’s actually different from your usual fashion stands. It’s expressive and even includes a fun cigarette add-on. Available at Anthology.
I’m just a Second Life resident. I’ve been blogging and playing this game, virtual world, whatever you’d like to call it, for decades. I grew up on this platform. I’ve taken thousands of snapshots over the years, raw, unedited, unfiltered. But I’m also the kind of person who leans into new tools, so of course I’m excited about using AI to enhance my photos.
Even when some designers push back loudly with “don’t feed my creations into AI or I’ll ban you from my store,” I can’t help but roll my eyes a little. They can’t ban the entire world. They can’t control what tools residents use in their own creative process. You can ignore the noise and keep using whatever tools you like. What feels insane to me is the hypocrisy. Big brands in Second Life, the ones making a living here, get a huge pass when it comes to AI editing in their ads. They’re showing AI hair, AI clothing, AI bodies, AI environments, all polished up to entice us to buy. That’s fine.
But when a resident retouches a photo with AI, the same residents who are actually spending money and keeping this world going, suddenly we’re untalented pariahs destroying creativity or causing water shortages or whatever the dramatic take is this week. The double standard is wild.
If you like this photo, yes, I edited it with ChatGPT Plus. I pay $20 a month for it. I also pay for Adobe Creative Cloud, Krea, and a bunch of other tools because I genuinely enjoy pressing buttons and seeing what happens. It’s still my photo. It’s still my avatar. I just gave it a glow up.
It’s Galentine’s Day, and two of my favorite girls in Second Life just released the cutest stuff. The kind of things you gift to yourself and conveniently “accidentally” buy for your friends too.
First up is the Versailles Love Cup from Flair, which is definitely Gogo-approved. I love holdables, and I love them even more when there are options so I can match it to my outfit.
Sparkle Skye also just released the Fiona Collection for Gacha Arcana, so if gacha’s your thing, go play. The best part is you can mix and match all the pieces, which is dangerous for me because I’ll absolutely convince myself I need every variation.
I’m currently obsessed with the Fiona ring, which is a Vault item, but don’t ask me to explain how to play Gacha Arcana because I genuinely don’t know. Sparkle tried to explain it to me, and I nodded like I understood, but I wasn’t retaining any of it. I think it has something to do with getting rewarded for playing a lot. That’s all I’ve got.
After I put together today’s outfit, I realized it was giving equestrian vibe. Which is funny because I don’t plan outfits based on themes. I wear things based on whatever pops up on my radar.
Like this Stella top from Tres Blah, which popped up again because it’s on sale. I already owned it, so I just grabbed a redelivery for LaraX and suddenly it felt like I bought something new without spending money. I love when brands update older items for previous customers. It’s one of the few things in SL that still feels genuinely nice.
This new hat hairstyle is from Wings, and you can customize the logo area with your own text. I made it my name because the template was easy to use with clear instructions. I normally don’t customize anything because I’m lazy, but this one was worth the effort.
While Gacha Arcana from MadPea is fresh on my mind, I want to say something as a resident and customer. I think there are way too many events in Second Life, and I’m saying that as someone whose main hobby in SL is literally shopping.
Even I only go to maybe one or two events a week, and when I go, I mean I teleport in, hit the brands I already know, buy what I came for, and leave. I’m not wandering. I’m not browsing. I’m in and out.
Meanwhile, every month, I watch event companies create even more events, and all it does is spread the same sales thinner and thinner for everyone.
And to be clear, I’m not personally calling out Gacha Arcana here. This applies to pretty much every event company over the past year that has not only created more monthly events on top of their existing ones, but also added marketplace counterparts, weekend sales counterparts, one-off holiday events, and even brought gacha back into the mix. At some point, all of this stops helping creators and starts hurting them.
Recently I heard that some creators participating in Gacha Arcana noticed the low traffic and lack of sales, so they brought it up with the organizer. The organizer blamed it on the real life economy affecting sales in SL. And yes, that’s true. The economy is weird right now. People are cautious. Disposable income is tighter.
But event organizers in SL also need to take some responsibility for the mess they’ve helped create. When you keep stacking events on top of events, you create an economic downward spiral. The user base isn’t big enough to support an endless stream of new events popping up just because organizers want to squeeze even more event fees out of creators for their own benefit.
If you don’t get excited about a nice pair of wings in Second Life, can you even call yourself a resident? Even though I own all types of wings, from angel wings to fae wings and even wings made out of branches, I still get that little spark of excitement when I find a new pair I don’t already have.
These Briar Wings from Sparkle Skye are currently at Midnight Order. They’re made with delicate branches, tiny pearls, leaves, and strands of twinkling lights that you can turn on and off. I don’t really know where I’m going with this look yet, but I’m honestly just so pleased that they match my dress perfectly.
And can we talk about skins for a second? Why are there so many good ones being released right now? I’m extremely picky, yet I just fell in love with the new Bryce skin from Glam Affair. This skin has some of the nicest lips I’ve ever seen. I honestly wish I could get the default lips on a tattoo layer so I could wear them with everything. Aida Ewing, the creator of Glam Affair, has also been absolutely killing it with the brows. I don’t usually love default brows, but lately I’ve been loving all of them. I still wear the tintable version though, just so I can make them light brown.
Even though I’ve already added enough of Izzie’s tattoo layers to make this skin perfect for me, I still tried on another skin anyway… and of course I love that one too. I’ll save that for the next post. Stay tuned!
Happy New Year! I think the future of Second Life skins is leaning into more textured looks, which adds to realism. I don’t usually love textured skins, but they do look so much more realistic than the smooth, flat skin we’re used to. That shift is really obvious with this new Madeline skin from Glam Affair. It’s very textured and very freckled, and while that isn’t normally my preference, I ended up loving it. I did tone it down a little with a few of Izzie’s tattoo fixes, which helped balance everything out.
That move toward texture feels closely tied to PBR, which is now being added not just to environments but to avatars as well. Because of that, I expect skins to keep changing in 2026, adding more depth in ways that make our avatars look more real and less flat. Even though PBR has some interesting moments, I still think it’s unfortunately a turn off for a lot of current residents. Change is difficult, especially when you’ve been around long enough to remember how things looked before. Maybe newer residents, who don’t have that comparison, will like it more.
All of this ties into the bigger picture of where Second Life is right now. When I decided to close my region at the end of 2024, I had a strong feeling that 2025 was going to be a difficult year in real life, and that it made sense to pull back spending in Second Life. I’m glad I stuck to that decision all year and didn’t bring the region back, even though I wanted to at least a dozen times. I also won’t be bringing it back in 2026 because of the economy, both in Second Life and in real life. There isn’t a lot of growth yet, and it feels like the Lindens are panicking.
I recently watched a snippet of an interview with Brett Linden on MetaRealities’ YouTube channel, and what really stood out to me was how much growth is needed for survival. Needed. Not just for Second Life as a company, but for the creators who make a living here. You can only get so much out of the current residents, which is why attracting new people feels so urgent right now.
So I’m ending one year and starting the next in a much calmer mindset. I rang in the New Year in this cozy Eboshi pajamas set from Aurun at Anthology. Comfort and chill is the vibe I’m going for this holiday season, so I paired them with the Not Tired Bow Slips from The Kiwi Co.
I went to Shop & Hop and was on the hunt for something sparkly and festive. This sweet dress is a free gift from PurpleMoon is absolutely perfect for the holidays. I’m serving up hot chocolate from MVT and the To Be Cozy set is also free at Shop & Hop. I did a quick run through the FabFree Shop & Hop shopping guide and grabbed a couple of gifts that caught my eye. I’ll need to go back later and get all of the gift cards and store credit.
You really have to be strategic with huge events if you care about your inventory.
Isn’t this winter hairstyle from Truth just the cutest? The Après Ski style is made by MissAllSunday Lemon for the Truth Collective. I’m such a fan of hat hair with the option to turn the hat on or off. It’s nice knowing you’re guaranteed a perfect fit every time.
This photo was taken at Cherishville. Besides having an adorable name, it’s charming and makes the perfect backdrop for seasonal photos.
