I tried on the new Celia skin by Mila, and my immediate reaction was, “I don’t hate this.” For me, that’s good enough to keep going and see if I can make a skin work. The shine is intense, but since nearly every skin maker in Second Life seems to be adding more shine, pores, and shading directly onto their skins, I thought maybe I should embrace it. It’s supposed to create a realistic, slightly wet look, but it can look strange when your face is glowing and your body skin is completely flat. Some body skins are getting shinier too, but realistically, who wants to look that shiny all the time?
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Celia includes a Shine Reducer layer, although “reducer” might be generous because it barely made a difference. I still needed several layers from Izzie’s to tone everything down, but I didn’t want to make the skin completely matte either. I bought it because I wanted something different, so removing all the shine would defeat the purpose. What bothered me even more than the shine was the pink shading around the sides of the face and chin. If you try Celia, look closely at those areas and decide whether it’s something you can live with because once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop looking at it.
Mila – Celia Skin (with a ton of Izzie’s tattoo fixes added)
This skin is giving me Megan Fox, and although I tried wearing it as a blonde, I don’t think that does it justice. I’ll wear it as a brunette instead. My bigger complaint is the current trend of baking everything directly into a skin. Why not let customers choose whether they want shine, pores, heavy shading, or any of the other extras? Celia even has baked-on eyelashes, which is a total crime against skins. I generally think Mila is a very good cosmetics brand, and Celia was cute enough to convince me to buy it, but between the shine, pink shading, and eyelashes, I don’t think it’s a skin I could wear all the time.
There was an attempt to give George, my male alt, a wardrobe refresh because I realized I haven’t shown him on the blog since… probably last year. I logged in with the simple goal of changing his outfit and taking a few photos, but instead I was greeted with an update for the Signature Gianni body. George was happily wearing Gianni v6.1, and the new release is called Gianni X v7.5. I really should have known that the “X” meant “none of your old clothes are going to fit anymore.”
After trying on a few things and realizing that most of his wardrobe barely worked with the new body, I did what any reasonable person would do and switched him right back to Gianni v6.1. I don’t have time to rebuild an entire closet from scratch, so I’ll either wait for brands like Deadwool to add Gianni X sizes or George will just be living his best life on v6.1 forever. A friend suggested that I switch him over to Belleza Jake because it has better clothing support, but I honestly can’t remember why I picked Signature Gianni when I made him last year. I’m sure I had a good reason at the time. Legacy isn’t even a consideration because… reasons.
So instead of writing the blog post I had planned, I spent the evening wandering from store to store trying to figure out male fashion. I even stopped by Man Cave to grab the latest freebies and didn’t see much for Gianni X there either, which left me wondering how men in Second Life deal with all of this. Women’s bodies are already complicated, but I’ve been shopping for them for years and know exactly which creators I like, which bodies they support, and where to find things. Male clothing feels like learning a completely different game, and I am absolutely a noob who has no idea what she’s doing.
The whole experience reminded me of a funny story from last year when I first made George. I was teleporting around men’s stores and IMing well-dressed avatars to ask where they shopped, and one guy replied, “I don’t have time for this,” before brushing me off. At the time I thought it was unfriendly, but after spending an evening trying to dress a male avatar, I completely understand. I’m not even mad because, honestly, I don’t have time for this either.
Today’s photo brought me to another realization that somehow escaped me until now: couple poses don’t seem to fit anybody. Why can’t we edit multiple avatars with the built-in Second Life poser and actually see those adjustments in-world? Every pose edits fixes only my avatar while my alt just had to make do the pose he was in. By the time finished editing the photo, I realized George’s hands were still locked to the hand pose selected on his body HUD instead of the animation I was using. Oops.
If you have any shopping recommendations for male avatars or some secret trick that makes couple photography less of a headache, please share, because I feel like I’m starting from zero and could use all the help I can get.
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.
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!
I’ll admit that I meant to clean my inventory over the Christmas holiday, but I didn’t do anything. My inventory is still a mess. I’ve also been quietly boycotting the weekend sales for months leading up to the end of the year, because I just couldn’t handle the frustration anymore. I’d see an outfit I loved, only to realize it was an “old item” that the brand never updated for LaraX, even though this body has been out for over two years. On top of that, I get overwhelmed when weekend event galleries turn into endless scrolling through hundreds of items. For my own sanity, I decided to just skip all of it.
That said, I did cave this past weekend when I spotted a skin at a weekend event for L$99 for the fatpack. Some temptations are just too hard to ignore. I’m wearing the Nika skin from Not Found. Normally, I don’t think much of Not Found skins, even though I’ve bought several over time. I usually pass them by because there’s often something that doesn’t work for me: too much shading, blurry shading, heavy pores, things like that. But when I tried on Nika, I saw real potential. I knew that if I layered enough tattoo fixes from Izzie’s, I could make it feel like mine. So here it is, with plenty of tattoo fixes doing their magic.
One thing I really wish skin creators would stop doing forever is baking eyelashes directly onto skins. If they absolutely must include them, they should at least provide a no-lash version, the way some brands already do. I do have a couple of eye layers that can fix it, but honestly, I’d rather just start with a clean skin.
It’s only a few days into 2026, and I already know I want to continue ignoring weekend sales for the rest of the year. I don’t want to overwhelm myself with piles of old, cheap stuff anymore. What are your New Year’s resolutions for Second Life?
Unless you’re new to Second Life, you already know that every December LeLutka gives out two free mesh heads. They’ve been doing this for about five years now, so it’s something residents expect and genuinely look forward to. Weeks before December even arrives, I see people in the official LeLutka Discord asking daily when the “12 Days of Christmas” is starting, with the hype steadily building.
I’ve always thought that if they suddenly stopped doing it one year, it would be a bit of a letdown. Yes, it’s a free gift and no one is entitled to anything, but it’s become a tradition. It’s something longtime customers look forward to and it’s also a great way for new residents to dip their toes in and start the new year with a brand new face.
This year, LeLutka is doing things a little differently. The heads are no longer free for everyone, they’re free for previous customers only. There’s also no 12 Days event this year. While there isn’t a collaborative gift giving event, I’m sure brands will still be generous on their own since they enjoy the traffic and publicity.
LeLutka Holiday Announcement
This year, we will not be hosting our traditional 12 Days of Christmas event.
Real life has been particularly hectic for us, and for the first time in five years, our CSR team truly deserves a proper Christmas break rather than working nonstop through the holidays 🙂 At the same time, our focus has been fully on the development of our new line of heads, which requires an enormous amount of time, testing, and attention. Organising a full event like 12 Days of Christmas also means weeks of preparation, coordination with designers, region rentals, promotions, and constant support, and this year we simply did not have the capacity to do both properly.
The holiday season is about giving, and we appreciate the understanding of our community as we take a different approach this year.
That said, we deeply appreciate our customers and the continued support you have shown LeLUTKA over the years. Because of that, we are still giving back.
The free heads have been added to all existing LeLUTKA customers in our database.
Every eligible customer has been gifted two heads:
Vela, our female head
Rune, our male head
You will find them in the Redelivery terminal, under the “Gifted to You” tab.
Please keep in mind that this is Second Life, and there are a lot of you. The server will almost certainly be under heavy load and may struggle or temporarily fail, much like busy regions do during peak events. Your gifts are there and they are yours. If you do not receive them immediately, you will shortly. Please be patient and avoid clicking repeatedly, as that only puts unnecessary strain on the system.
To our customers, and to every hardworking designer and creator in Second Life, we wish you a peaceful and happy Christmas. Thank you for your continued support, loyalty, and understanding over the years. We wish you all the very best for 2026.
Even though LeLutka is a private business and not Linden owned, it’s such a major part of the Second Life economic ecosystem. So many brands rely on LeLutka staying popular and relevant so they can continue selling skins, makeup, and accessories made specifically for their heads. I’ve always thought it made perfect sense for LeLutka to give away heads once a year. It helps them stay dominant and ensures their partners keep creating products that elevate the brand all year long.
Other mesh head brands have followed this same model, often giving away free heads to capture market share. There are even free LeLutka heads available in the Second Life library.
Unfortunately, for new residents or people who have never purchased from LeLutka, there won’t be a free head this year. That said, I imagine at this point nearly everyone owns something from LeLutka, so the number of people missing out is probably pretty small.
To get the mesh head, you’ll need to go to the LeLutka store and touch the Redelivery kiosk on the wall, or use the Redelivery HUD in your inventory. Here are the details I found posted in their Discord:
This year’s gift heads are for existing customers only. Meaning, only folks who have bought/received something from Leltuka in the past. Everyone in the redelivery system as of the announcement had the free heads added to their redelivery.
If you have never gotten anything from Lelutka before, buying something now or in the future will not give access to this year’s gift heads.
The heads themselves are not at the store. They are not anywhere. They are in your redelivery list.
The heads are in the “Gifted to You” tab on the redelivery page.NOT the main page, you must navigate to the tab for gifted items.
You can access redelivery through the redelivery HUD, if you have it. If you do not have one already, you will have to swing by the Lelutka main sim to get one, or use the redelivery link. And yes, the sim will be full for a while. And it will be laggy when you get in. Please be patient. The delivery server cannot handle everyone having the gifts sent at once anyway, so as always, patience is key.
If you are attempting to have the head delivered and it’s not working, you can’t access the website, get an error, etc. please be patient. Thousands of people are doing the same thing. CLICK ONLY ONCE. Clicking more will just bog it down further, not make it work.
Redelivery HUDs will not be sent in groups, put on MP, etc. It would just overload and break if everyone tried to get on the website at once. Again, please be patient. Thousands of people want to get the gifts, it will take time now matter how it is done.
The heads will be in your redelivery page forever, so there is no “deadline” to get them.
ALSO
PLEASE DO NOT USE A REDELIVERY HUD SOMEONE ELSE GIVES YOU, OR REZZES OUT SOMEWHERE. We cannot verify any of these HUDs are legitimate, and they could be sending you to a website that will steal your data or do some other nefarious thing. Please only use the official redelivery HUD you receive from Lelutka.
I decided to give Vela a whirl and spent many hours last night tweaking the face to perfection. I found the eyes a little droopy on me and a bit challenging to work with, but everything else looks amazing. I’m still wearing the Billie mesh head though. Most of you are probably thinking, “This looks exactly like Gogo!” and yeah, I guess it does. I’m wearing the exact same skin and makeup, so the similarities are definitely there.
Let’s be real though. Even though LeLutka has released dozens of mesh heads by now, most of the grid is still wearing Avalon, the very first EvoX head. This phenomenon should honestly be studied. I tend to move on every few months if a head suits me, but a lot of people don’t like change, and that’s totally fine. Avalon is very similar to the newer heads and is actually the smartest choice since so many skin brands still make skins specifically for it. While you can wear an EvoX skin on any LeLutka head, the head it was made for will always have the best fit.
Have you tried the new free LeLutka mesh heads yet? Let me know in the comments!
Save yourself, don’t go to The Arcade. I normally skip rounds and avoid gacha events, but I saw something I wanted this week. Even though I told my friend I’d play maybe two or three times for these Rift Eyes from Avi Glam, I ended up playing 69 times at L$75 per pull. It’s five times more than I’d normally pay for an Avi Glam eyes fatpack, and honestly, I don’t even think I would’ve paid for a fatpack if it had been sold normally.
The thing with gacha is that it can be very addictive, especially if you want to win a rare and you don’t have a set budget, so you don’t have to stop. You can just keep playing until you win. I gave up on winning the Rare 2 pack on the first day after about forty or fifty pulls and decided to buy it second hand on Marketplace. Then the next day, when I didn’t see anything listed, I played some more. I haven’t played a machine with this much intensity in a long time, so it even surprised me how quickly I lost track of my spending or how fast I was hitting the buy button.
In hindsight, I should’ve stuck to my rule of playing only two or three times per machine, but I ended up going all in on two machines and playing way too many times to collect all the pieces.
Even though I find gacha frustrating, I get the dopamine rush it gives. If you win something you really want right away, it feels amazing. If you find yourself on the losing end, try to remember that you can always buy it later on Marketplace for a fraction of the cost of playing.
Eventually, I did see a few sets listed on Marketplace, but by then, I’d already spent nearly L$6,000 on one machine. Oops.
I didn’t need or even want a new mesh head, but for L$99 I decided to give the Akeruka Milena head a try. I haven’t worn an AK head in a long time, so I honestly don’t remember what I thought of them before. Today I’ll share my honest reaction to this Milena head. First of all, it works really well right out of the box. Since it’s made for EvoX, I was able to wear the exact same skin and makeup that I already use with my LeLutka EvoX head. I didn’t have to press any buttons or change settings to get it to work, it just did, and that was a nice surprise.
As with any new mesh head, I tried to tweak the shape to look like Gogo. The nose and lips were fairly easy to adjust, but the eyes gave me a hard time. I wasn’t happy with the profile or the chin either, which were the most challenging areas for me. I also noticed that no matter how I adjusted my shape, the closed-eye animation made my eyeballs poke through the eyelids. The eyes are rigged too tightly against the lids, so that’s definitely a problem if you like to use blinking or closed-eye animations.
Even though this head is only L$99, I don’t think it’s inferior to Akeruka’s full-priced mesh heads. It seems to be the same product, with the same HUD and the same challenges. I really hope those issues get fixed, because overall it’s easy to use and looks great right away.
If you just want a pretty face and don’t care about closing your eyes or using animations, this head might be perfect for you.
