Designers who can take a punch (I left my heart in Wichita)

Try not to look at that jaggedy hairline.

Shoot, now that I've pointed it out, you're looking at it, huh?

You can get that Lila hair at 3636, and if you're not lazy like I am, you can actually mod it to make it photo-worthy.

Whatever. Check out the skin instead. It's from SINdecade's new Wichita skin line, and my mouth literally dropped open when I tried on these skins.

LITERALLY, I tell you!

In my very humble opinion, this line is creator Trin Trevellion's most beautiful work to date. Or at least it looks totally awesome on me, me, me, it's all about ME, and in the grand scheme of things, that's all that matters. (kidding)

Before I get into the skins, I'll be upfront about two things: I didn't buy these skins -- they were given to me for review consideration, and Trin is one of those friendly designers who happens to be on my friends list. HOWEVER, after I tried the review skins, I ran to spend lindens on more. And as for Trin, she actually first introduced herself to me after I laughed at some of her skins in a blog post two years ago (yes, I was lame and that was awkward) -- so she knows I don't pull any punches.

We'll get to that story later. First, let me show you some skin.



Retro in Pale.Candy, push-up version of course!

Love love love the body shading and the BOOBS! GLORIOUS BOOBS!

This is the back view and the only time I'm flashing my crack on this blog. I really love the butt.

It makes me want to go out and buy some of those my-crack-is-not-whack jeans that are all the rage right now.

(OK, not really.)

Here are just a few looks from each tone (Snow, Pale and Tan). I remain a huge fan of the way Trin plays with color in her skins, but I have to say that the casual versions in this line are some of my favorite fresh-faced looks out there.

Bite in Pale.9PM. I'm in love with myself in this skin. I can't stop looking at my face. Cant. Stop. Looking. At. My. Face!

(Necklace: From the Arizona set by GaNKed; Hair: Joanna in Chestnut by Truth; Beauty mark on cheek: from the tattoo-layer makeup collection for V2 viewers at MiaMai.)

Natural in Snow.Casual. (I LOVE THIS ONE!!!)

Rosebay in Snow.Candy. (I should've chosen different eyes for this one. Sorry.)

Smokey in Snow.Casual

Cherry-N8 in Pale.9PM

Natural in Snow.Freckles, non-push-up version. (AWWWW! SO CUTE!)

Violet in Tan.Casual. (This makeup is so pretty, I bought this version in my preferred shade, Pale.Casual)

Natural in Tan.Freckles. (It makes me want to run off to the beach.)

Spring in Tan.Freckles. (I want to go demo this one in Pale.Freckles.)

and

Ink in Tan.9PM. As much as I love the striking eye/nude lip look, this is the only one I'm not really feeling, only because I wish the top lip were a little more defined. I also need to tweak the shape of my mouth a little. The shading is gorgeous though.

Every skin comes with regular and push-up versions, a plethora of eyes, an optimized shape, tintable eyebrows, a set of Dessous Sexy Dragon lingerie in Noir, and (for V2 users) tattoo layer sets of hairlines, cleavage and hair-down-there styles. Also included are underwear layers of cleavage and hair down there.

One skin is 800L, a row of four skins is 2200L and the fatpack is 3800L. (Get the fatpack!)

On a related note, I named this post "Designers who can take a punch" because I'm a little astounded ("astounded"!) by the fallout that sometimes occurs if a blogger criticizes a creator's work. And if "punch" seems like a strong word, I used it because judging by some reactions you'd think fists were actually flying.

Not cool! In contrast, take for example one of my favorite recreational RL blogs, Tom and Lorenzo: Fabulous & Opinionated. They criticize designers' creations all the time, and occasionally they get catttt-tayyyy! (On the flip side, if they see something fabulous from that same designer, they squeal like excited little kids on Christmas.) Yet despite any negative opinions they express, they don't get BANNED from stores or dogpiled by a mob squad. People may disagree with them, even passionately, but at the end of the day, they're still valued by their audience as entertaining bloggers and, better yet, human beings with opinions.

I climbed on that soapbox for a minute because when I was a new SL blogger, I attempted to write a post about skins. I showed a bunch of them. One of them was one of SINdecade's (now-old-school) Harajuku Paint Box skins:

HA HA! Alien shape.

In that post, I made an attempt at a witty remark about this skin. It wasn't exactly mean, but it also wasn't that flattering. I think I said that these skins made me look mad as hell, like I was looking for a paintball war. (Back then, I didn't know that you could demo skins before you bought them. Poor, poor little noob!!)

Later, I got an IM from Trin (which in itself shocked the hell out of me) saying something like (paraphrasing here), "Hey, thanks for mentioning my skins in your blog. I see now that they can look a little angry. I appreciate the feedback."

She didn't call me names. She didn't ban me from her store. She didn't accuse me of being an amateur who had no idea what I was talking about. She didn't get her friends to slam my blog with nasty comments. She didn't go all hogwild on Plurk. She was extremely cool about it. She simply treated me like what I was: a customer with an opinion about her work.

And even though my noobish blog ROYALLY SUCKED (worse than now) back then -- OMG, I didn't even own an AO, so all my pictures were in that dorky "where the hell am I?" stand -- she sent me updates on her new releases after that, like I mattered.

That's called CLASSY, folks!

I really don't know Trin very well, but when I saw these skins I got kind of teary. They are absolutely gorgeous, and watching her evolution as a creator over the years has been awesome.

And now I'm stuck on that really obscure Shawn Colvin song: "Wichita Skyline." Nice.