The Bleeding Edge: "Golden Empress" by Garded Secret

Talyia Tarber created "Golden Empress" back in December for The Fashion Teller's "The Nutcracker," but it has just now been released in her super amazing store, Garded Secret.  Done in beautiful hues of gold and sapphire, I sooooo wish that I had this makeup for my Finesmith Inspiration casting back in March.  Here's my winning Inspiration styling revisited, featuring "Golden Empress" in all of its splendor.

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru

Cosmetics & Lashes:  Garded Secret

Hair:  Gritty Kitty

Eyes: L. Fauna

Outfit:  Champagne

Jewelry:  Finesmith Designs

Pose:  Body Talking

Model & Photographer: Sy Whitesong

TEST 005: "Style That!" by Finesmith Designs

Week 4 of Finesmith Designs' Style That! competition was today, and spring is in the air!  This week's item captured the fresh spirit of springtime, colored in sunny yellows, verdant greens, and oceanic blues.  Today's winner was Aphrodite Brianna, so congrats to her!  Below is the fourth in my string of losing stylings, lmao.

TEST:  FAILED

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru

Cosmetics, Lashes, & Nails:  Garded Secret
Hair:  3636

Eyes: L. Fauna

Outfit:  Champagne

Jewelry:  Finesmith Designs

Pose:  Body Talking

Model & Photographer: Sy Whitesong

The Bleeding Edge: "Caliente" & "Imperial" by Champagne, "Irish Eyes" & "Blue Victory" by Garded Secret

Sorry I'm a bit late with these posts, but MVW Modeling Academy graduation was this weekend, and it owned my soul for 3 days straight, lol.  Class with Frolic Mills was a blast though, and I graduated!  However, I digress...back to Champagne and Garded Secret.  I have several favorite designers in SL, each specializing in a different area.  yula Finesmith is my favorite jewelry designer, Arisia Ashmoot is my favorite pose designer, and dianny3636 Aeon is my favorite hair designer.  Fortunately for me, my favorite cosmetics and clothes designers have teamed up to release products that compliment each other perfectly.  YAY for Talyia Tarber and Enzo Champagne!  Below are two of the latest coordinated releases for men:  "Caliente" by Champagne paired with "Irish Eyes" by Garded Secret,  and "Imperial" by Champagne paired with "Blue Victory" by Garded Secret.  Enjoy!

"Caliente"

"Imperial"

Shape: Custom
Skin: Subaru

Cosmetics:  Garded Secret
Hair:  3636

Eyes: L. Fauna

Outfit:  Champagne

Pose:  Body Talking

Model & Photographer: Sy Whitesong

GLANCE: Day 3

Third class with Wicca Merlin at the GLANCE Model Academy.  Today's topics:  inventory organization and runway/posing.  Inventory organization?  PLEASE!  I'm the most OCD guy I know when it comes to organization.  I can probably name every item I have in my inventory from memory, and find it for you in less than 5 seconds.  Runway and posing, however, have me TERRIFIED!  As is blatantly obvious from my previous pictures, I have little to no photography experience in SL (or RL for that matter)...hence, no posing experience.  Runway scares me even more, as there are SO MANY things that can go wrong during a fashion show (lag is a beast!).  However, Wicca is a rockstar, so I'm sure she'll have me whipped into shape in no time.  She gave me a lot of helpful tips on fighting lag during fashion shows, as well as some helpful pointers on improving SL performance overall.

At the end of class, Wicca announced that our next meeting would be used to style 4 outfits for my portfolio shoot:  formal, casual, swimsuit, and headshot.  I swear, you could probably hear the neurons firing as I ran through all the possibilites in my head, coming up with outfit ideas left and right!  The last 3 don't worry me too much.  I'll probably wear some casual stuff from Xplosion, my swimsuit will definitely be from Kobalt, and I'm absolutely wearing the Valeria set from Finesmith for my headshot.  Formal, however, is not my forte.  After stalking the blogosphere for ideas, I settled on four outfits (2 from Champagne, 2 from Violator), then sent out pics to several friends, asking them to choose their favorite.  Below was my top pick, and the one that I thought was the most "me":

I can rock purple like no other, and I love the soft shimmer of the latex.  However, most of my friends agreed it wasn't dressy enough, so I went with 2 of my original options from Champagne, plus an additional Champagne outfit.  I also stopped by Essential Soul earlier today to pick up my X-Poser HUD (which I LOVE), and dropped by Body Talking to buy some poses.  Below is a preview of one option for my formal pic, with my new favorite pose from the "RicoRacer" line at Body Talking. Thanks to Brendan Macarthur for the pic!

Shape:  Custom
Skin:  Subaru
Eyes:  L.Fauna
Lashes:  Miamai
Hair:  UW
Outfit:  Champagne

Pose:  Body Talking