Vogue on Sale

Starley Thereian, over at Celestial Studios, has decided to put up her Vogue and Charmed skins (singles and 4 packs) with a 50% discount from Wednesday September 26 through the weekend to celebrate the upcoming release of her fall skins. So I thought it would be a nice occasion to report on the Vogue skins.


Now, unlike a lot of residents, I must admit I am not a huge Starley skin fan. I think she is a very, very talented designer, and her marketshare skinwise is huge, but there are some things in these skins that I just don’t like. I don’t wear Vogue skins often but I do have some in my collection.

As usual, let me start with the things I do like about this skin. Like the immense variety of make ups that this skin comes in. The lips with the different eye make-up options and vice versa. When Starley first released Vogue early this year, I thought it was a pretty cool feature, and I still like it a lot, just as the diplays. The mouth in general is one of the best features of this skin in my opinion. It has a strong, rather pouty form that looks good on most shapes. The lip colour can be adjusted in appearance, which is a lovely feature for further personalizing your skin. I also adore the shading on the nose and the highlight above the lip cleft.
On the down side, the eyes are one of the most recognizable characteristics. The make ups are great, but … whether you use Starley’s eyes, or other peepers, whatever form you give your eyes in your shape, all eyes in Vogue skins, to me, look a bit sad, full of melancholy. Some might call it languid, but to me it is sadness that I see in the eyes of avid Vogue fans. I would love to see a CS skin that has more happy eyes.

The body is done well for the biggest part, the muscular shading is a bit too much for my taste, but it is well done and you can see Ms Therian has absolutely all required photoshop skills. An overall nice shading on the front of the body, the back is pretty nice too. I don’t know how to put it, but there is this hint of skin moving around the spine that I am not sure whether I like or not, but it is quite realistic. Too bad that around the edges the skin seems a bit smudged to cover up the seams…(aaaargh… Yeah I know... I’m always nagging about them, but they really can be done well, and yes I am more critical when I am reviewing a market leader. Yes I do have different standards. I think market leadership should be a reward for the combination of an outstanding product, balanced pricing and good marketing as well as a number of other minor components. /rant off). So yes, the seams are an issue in this skin. I spotted a visible one around the neck, and although not really visible as a seam, the textures of the upper and lower body do not completely match. Also, the covering up of the seams is a bit of an issue. The smudging makes your complexion less radiant than it could be. Luckily this doesn’t show in the face which I’m pretty sure is the most important for most customers.

The legs and arms are decent, nice knees and even elbows that are quite allright, except for the feet. They look unfinished.. or finished in a hurry… almost like the designer couldn’t care less about them and that, for me, is hard to digest. We are looking here at a skin from a designer that does NOT lack skills, that is a market leader. A designer who’s skins cover a lot of the fashionistas’ bodies… don’t we like to wear sandals anymore? Ok, it’s fall in the northern hemisphere so I should probably just put my sandals away and don’t bother about the feet till next spring. But I couldn’t help but wondering why and besides... the antipods are heading towards the summer… they will want to wear sandals! I always do look at the feet of skins that I review and I know they are a pain in every creator’s behind but these really struck me.

So is Vogue still a skin that I care for? Over all… yeah I think I am going to expand the CS skin section in my inventory during this sale. After all there are a lot of lovely features in these skins, and honestly... I’m just too much of a shopping addict to let a sale slip through my fingers...

Oh.. once I saw the ad, I could not resist posting it here too. The new make ups look so lovely. I can only hope that there was some work done on the body done as well.