When RL Eats You Alive.....

.... you have no time for blogging. Work is crazy, a project I am working on is in a critical phase and needs all my attention and energy. I hope to be back by the end of the month when things are getting back to normal. See you all soon!

Review Policy??

With all the in world reactions I have received on my first few blog posts, there was also the question if I apply a review policy. Well, honestly, I can be quite concise about it: if a skin has my interest, I will probably write about it, I do accept review copies (see Q&A) but I am not going to ask you for them. Other than that, I have not really given it any thoughts yet.

Now that is a bit short maybe, so let me elaborate it in a Q&A.

Q: If I send you my skins will you review them?

A: I have no intention of turning Skin Score into a new release blog, but should you send me your skin and it is interesting to me, I will probably write about it. Sooner or later that is. I'm doing this alone, I have a RL and other activities too. I will let you know in any case that I have received them, and give you my first impression. I would like to be able to tell you how soon I will be able to blog a skin if I like it, but I can't. I am not going to ask for review copies. I have access to quite a vast collection of skins that can be used for this blog, or I will ask friends to model skins for me, using my shape.

Q: How do I submit skins for review?

A: Put the review items in a FOLDER, together with a landmark to your shop, your ad (full perms for eventual use on the blog) , price information, eventual blog URL and a note card with some essentials about the skin range, skin tones, your inspiration, percentage photo sourced etc, etc. I'd appreciate it if you send me an IM too letting me know that you dropped something on me.

Q: What if you don't like the skin that I sent to you?

A: If I really think it's no good at all, I will contact you and tell you so. If for me there is nothing that I like to a skin, I am not going to write about it. But since you took the effort of sending it to me, the least I can do is let you know what I think.

Q: You did write quite a critical review on a very well known skin. Do you plan to bitch over my skins too?

A: I never plan to bitch really. But I do plan to scrutinize skins that I am reviewing, and if I see flaws, I am not going to hide that from my readers. There are enough "XX dropped goodies and isn't it swell" type of blogs out there, but I would like to give a full review on skins, with both the strong and the weaker points. However, if a skin is so flawed I would never consider buying it for myself, I am probably not going to take the effort to write about it. If you cannot handle feedback, don't offer your skins to me, because I will take that as an invitation to give you my opinion or share it with my readers.

Q: You have not written about my skins.... don't you like them?

A: Hey, gimme a break, I've been doing this for like 2 weeks now! If I have not written about your skins, it could mean A) that they are burning in my inventory but I haven't had the chance of blogging them, B) they are in the lukewarm folder of skins that don't have my particular interest, C) I don't know your skins -shame on both you and me... you for not advertising enough and me for not being alert enough- or D) yeah... it could be that I just don't like them.

Q: can I have your shape?

A: no you cannot. I made it to look good/decent on a lot of different skins as well to reflect my personality, so it is really me you are asking for. NO, I am not giving my shape away, nor am I selling it. A few friends have a non copy, non mod, non trans version of it to help me with the photos, but other than that, I am not giving it out.

About my method:

All skins are being examined with either sunrise or sunset light, local lights on, render sliders in preferences all on 50% and all on the same shape (mine). That is the base of my review. Photo's are being taken in the same way and material is not being retouched other than cropping and resizing. I am not planning to add "proof"of flaws. You are free to check demos for yourself, and besides... flaws make ugly photos.

This post is a work in progress and will probably be updated in time. All of the above are guidelines, but since this is my pet, I might change some things if it proofs to be more efficient.

Just Skins....

Shapes and skins are the basic look determining items in Second Life and it seems that more and more content creators are getting into creating them. There are so many fashion blogs, all of which cover skins more or less too, but the idea for this blog first popped in my head a couple of months ago, when I started to read the Savoir Hair blog... I thought it was a wonderful idea, a blog specialised on hair and I thought it would be an equally good idea to do one exclusively on skins. So finally, here it is.


I hope you like it, and that it will help you in finding the perfect skin for your avatar, of just that perfect skin for a particular occasion. Hence the subtitle: Read, Try, Buy.. I hope to show you some skins that you would otherwise not consider trying... let alone buying, just as I will not hesitate to share my opinion on skins that I think are just not as good as they should be, in which case I hope you will take my thoughts into consideration and make a balanced decision on buying a skin or not once you try it on.