Second Life Review

Shopping

Skins

The Skinny on Skins by Hottie Something

In my quest to write this section I had trouble finding places to buy skins in Second Life by using the in-world search tool—once again proving to myself how necessary a service like this website is. If I searched under "places" then I only got high traffic places in Second Life that used skins in their keywords. These could be anything, and most were not places to buy good skins! If I searched under "all" then I got places in Second Life that sold skins but there was no real sense of ranking based on quality. Using the Second Life search to find skins was depressing and agonizing.

I started trying to think of other methods of finding skin shops. I knew there were some really good places out there but I was in my alt, without any landmarks or even friends to ask. My favorite way of finding a good place to buy skins is to see a skin I like on someone and say "OMG I love your skin! Where did you get it, I must have the landmark please!" None of my "experienced SL resident" options were available to me however and I ended up feeling lost and frustrated, much like most newer residents must feel.

Ultimately I am glad we are providing an alternative with this webpage and I am really hoping Second Life residents will submit more reviews to us with their favorites. It’s much better to have reviews from many different people with different tastes than just one. People reviewing a store they have actually patronized also makes for a much better review. So I will leave you with my small contribution and ask that, if you know of a much better place which has not been included then please visit our Contribute section, earn yourself a little money, and provide a service to the SL community by submitting a review.

I noticed some patterns when I was looking for places to buy skins in Second Life. One thing I found over and over again was this frustrating tendency for shops to sell skin demos for 1L. The most important thing to do when shopping for skin is to try demos. You need to know if it looks good on you. The picture can fool you. Skins cost a lot of money and are never refundable. You always want to see how they look on you first. So if you are actually skin shopping please do spend the 1L for the demo. For me it was just frustrating because I had a great many skins to look at for reviewing purposes and I was in my alt who had zero Lindens LOL.

There was a typical range of prices for single skins (some including extras and some not) from about 800L to 1200L. The quality among these was all over the place. You could find something so-so for 1200L and something phenomenal at the 800L price. It’s defiantly something to shop around a bit for. After all, your skin really makes your look in Second Life.

There were a lot more female, white/tan, normal make-up skins out there than anything else. Male skins were non-existent in some shops and under-represented in others. Places offering much racial variety in their skins were uncommon. Unusual make-ups like punk and Goth seemed to be a specialty that some stores had and some stores didn’t.

Shopping for skins in Second Life is a very personal thing I think, and each person will have to find a favorite store that suits their tastes. I hope as time goes by we can have a nice healthy variety reviewed here on Second Life Review so that finding those places to buy skins is a little bit easier.

• B & B Skins
  B & B Skins reviewed by Hottie Something. Good quality, high prices. 3 stars.
  
  
• Emporio Caproni
  Emporio Caproni reviewed by Hottie Something. Make a little cash! 3 stars.
  
  
• Indulgence
  Indulgence reviewed by Hottie Something. Good skins - bad lag. 3 stars.
  
  
• Insolence Skins
  Insolence Skins reviewed by Hottie Something. Very pretty. 4 stars.
  
  
• Luscious & Lords
  Luscious & Lords reviewed by Hottie Something. Off to a great start! 4 stars.
  
  
• Minnu Model Skins
  Minnu Model Skins reviewed by Sara Lukas. Skins for models. Owner nice but staff not overly polite. Copyright controversy. 3 stars.
  
  
• RAC
  RAC Bodyshop reviewed by Sara Lukas. Awesome skins. 4 stars.
  
  
• Realistic Skins
  Realistic Skins reviewed by Hottie Something. Photorealism. 4 stars.