Xen's Pen
Fashionable ramblings from Xenobia Foxclaw's virtual pen.

What I like about winter in SL is that it isn’t unpleasantly cold. Although, it does look like I’m hugging myself in an effort to stay warm. Darn—I wanted to look cool, not cold. Well, that’s Second Life, I guess.

(I know the hat is a little off on the color, but it looked right in SL. It wasn’t until I took the photo that I realized it was too brown. With a little time I could have match it perfectly; I just didn’t have the time.)

What Xenobia Is Wearing and Other Credits

Hat: Xen’s Hats—Quaker Hat (Color-change)

Hair: Dura Hair—Emo 07 (Ash Brown)

Sweater:  Rebel Hope Designs—Tymus Sweater (Burgundy)

Necklace: FineSmith— Snowflake Necklace (Platinum)

Fingernails: Finesmith—NailsR 20 Holiday Nails with Snowflake Ring (Red)

Pants: Vive Nine— Legal Attention [burgundy] Pants

Boots: FineSmith—Journey Boots (Cheetah)

Skin:  Belleza—Erika (Fair 7)

Eyes: Amacci—Gaze Eyes (Brown Steel)

Pose: Avante Poses

Background: PNP

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

The other day chiaki Xue of DURA dropped a fat pack of her newest hair into my inventory. Frankly, I don’t think I can have too many hairs, so I’m always tickled to try on new ones. My RL jaw almost dropped open when I saw the latest as it looks so much like the way I wore my hair for many years that I was astounded. (It makes me think about getting my RL hair cut like that again, but I’ll have to let it grow for a while before it gets long enough to cut into this style.)

I’m so comfortable in this hairdo that I could wear it almost constantly—this will be one of my frequently-worn hairs. I hope you like it as much as I do.

What Xenobia Is Wearing and Other Credits

Photo 1

Hair: DURA—Boy 21 (Sienna)

Earrings: Finesmith—H2O

Dress: Gizza—Gardenia Coctail (Sequin)

Skin: Belleza—Erika (SK 3)

Eyes: YS&YS—Intense Eye (Brown)

Eyelashes: Miamai—No Alpha Lashes No. 6

Photo 2

Hair: DURA—Boy 21 (Black)

Earrings: Finesmith—Lacie

Dress: Gizza—Gardenia Coctail (Pinky)

Skin: Belleza—Erika (SK 11)

Eyes: YS&YS—Intense Eye (Brown)

Eyelashes: Miamai—No Alpha Lashes No. 6

Photo 3

Hair: DURA—Boy 21 (Blonde)

Earrings: Finesmith—Magic

Dress: Gizza—Gardenia Coctail (Cream)

Skin: Belleza—Erika (SK 7)

Eyes: YS&YS—Intense Eye (Brown)

Eyelashes: Miamai—No Alpha Lashes No. 6

********

Poses: PNP

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

After making my last post mere hours ago, I was standing in the far section at DURA when I happen to glimpse an upstairs. This should give a hint about how observant I am–I completely missed the set of stairs leading up. In my defense, however, the lower part of the stairs is hidden behind a rock wall, and it all sort of blends together. However, once I ventured up those steps, I discovered a whole new section, most of which was hair for females with a few cross-gender styles.

I bought several to show you some more of the range of Chiaki Xue’s hair designs. If you love them as much as I do, you can hope over by following this link.

Girl 01 (Dark Brown)

Girl 03 (Red)

Girl 05 (Light Brown)

Girl 09 (Pink)

Girl 10 (Soil)

Girl 11 (Mocha)

Girl 14 Flower (Dark Blonde)

Girl 16 (Strawberry)

Boys & Girls 05 (Hawaiian Tan)

Boys & Girls 08 (Dark Blonde)

Boys & Girls 11 (Black)

What Xenobia Is Wearing With DURA Hair

Jewelry: FineSmith Designs – Diamond Earrings & Collar (Silver)

Skin: Belleza – Erika (Deep Tan 16)

Eyes: Amacci – Insight (Dark Brown)

Eyelashes: CCD – RealLash Prim Lashes #02 Normal (Brown)

Pose: Morgane Batista Poses

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

I was recently reading a blog and spotted a hairdo that really caught my attention, so I hopped over to the store, one with which I was not familiar–DURA. It was love at first sight, perhaps because in real life I have very short hair, and the hair in DURA was mostly short. Although many of her hairs are designed with males in mind, I don’t think there is a single one that wouldn’t look equally as good on a female. However, while not all of them come with hairbases, I always wear one, borrowing from another set if necessary. The hairs come with two versions, one with a menu to change sizes easily, and one without. I personally prefer the menu driven one because I can copy it, set it to the size right for me, and delete the scripts, reducing lag for fashion shows and other areas that are rife with lag.

I wore two of the hairs below for an “I Love Japan Auction” that was sponsored by Opulent Magazine and that raised 179,021L in about 4 hours on April 2. (You can read more about that here.) I was happy to see Chiaki Xue, owner of DURA at the show. She was one of the many designers who made generous contributions. Let me show you some of the styles so you can see for yourself. If you love them as much as I do, you can hope over by following this link.

Boy 01 (Black)

Boy 02 (Auburn)

Boy 3 (Blonde)

Boy 06 (Light Blonde)

Boy 07 (Dark Blonde)

Boy 08 (Spice)

Boy 10 (Onyx)

Boy 13 (Hawaiiantan)

Boy 16 (Gold)

Boy 17 (Ash Brown)

Boys & Girls 15 (Chocolate)

ARAI & DURA Kimukimu (Dark Brown)

DURA & ARAI 02 (Flower Strawberry)

DURA & ARAI 02 Flower with Long Wavy Extension (Strawberry)

DURA & ARAI Curling Hair (Black)

What Xenobia Is Wearing With DURA Hair

Skin: Belleza – Erika (Deep Tan 16)

Eyes: Amacci – Insight (Dark Brown)

Eyelashes: CCD – RealLash Prim Lashes #02 Normal (Brown)

Pose: Morgane Batista Poses

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

There are two very frustrating things about the annual Hair Fair: (1) crowds and (2) lag. The large crowds make it very difficult to get into the fair the first week. If you are patient, you can usually get in fairly easily the second week, but none of us really wants to wait–we want to get in as soon as it opens. (Be honest now–don’t you want to get in there as quickly as you possibly can to buy new hair?)

Once you finally manage to get into the sims, you can barely move. Part of it is due to all the prims everyone seems to think they need when looking for hair, many of which have scripts in them. All of that affects the performance of the sim and slows things down so that it seems like you are trying to walk through thick gelatin. Good grief, people, wear the bare minimum and leave your high-prim-scripted-hair at home. If you must have hair and your skin doesn’t have a hairbase, get one of the hairbase tattoos. (Amacci, Miamai, Tiny Bird, and W&Y have tattoo hairbases.) If everyone would do that, it would be easier to get around and you might be able to get one of the demos to rez in less than half an hour.

I recently joined the Hair Fair DEMO Group. It’s a group that is free to join but, of course, requires that you have a group space available. The wonderful benefit of this group is that you get a lot of the demos of hairs that will be available at the fair. That means you can try them on at home where they will rez quickly and go to the Hair Fair to buy them. I love that! All of the photos will feature demos.

I’m going to do a few short blog entries that feature hairs I think I have to have. I’m making my list and checking it twice. (I got that line from Santa himself.) When the Hair Fair opens, I’ll be there–as soon as I can get in. I’ve been saving my Lindens just for this event. Here are the first two on my list.

!Ohmai Salon

!SyDS! Hair

Style Sheet

First Photo Hair

Second Photo Hair

Both Photos Other

Agnes Finney of My Precious is offering her newest gown, McQueen, at a discounted price Sunday, January 24, only to group members. The gown (not including the shorter dress) will sell for 780L usually, but until Sunday at midnight, it will sell for only 500L to group members. Ms. Finney began with a simple black mermaid gown, but she took it beyond simple by adding wonderful textures that pull the eyes upward and make a necklace unnecessary. She added two poofs above the flare of the mermaid tail that add interesting detail. Then she went a step further and added lacy poofs on the left arm that again draw the eyes upward toward a face that will be glowing with delight from the overall effect.

I’ve added a black earrings from the Ambrosa II Set which is still on sale for 50% off at Alienbear Designs. However, if you have been delaying making a trip to Alienbear, you’ll want to do that now as the sale is over today.

I couldn’t resist wearing two new hairdos that were group gifts this morning from ChiChickie! Too often hair gifts are a color I would only wear to a costume party, but designer Chiana Meredith was kind enough to send colors I would actually wear. She also offered the first 30 buyers of each hairdo the entire fatpack for only 95L. I had joined her group only a few weeks ago when I bought a new hairdo or two from her shop. The hairdos are not modifiable, but they are scripted to change size either all prims or individual prims.

Don’t forget that My Precious and Entre Mares are having their next fashion shows on Saturday, January 30 at 11:00 AM SLT and 4:00 PM SLT. The sim fills up for the shows, so arrive early so you won’t miss out on seeing all of Ms. Finney’s and Ms. Adamski’s newest creations. The gowns shown are usually offered for a discounted price for a limited time after the shows.

Style Sheet

Gown: My Precious–McQueen

Earrings: Alienbear–Ambrosa II (Black Pearl Set) (

Shoes: Basevi Moda Shoes–ColorChange Stiletto (295L/2 Pack or 445L/Megapack)

Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction v.2 (Copper/Frost) (800L)

Hair, dark: Chichickie!–Rosita (Brunette) (Group Gift)

Hair, light: Chichickie!–Pamela2 (Honey) (Group Gift)

Eyes: InSight Eyes–Stars (75L)

Eyelashes: Amacci–Diva (125L)

Fingernails: Talon Faire–Light Wav es, colorchange (200L)

Poses: Striking Poses (50L/pose)

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

I wanted to go to ::69:: (Sixty Nine) to get a new hairdo I had on my buy-someday list, but I couldn’t transport there. “What?” I wondered. “Is it gone?” I dropped Kumii Yoshikawa, the owner/designer, a notecard asking what had happened. Those of you who keep up with these things may have realized that if you joined the group for 300L, you got access to the new items 5 days earlier than the rest of SL. Hmm, I love her hair and I know most such groups get free items that more than make up for the cost of joining the group, so I decided to spend the cash and join. I was, of course, immediately able to get in. I tried on all 12 of the new hairdos. There is something about that woman’s hairstyling ability that is so amazing. I couldn’t afford all 12, and I model so I want hair that doesn’t stick through my body when I change poses, so I bought the 4 short styles. I wanted them in all of the colors, but that was out of my price range, so I settled on the light blonde set from each.

These hairs will be available to the general public on October 15. I’m glad I got mine now, because that sim is going to be swamped on the 15th. You might want to wait a day or two, but not too long. Be the first one in your region to get the new hairdos from Sixty Nine. Oh, and you’ll want some of those long hairs too–they are amazing. I never did get the hair I went after–gosh darn, another trip to Sixty Nine

Blush 30 in Pale Blonde

Blush 50 Blonde

Neguko in Palest Blonde

Sultan 30 in Blonde

• Hairdos: ::69:: Sixty Nine (300L/3-pack)
• Skin: CUPCAKES MAINSTORE–Seduction (Copper/Gift 10) (250L)
• Eyes: InSight–Dark Brown Big Eyes (125L)