Pixelapproved!

Actually, get ready to take my face off would be better, since today we’re doing this the other way around.

I picked up Lygia, by The Skinnery at this month’s Collabor88 and I had forgotten a bit how beautiful their skins are. In a (virtual) world where skins are usually either super airbrushed OR hyper realistic with pores bigger than yours truly during the worst hormonal outbreak, I can only admire The Skinnery for finding the right balance!

I am wearing her today on LeLutka’s Avalon head with the Ugly palette from Identity Faces, which, as you can see, is far from ugly! See that double liner? chef’s kiss Also, I am wearing Jack Spoon‘s Livie lashes, and my contour is from Warpaint, from the Gauntly set. My eyebrows are Noelle by Nuve (my eyebrow crack dealer in SL), and the deep brown eyes are Trendie by Avi-Glam.
I’m also wearing Wasabi‘s latest Truth Collective release, Mistral. To be completely honest, I think I look a wee bit like a dark haired Brigitte Bardot like this!

Today’s outfit is simple, but with a few bold jewelry pieces, you can dress up even the most comfortable jumper! I wear Fashionably Dead‘s Holiday Sweater on Ison‘s Cindy skirt, paired with Gos Boutique‘s Cara Thigh High boots. Under my skirt a pair of sheer black pantyhose by Vannies, with a subtle fishnet motif and a seam on the back.

Like I said, with some good jewelry, you can easily make this into an outfit for an evening with friends, in the local wine bar, or to go grab a bite. I am wearing Piece of Me‘s Milena earrings, and after I copied one and re-positioned it (attaching to the spine works fine for brooches) and made it a wee bit bigger, I have the most beautiful emerald-cut sapphire brooch!

RAMBLE AHEAD!

Today (yet another) discussion has sparked about the SL economy and the impact all the discount sales. Creators feel the pain, as they more or less feel forced to participate in every discount event that will have them and still notice a decline in sales; customers getting used to everything being discounted sooner or later, and with less disposable income they will unlikely choose not discounted items. The creators of the events also suffer RL inflation and augment the participation fee and/or will add extra merchants to the event so that by now, it feels like every weekend, all of SL is on sale! Rightfully so, creators claim this is not a sustainable situation. They are burning out, barely making ends meet if SL is their main source of income and the market is so diluted and over-saturated that some don’t even return the participation fee. And everyone wonders who’s to blame.

I will admit, as long as there is a good deal available, as a consumer I will go for it! Today’s post is living proof, as most of what I am wearing was bought today during one or another discount weekend sale. So yeah… I could stop doing that. But… who turns down a deal?
Event organizers could stop offering the discount event, but why should they? the weekend sales are profitable for them and a welcome addition to their income or covering of the costs for the sims they have for their monthly events.
Some say Linden Lab should step in.. but to what end? To prohibit discounts? Linden Lab does not interfere unless illegal things are going on (and even then, one could debate their level of interference and policing). Nobody puts a gun to the merchant’s head to make them participate.

So for me, it comes down on the creators. Unpopular opinion. I know.
They are the ones to continue to participate. And while I do appreciate that in difficult economic circumstances it is tempting to just go for it and accept sellling at a discount in the hope that you sell more to make up for the lower price, you still hear people saying that sales are down, burn out is real and that they feel stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place. So it obviously doesn’t work. Merchants can decide to change their marketing approach and no longer participate in these sales. Or participate sparingly. That will hurt initially. I am aware of that. Yet I also believe that when you know that you are original, creative, with top execution and a good marketing concept, you will be able to rebuild that customer base which you had before entering the race to the bottom. And if that doesn’t work, well, while not nice to hear, in RL, 50 % of new businesses don’t make it past 3 years of existence. SL economy is not so different from RL economy, except that when a creator should have to decide to stop earning income in SL by closing shop, or to go back to being a hobby creator for whom SL is a creative outlet and any income is welcome, this usually doesn’t lead to bankruptcy in RL. Just like any person, a creator is the their fate, the captain of their soul, to paraphrase Henley’s Invictus.

/END RAMBLE!

And with that, it has literally become time for bed in my corner of RL! to it’s only fitting that i took off my make up in SL and show you the bare face of Lygia before I sign off!

I’m still wearing my Noelle eyebrows, because well, that is me, and this hair is also from Wasabi, called Elys, and with the headband it is perfect for cleaning my face and my night time routine!

According to you, how could/should creators become less dependent on discount events? Leave your tips and thoughts in the comments!