Skell Dagger

That head brand only costs L$10 more on Marketplace than in the inworld store, not L$500 more. I work for a mesh head creator, so I've seen first-hand the months of work that goes into making one. Good luck!

Just for reference: Catya (like every other Catwa Bento head) is L$5010 on Marketplace, not L$5500.

Hmm. I assume you've performed troubleshooting with only the body itself worn? That is: remove all other attachments (head, clothing, tail, all HUDs, etc) and then relogged several times. Do the hands still un-hide with nothing else attached? If not, then there's an outside chance (a very outside chance, mind you!) that something you're wearing is causing the alpha to reset. I hardly ever use my Jake body, so I'm not sure if there's an autohide script that works on it, and it's doubtful that an autohide for any other item would cause the same issue. But if just wearing only the body itself fixes the issue, then you could re-add one thing, relog, add another thing, relog, etc and see if you could narrow down the cause that way. If they do still unhide when you have only the body on, then one other option you might try is - if your skin creator offers a Bakes on Mesh version - to switch to that and use an alpha layer to hide your hands. You'd need the free Belleza BOM Relay HUD (Marketplace link is in the blue box beside the Jake body in the Belleza store) as the creator hasn't yet updated to include BoM in the body's HUD. Worth a try, perhaps?

Just confirming something: which of these four versions of the body are you wearing? I'm asking mainly because I've seen several guys with a red 'texture area warning' above their head, and - on scanning them - they are wearing all four copies of the body, as per the example below of a guy I spotted a couple of weeks back: This is probably due to the confusing way in which the bodies are named, with one being labelled 'OriginalFeet' and another being labelled 'OriginalHand', so I guess at least some guys are assuming that those are just feet and just hands, so they need to be wearing those in addition to the actual main body. The reason why there are so many versions is that when Belleza updated the body they changed the rigging, so that (for example) rigged gloves or rings that once fitted the original hands no longer fitted the new ones, hence the inclusion of extra bodies with the 'original' hand and foot body options, in case you wanted to wear older rigged items that you owned. If you're wearing more than one copy of the body - for example, the latest 2.1 Bento plus the 2.1 Bento OriginalHand - then that may be why your hands always show when you relog.

You're very welcome Sn@tch has been my go-to for system layers ever since BOM went live on the grid. The system pants, especially, are fantastic for tucking into high boots. The sale at the store has been ongoing for many months (mainly because the creator has been battling ill-health, although she's now back, thankfully well, and has started creating again) and there's also a discount store in the region that has even cheaper stuff you can use. The store is well worth a visit to stock up for BOM use.

Yeah, I think they did rebrand (I think it was to 'Glamistry'?) sometime in the last couple of years, but as far as I know they came back with female-only heels. Kalnins as a brand went silent for many years, though, which was a shame. It was another store where I bought just about everything on sale.

Maitimo guessed correctly. It's 'Yvette' by Exile

Activating BoM on Signature bodies: Wear your Signature body and its HUD Remove all of your alpha layers Go into the Settings tab (cog button) Click the BoM Bakes on Mesh button Confirm the activation in the popup menu

I've been doing this over on Flickr, with a series that I've called 'BoM Redux' - taking my favourite old system and sculpt looks and updating them using BoM and a few similar items in mesh. It's a lot of fun for someone who's an admitted SL packrat, and I had thought about creating a thread here for it. In the meantime, so many of my favourite stores have already been mentioned here, but a few others: Valiant (fantastic menswear) AVid (goth and leathers) DMC/Desert Moon Clothiers (best system jeans in SL at the time) Maschienenwerk (everything was free and such good quality; store later became Santos) FNKY (eyewear that still holds up to this day) Rawdolls (rocker-inspired accessories) Kalnins (fantastic eyewear and footwear) A:S:S (glam for the boys) Nachtmusik (yet more glam for the boys) Discord (Japanese region with tons of lucky chairs and some brilliant outfits) SEY (menswear; god I bought so much from here) Annex (footwear store on the same region as Aoharu) Shiny Things (anyone else get half their footwear collection from there?) Naith Smit (I probably bought every single item of jewellery that he sold) Plus pretty much any store selling at The Block, which was the first quarter-region enclosed shopping location I ever found (and used to hang out at a lot). For some reason I can only remember the store names beginning with 'm' - Moderno, Mechanism, Monogrind. And some whose creators are still around, but who no longer make the stuff they once did: Truth (used to make clothing alongside hair) Silent Sparrow (gorgeous hand-painted clothing; now mainly makes plushies) Fruk (great skins, now creates hair as Modulus) I was about to add Sinistyle to the list - since he no longer creates in SL - but on checking his profile I found that he's one of those rare, wonderful people who has uploaded all of his old items to the Marketplace.

You're welcome Let me know if you need any further help. (About to go to bed soon here in the UK, but either someone else will be able to help you or I can check back in the morning.)

This post explains how to activate BoM on most major brands of head and body. Skyler is BoM by default, but you will need to activate BoM on the eyes once you've chosen the ones you want. That's covered in the post, too. From the redeliveries that I've made of my Stray Dog skins (which now include the BoM updates) the creator is using separate tattoo layers for both head and body. So once you've set up your body for BoM you will need to add the Stray Dog Legacy body tattoo layer that you want to wear, then add the Stray Dog Lelutka Evolution head tattoo layer that you want. Once those are on, add your tattoo hairbase and tattoo beard. I'm emphasising the 'add' there, because that's how you work with BoM: adding each layer on top of the other. When you add mesh clothing into the mix BoM allows you to have two options for hiding parts of your body that might 'poke through'. You can use the alpha HUD (for Legacy that's the Edit HUD) or you can use alpha layers, if your mesh clothing includes them.

That was all a very canny marketing ploy. I actually play a couple of those strategy games, so when I started seeing those 'gates' ads I knew they didn't represent actual gameplay. But very recently I've started seeing ads for the 'gate' games, and those ads are titled similarly to "This is the actual game from all those fake ads!" so I suspect that was the plan all along: to get people to want to play the 'gates' games (so they download the strategy games and only once they've been playing for a while do they realise they're not going to - at any point - see that 'gates' thing) and then to suddenly spring the actual 'gates' game on them, as if it's some big secret game that's finally been found.

Rest In Peace, Peter Green.

Absolution... This one took all night to put together, and it ended up looking nothing like my initial vision. Got to love it when a look pulls itself together without you knowing what the hell is going on, and yet ends up looking so bloody amazing. Full credits here.

Oh god, please tell me they cost "238 of those Linden things". That would be so bloody perfect!

You probably won't find that exact combination of leather and latex in a single top, but the beauty of BoM is that you can layer. I can't help you with the leather crop top/bra, but try this set for the fishnet: They're L$200 on Marketplace, but currently there's a long-running sale at the inworld store, so go here and you can pick them up for L$75. They also now include an Omega applier as well as system layers. Look for the Omega Lingerie section (or follow the red arrow on your screen; I took the SLurl standing right in front of them).

Imagination calling mirrors... A recent new release from Exile, plus Zibska for Vanity Event. And I've got Syd really walking the gender-blurring tightrope tonight Full credits here.

Above the shadows... Dreamcatcher and ADORED for The Epiphany Gacha. Full credits here.

ALERT! Looks like Kevin has a new tactic: I redacted the numbers, but in all honesty it's barely worth it. Also note that he's now started putting FOUR numbers after his name instead of three.

I declared my Catwa affiliation when posting my objective and fair review. It is reasonable to expect others to do the same. Instead of writing what appears to just be a personal post and only hinting at the fact that you are a CSR for Altamura for those reading closely enough to spot "the owner did fix that as soon as we found out", perhaps a more open and professional thing to do would be to declare your affiliation upfront.

Spellbound... A recent new male hair release from Exile. Full credits here.

From the Windlight sky behind you it doesn't look as if you have all shaders as well as Advanced Lighting enabled. The overlay is partially materials-based, which will only show with full shaders and ALM.

Because of my affiliation with another mesh head brand (disclaimer: I am a CSR and manager for Catwa) I was initially very hesitant to post in response to this thread. However, I am also a blogger whose passion is helping guys to look good in SL, and I like to pick up things like this to see what I can do with them. If I can get a blog post out of it that will help some guys in SL who are on a tight budget, then that's all to the good. And anyone who has come across my posts here on the forum where I'm helping people will see that I strive always to remain impartial, and that I never 'shill' for the brand that I work for. With that disclaimer out of the way, these are my personal opinions as someone who has worked extensively with male avatars and male mesh bodies and heads for many years. I'm going to bullet point with pros and cons, so as to keep this post as impartial as possible. Pros It is a full BoM body. That in itself is rare for a freebie. There are several free female bodies (eBody and LucyBody [although the latter's BoM relay costs L$200], off the top of my head) that are BoM but this is the only current male one that I know of. Previous gift releases from this store have always been in a single unchangeable skintone (usually extremely tanned, although there is one paler version out there somewhere). And it's not only a BoM body, it's also a BoM head. Body and head from the same creator means no neck seam, which is always a bonus. It is a full Bento body and head, and it comes with a basic face animation HUD. It will be available for a good length of time. The ad states one month, but this store's previous TeleportHub.com body/head combination gift was - as I recall - out for much longer than that. This will give the slowpokes plenty of time to get it It includes a developer kit. Cons The lip overlay. This was a deal-breaker for me the second I tried my first BoM skin on it. The mesh has an additional overlay on the lips that cannot be removed, since there is no HUD for controlling anything on the face (which is understandable, since this gift is intended for purely BoM use). No matter what skin you try (and I tried about 20, from different creators) this lip overlay will always make your lips look the same way (shiny and chapped at the same time) and from a distance it... well, it really doesn't look good. I found that no matter which skin I used, my lips looked very pouty from a distance. I assume this overlay is intended to give a sort of 'HD lip' look to the head, but it really really doesn't work. Screenshot of the lip overlay, taken mid-skin bake, so it's clearly visible: There are no eyes included with the head. This is a minor issue, since you can either use your system eyes or use third-party unrigged mesh eyes. However, if you want to use unrigged mesh eyes you will also need an eye alpha, since this body is fully BoM. Those are simple (and free) to make if you don't already have one, but for the average guy that's an additional bit of hassle. Also, the lacrimal is very dark and non-removable. Lastly, another minor quibble, but a lot of guys are going to dislike the eyelashes. I'm not sure why they're so thick and 'clumpy' but they really do look like you've overdone the mascara (and then slept in it for good measure!) So there are four pros and three cons. This is a gift (well, a L$10 gift, given the group join fee) so it feels churlish to say anything negative about it. A lot of guys will get it and it may be their introduction into mesh heads and bodies. But - given how many gorgeous, extremely high quality freebies there are for women out there right now, from the two free bodies (one of which fits Maitreya clothing), to the L$150 full featured group gift Bento head from Akeruka - I can't help but feel that once again the guys are left trailing a bit. That said, kudos to Altamura for their generosity. They have released multiple full head and body gifts like this in the past, and they always participate in the L'Homme Magazine quarterly freebie round (previous gifts have included full Altamura and Omega head and body skin appliers on two occasions). Would I recommend this gift to Mr Average in SL? Probably not, but that's with some caveats: if money is tight enough that you can't afford a full priced Bento head and body combination, if you are willing to spend a considerable amount of time working with this head and body, and if you are prepared to overlook that lip overlay then you should be able to create something that you're happy with. I spent over two hours working with it, trying on multiple skins, playing with the sliders (and remember: this is my job in SL, so I'm no slouch at this stuff) and in the end I gave up. But I have some pretty exacting standards that may not be your standards, so what I see as deal-breakers may be perfectly acceptable to you. And it's only L$10, so what have you got to lose? (Except, y'know, L$10, but hey...)