Skell Dagger

Thank you! And you're very welcome. I'm glad it's proved helpful to you

Don't go giving me ideas (I wish someone would make his outfits in SL!)

If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes...

You need special HD lip appliers for the HD lips themselves, but - as stated in my previous response - you can apply any lipstick on top of the HD lips using the upper layer of the head (via the Catwa Master HUD), as long as you have that lipstick saved to the Catwa Master HUD and select the 'upper' checkbox when applying it. You can then blend it so that it adds additional colour or tone to the HD lips themselves. What you cannot do is use standard lip appliers on the HD lips themselves. You will always need to have an HD applier on the lips (you can use a very pale one if you want, and tint it to a natural lip tone). Quick video here, showing how that works. The HUD on the right is an HD lips HUD, and the HUD on the left is the head's Master HUD. Remember: the head has a base (the head itself) plus two layers, and the HD lips sit on the lower of the two layers. From the inside to the outside it goes: head (skin goes on this part) > lower layer + HD lips (these sit on the lower layer, which is why the lower lipstick layer is invisible when the HD lips are added) > upper layer. This means you can add lipstick only to the upper of those two layers and have it show over the top of the HD lips. However, this should not be used as a substitute for the HD lip appliers themselves. The whole point of them is that they are a much higher definition (hence the name) than normal lip appliers. Normal Catwa lip appliers will not work on the HD lips themselves. Very likely that was down to SL being weird, your connection being weird, or even just good old lag. When it works one day, then doesn't work the next, then works again a bit later it's not because anything to do with the product has stopped working for a bit; it's due to something else being screwy.

"I love your eyes. Where did you get them?"

A classic from several years ago now: My partner and I were exploring somewhere and he popped into my IM to say, "Hey, someone left their nipples on the floor over here".

You might have missed this, since I edited my original post to explain why: In short: there is not enough space between the upper and lower lipstick layers to place the HD lips. Catwa wanted to allow the opportunity for even more customisation by allowing the head's own upper lipstick layer to be used additionally, so the only option - other than updating the entire layering options for all 27 of her female heads (which could potentially mess up other things) was to set the lipstick's lower layer to invisible when the HD lips are added.

Catwa CSR here It's nothing to do with scripts or regions or the HUD being fried. Because of the way they work, the HD lips are scripted to set the lower lipstick layer on your head to invisible when they're added. Once you've taken off the HD lips and want to use that lower lipstick layer again all you need to do is wear the head's Master HUD, go to the tab for lips, ensure that the 'lower' button is checked, then push the blend slider button all the way to the left. (If it's showing as all the way to the left anyway, push it to the right and then back again to the left). For the sake of curiosity (in case anyone wonders) if the lower layer is visible then you will get alpha glitch flickering between the head's lips and the HD lips add-on. (The HD lips occupy exactly the same position on your head as the head's lower lipstick layer.) You can see this yourself without risking or damaging either head or lips by simply performing that lower lipstick layer blend toggle described in my post above, while still wearing the HD lips. Once you've seen what happens, simply toggle that lower layer blend slider to the right again and the alpha flickering will stop. You can, however, add lipstick appliers from the head's HUD onto the HD lips using the upper layer of the Master HUD (because the upper layer sits above the location where the lower lipstick layer and the HD lips both are). I love this little feature because it gives you extra tinting and applier options over and above the applier options on the HD lips HUD itself, which just gives you tint and blend. Let's say you have a lipgloss applier, or some little stars on a lipstick applier and you want to wear those on your HD lips. To do this you would: Apply the lipgloss/stars applier to your head's lips, then save it to the Master HUD (lipstick section shown in the above image, ensure that 'lower' is checked - again, as shown - and click one of the little pink 'save' buttons under an empty space) Add the HD lips add-on, apply the HD lip colour using its own HUD (or any third party HD lips applier HUD) and tint/blend it to your desired look Go back to your Master HUD's lipstick tab, ensure that the 'upper' box is checked (the 'upper' bit is critical!), then click the box above the 'save' button that you used to save the lipgloss/stars You can now use that upper layer's blend slider to get the opacity of the lipgloss/stars looking how you want it, and you can even go into the tinting tab and give them a tint as well

Suited up on a Saturday night.

There is a very specific question somewhere in here, but it's worded incredibly vaguely, which means it's difficult to answer your question because of the lack of specifics. I'm not sure if that's because you're relatively new to SL (forgive me if that's wrong; I'm not logged in and can't check) and are not aware of the terminology, or if it's because you feel uncomfortable expressing what your exact needs are in an open forum. To that end - while it's always preferable to discuss things like this on the open forum (because others may come along at a later date with the same question and find the answers that they need are already here) - I'll start by saying please feel free to send me a PM here if you're not comfortable with openly discussing what you're looking for. (Just hover your cursor over my avatar image or username and you'll see the 'Message' option.) Now on to that vagueness Over the years a bewildering range of avatar customisation options have come about; some created by Linden Lab (who own and run SL) and some created by other residents. We first need to find out exactly what you're currently using, because it evidently works on your current avatar You say you're using the 'base avatar' and that it allows you to wear female clothing. By this I assume you mean you're using the basic system avatar that we all have and all start SL with, and I assume that you're using the male one. By 'female clothing' we need to verify what you're able to wear on that base avatar. Since you're using the male system base and the female clothing appears to fit it just fine I will assume that you're wearing system layer clothing. That is, it looks like it's painted on to your avatar's body, and you then add 3D sections like floaty skirt pieces, etc. There is also the possibility that you're wearing 'fitmesh' clothing, which is all-3D clothing that conforms to your avatar's size (within reason) and may need additional alpha layers to 'blank out' any portions of your system body that might poke through the mesh.. You've expressed two specific desires in your post: the ability to wear female clothing on a male avatar, and a request for a very specific (but unspecified!) kind of face. I'll deal with the former first, and start by asking some questions to ascertain exactly what you're looking for: Someone who is clearly male and wearing feminine clothing. Here I'm talking about the likes of Eddie Izzard, who is clearly masculine but sometimes wears a skirt, makeup, and false boobs. This could also refer to a man who is interested in being a sissy. Someone who is male but passing as female in a somewhat over-the-top manner. Here I'm talking about the drag that you frequently see on RuPaul's Drag Race. Someone who is androgynous. Here I'm talking about a person whose gender isn't immediately evident. They may be a beautiful man or a butch woman, but their facial characteristics and manner of dress can cause confusion to those who expect them to be a specific gender at first glance. The first two are rather difficult to accomplish in SL. There are, however, a few stores that cater to them. The male mesh bodies that are most frequently rigged-for regarding both of them tend to be Belleza 'Jake' and Signature 'Gianni' (Jake a little more so than Gianni). Clothing by Violetility and Cubura would be your best bet to begin with for these. I've given you the Marketplace links for those stores but they may have a bigger selection inworld. The third of those options is the easiest to manage, as there are customisations in SL for that. Most men who are into androgyny will wear a female mesh head, the female Maitreya Lara mesh body, and the Valentine Technologies (V-Tech) 'Boi' flat chest mod for the Lara body. They can then wear specific V-Tech clothing and skins, or - with some shape slider modifications (specifically on the breast sliders) - they can also wear Maitreya-rigged mesh tops but still keep a relatively flat chest. If you want to maintain androgynous ambiguity to the head in this case, look for a Bento mesh head whose 3D shape begins with strong, angular lines. However, this kind of look really works best for androgyny, so if you're looking to present as 'a bloke in a dress' this probably won't work for you. You also have the option - using the new Bakes on Mesh feature in SL - to wear any system layer clothing (the 'painted-on' stuff for the system body) and have it show on a mesh body, regardless of whether that mesh body is male or female. The level of success that you'll have doing this depends on the clothing and on the body, though. Moving on to the 'specific face', since you're not clear as to what face you're looking for: is it a specific shape or a specific look? If it's a shape, then pick up lots of demos of Bento mesh heads by different creators. Bento heads can be customised using the system shape sliders, and with a bit of work and experimentation you might be surprised what you can make with them. Look for a head that starts out with a 3D mesh shape that's similar to the final shape you need. (Example: If you need a square jaw, don't begin with a head whose starting shape has a very pointy jaw, otherwise you'll be trying to overcome that before anything else). If it's a look, then skins, makeup, and other appliers are your friends. In the case of the drag artist there are a couple of stores that cater specifically for that classic over-the-top drag look, such as ZsaZsa's House of Beauty (mostly for system avatars) and Dotty's Secret (mostly for mesh avatars). Hope that helps somewhat

I'm talking about the title of the thread, as shown here: At the top of the thread it shows your name as the title, but that's not needed: When you start a new thread you can change what's in the title box, arrowed here:

As a friendly aside, it's very useful to us if you title your forum thread with whatever the issue is, rather than with just your name. This thread, for example, could have been called something like "Why doesn't my friend see anyone's name above their head?". This is not an official support channel; it's a resident-to-resident forum. We can see what your name is because it's right there beside each post that you make, but as fellow users we have no access to your account in an official capacity and therefore there's no need to title your post with your name. In fact, you'll probably get faster and better responses if your thread is titled with your question, because people might skip over a post that's just titled with a name.

It sounds like she has RLV enabled and is wearing an anonymiser HUD or collar like this one. From the item description:

Let's break things down a little bit The first thing to remember is always select ADD when you wear something, and not WEAR. Your avatar has a certain number of points where things such as bodies, heads, and mesh clothing items can be attached, and sometimes using the WEAR option on one thing can make another thing detach from you. So always ADD. Also, never add an entire folder; always right-click each item individually and add each item that you need one at a time. Normally - for a mesh body and mesh head - you would need to add the following items from their respective folders: From the Catwa Jasmine folder - CATWA ALPHA Full Avatar CATWA Shape Jasmine [Start your shape with me] - you can always edit your shape later, but start with this one CATWA HEAD Jasmine v4.0 CATWA EYES RIG Jasmine v3.3 CATWA HUD Master F v4.0 - this is where you control all of the things like makeup, hairbase, brows, etc on your head. Once you've got things set up you can take this off CATWA HUD Animations F v3.2 - this is where you control the animations on your head. Once you've got things set up you can take this off From the Maitreya Lara folder - Maitreya Mesh Body - Lara V4.1 Maitreya Mesh Body - Feet V4.1 Maitreya Mesh Body - Bento Hand L V4.1 Maitreya Mesh Body - Bento Hand R V4.1 Maitreya Mesh Body - HUD V4.1- Once you've got things set up you can take this off BOM (Bakes on Mesh) is a new feature in Second Life that allows the 'painted on' textures on your system avatar (the one you have underneath your Maitreya body and Catwa head) to appear on your mesh body and head. To do this both of those particular items need a BOM relay. There is one for Maitreya (which you clearly have) and one for Catwa (which you can get for free in the gift room at the Catwa store, just inside the female heads section in the room to your left as you go in). Before you use BOM you will need to remove the CATWA ALPHA Full Avatar, otherwise your entire avatar will look bright red. The BOM HUDs for both Maitreya and Catwa are technically skin applier HUDs. They apply the special BOM 'bake' textures to your head and body. Like any skin applier, you add them and they will appear on your screen. You then click them to apply the BOM 'bake' textures to your skin. Since you're using a BOM viewer, you won't see those special textures, but instead your underlying system skin will now appear on your Catwa head and Maitreya body. If you've used BOM and want to stop using it, all you need to do is put back on your CATWA ALPHA Full Avatar, and re-apply your original skin appliers for both the head and body (and possibly the eyes; look in the Jasmine head folder for an item called CATWA HUD Eyes v4.0, then add it and click the eye texture that you want to wear). Those skin appliers will replace the BOM 'bake' skin textures and you'll be back to how you were.

Indeed she is

Something that's not been mentioned yet is HUDs. When this texture thrashing/rebaking happens are you wearing any texture-heavy HUDs such as mesh head or body HUDs? They will usually warn you in a pop-up that they consume a lot of texture memory when you first put them on.

If you're using the Slink Redux body then they have an Asymmetry Harness that means you can use applier tattoos on a single arm like you used to be able to on the Slink classic bodies. The below is from the FAQ:

Someone finally made it! Thank you, Zantyago Mannonen, for blessing the grid with this beautiful likeness of Billy Porter's tuxedo gown from the Oscars. And thank you to @Akasha Sternberg who saw it and knew instantly that I had to have it

The thing that most influences my mood, and - by association - it influences how I look in SL... is music. There's a reason why each of my Flickr images has a random selection from a song lyric as its title. I get inspired by music (and sometimes by a particular item of clothing or accessory that I've found) to create characters, and some of those characters developed lives of their own. I don't use alts for those characters (too bloody expensive to buy heads and bodies multiple times over!) so Skell has multiple 'personas' that he slips into. The earliest of these was the Gentleman Bastard (which group title you will still see me wearing if I'm not in Catwa Manager mode). He was the leader of a roleplay group of thieves in some amorphous, vaguely Victorian era, and over the years I've reinvented him a few times: The most recent persona is Syd, who is Skell's more pretty-boy bishonen side. He, too, has a character and quirks of his own, as does Skell himself. (Small case in point: I don't smoke IRL, but Skell's a smoker.) I'm one of those people who changes their look constantly, but once my body shape is settled I don't vary from that, and I tend only to wear two specific heads these days: one for all iterations of Skell, and one for all iterations of Syd. With skins and appliers etc I change how they look all the time. This is a random selection from the last five or six months: Every one of those looks was influenced in some way by how I felt when listening to a certain piece of music.

If you go to the store then - to the right of the landing point (with the mainstore behind you) - you'll find a whole wing filled with over 100 female demo skins. Lots to choose from

Exile's newest styles also have much more realistic textures.

The most recent Catwa head is called Nour. However, Catwa has 27 female bento heads in total, and all of them are different. They have all recently been updated to v4.0, and 'new' doesn't equate with 'better'. You get the same features on each one ('features' as in options, not as in looks).

I use the Izzie's age appliers whenever I want to make Skell look older. Together with some grey-streaked hair and a salt-and-pepper facial hair it does the job for me. From left to right below: black hair with the skin clean-shaven, then with added greying facial hair, then finally with age lines and greying hair/facial hair. The same youthful skin is used throughout. A clickable (for more detail) close-up shot can be found here.

Even the 'older' half of the image? I've clearly looked after myself, then, if he looks 30. My facial lines are around that stage (and even less in places).

They clearly didn't want to interact with anyone, which is why they sought out such old posts to add random non-answer 'answers' to. I have no objection at all to people who actually interact with other residents here, and who then use the relevant forum sections to promote whatever it is they have to promote, after becoming an interactive member of the forums. I only start side-eyeing when people regard us as not worth their time in actual discourse, because then it's obvious that our Linden Dollars (and/or our presence at their adult club night) are the only thing they're interested in.