I went out to the new Beauty Avatar sim tonight. I...wasn't as impressed as I was probably supposed to be. The build itself is good. It would help if there were some signs up telling people what is in each building. And you couldn't really rely on what I assume was a customer service rep, because all she was doing was flying around and flying away every time someone walked by.
Combined with the fact that the sim was a bit laggy, I got spammed with "Lern how 2 make $1000L!" cards from a couple of people wandering around within moments of arriving, and the general appearance that everyone there seemed to be noobs or bots - it was not a pleasant experience! But I trudged on, determined to give the place a chance.
Now those of you who are long time readers, you know that I love a good deal and I am very frugal with my shopping. This is how I am in the real world, too. Paying retail price doesn't make sense to me unless it's something that I absolutely and completely MUST HAVE and it is something that will never ever go on sale. [So far there hasn't been much in my life that I haven't been able to get at a discount. Shopping with me is probably a complete suckfest, actually. LOL]
The prices at Beauty Avatar are pretty high. For those of us accustomed to searching for a deal and looking fabulous on a budget, it's sticker shock. $290L for one pair of photosourced jeans? $700L for one dress? $140L for one pair of eyes? I don't think so! In fact, this guy was so shocked, he bent in half.
The skins ranged from $1400L to $1950L. The $1950L skins are photosourced and have really unattractive nipples. In fact, the $1400L skins have really unattractive nipples too. I'm sorry, that means something to me! LOL It was also really hard to see what the skin really looks like just because the word DEMO was imprinted alllllll over the skin. Is that really necessary? Slap it around the body if you must but wrapping the whole skin in the word makes it impossible to see what's really going on. Oh, maybe that's the point. Either way, I wasn't impressed with the skins.
I did WANT to come out of there with something positive. I picked up the few gifts I saw and hopped home to try things on. I figured maybe the clothes and skins were worth the price. They had to be, right? I mean, for what the price is, they should be just beautiful and almost perfect.
I know, bad form to talk smack about gifts, and I think it's cool that they gave away some stuff. But when I receive a gift, I look at it as a way to try on a designer's product to see if I'd like to go back there and shop. So if a designer puts their cast off crap in a gift box, guess what? I'm gonna assume your whole store is crap. Now if you come out and say "These are things that I made when I was just starting out, I'm sorry if they're not perfect but I am learning new techniques all the time," then that's cool! It's great to see how some designers progress! But if you put it out there and it is just a gift that happened to be marked down in the middle of your regular stuff, I'm going to assume it is exactly like your regular stuff.
First off all, the skin and outfit in the gift box. Well, you already know what I think about the nipples on the BA skins. LOL I'm also not a fan of the butt and the back doesn't have enough shading for my tastes. I do kind of like the lips, though. The ears scared the heck out of me for some reason. And the top of the dress...well, the seams were bleeding. Trust me, I waited a long time to make sure I was fully rezzed.
I don't know what that triangle patch is about. I had to go back in world and double check to see if it wasn't just on the picture, but no, it's on the skin. I'm pretty sure that it's only on this particular skin, though, because I didn't see it on the demo skins or on the other BA skin that I had gotten back in April. [Which I had forgotten I had - and didn't care for much then either.]
Last in my smack talk, LOL, I was really sad to see that one of the gift outfits I picked up had a shirt that wasn't "hemmed." As I grow in SL, I get pickier about things. For an outfit that would probably run about $300L when it's not a gift, it was a big letdown to see just a sliced off shirt.
I don't think Beauty Avatar is a place I'll be shopping at. Not this time around. I see it as being a place where those concerned with having the latest "Label of the Moment" run off to and drop a load of lalas just to say that they bought things from there, but not a place where people go back to very often unless there's a sale or a freebie. As for me, I'll probably end up deleting the outfits from my inventory and only getting out the skin for a costume event.
7 comments:
I have to agree with you about the ears. scary ears. .___.
I've honestly never been to Beauty Avatar. I saw the ad, heard the prices (from a friend) and just wasn't inclined to check it out. That, and I don't know why, but everyone I've seen wearing their skins always has a bitchy look on.
I know how you feel, it's considered poor taste to say you don't like a gift. However you are totally right, I also consider the gifts to be like Demos. When I get a great gift that impresses me so much I wear it regularly, you KNOW I'm going back to that store when I'm in a money spending mood. If I get a gift that gets deleted, well, it gets deleted and I'm not likely to remember the store at all or if I do it will be remembered as the one with that crappy logo tshirt where the seams don't even match up.
It's great that designers give gifts, I don't know what I'd do without them. The generosity and skill amazes me some days. I guess it's just something to keep in mind that it still represents your store and brand and maybe no gift at all is better than something you consider doesn't reflect your work. Unless as you say, they call it 'starter kits', 'something I'm experimenting with', or 'old stuff from when I started designing', then the expectation is different.
On another note - how did that guy get his head up his butt like that? It's hilarious.
wah wah, sucky gifts are sad.
but i just went on the biggest rampage through <3 cupcakes sale....
now there's some good freebies :)
I'm no World-Class-SL-Designer (at least, not yet) but I can weigh in about 2 things: first, the "no hem" thing. Yes, this is purely lazy in this case. No hem usually means they took the shirt down to the edge of the template. And yes, the template is kinda short for the shirt length, but losing a few pixels to a hem is very much worth it in my opinion. The only time I am not bothered by the lack of hem is when the shirt is trying to meet the bottom (pants) layer for a seamless look like in a dress. Then adding a hem for the time you might wear the shirt alone is silly since it would look fubared for the full outfit.
next, the "bleeding" seams...this may not be the fault specifically of the creator, but.... shoulder seams are tough as that's the part of the body that tends to get pushed and pulled a lot in different poses, but BUT i have found that sometimes it pulls and sometimes it doesn't (or at least doesn't as much) depending on where you draw. Just like bikini or panties bottoms are very very difficult to get right to minimize the pulling, it's a sign of someone with skill who can do it right.
Khari - Yes, I did look like I had an attitude with the skin on. LOL I got the same look with the Minnu skins too, so I guess I'm just not cut out for that modelish couture look.
Cen - I actually don't know how he ended up like that! When I tped in, he was right in front of me. I was like, umm...ok...and went about my business. But I had to go back a second time that night to grab a skin demo, and he was still there...still bent over.
Sehra - OMG, that <3C sale ROCKED!!!! I grabbed EV-ER-EE-THANG. I did end up throwing away some that just didn't look all that hot on me, but I kept a lot more than I threw. LOL
Kellee - Oh, I know no designer can be perfect just because of the avatar differences, but there are some designers that really do it right, and they can command these kind of high prices. I'm not paying $500L for an outfit with bleeding seams and cut off shirt bottoms when I can spend $300L somewhere else and buy a really well done outfit.
It's the reason why I don't charge a hell of a lot for any of the items I make. I know that I'm not as good as others out there, and the day I DO create something that I think could compete with any of the big name designers, I will charge a bit more for it. But I'll still always be cheap, I think. LOL
I don't care if the hem is there for shirts that turn into dresses, but regular shirts need the hemming. If the shirt template is too short, maybe move to a jacket layer instead?
Girl I agree with you 100%.
I was there yesterday hoping to find some interesting pieces to add to my fierce folder (the folder is named fierce) but I ended up getting a jacket that only made it to my 'alright' folder.
The prices ARE a bit too HUH?! I only allow myself to spend that much in Armidi or some other knock em dead fierce quality store.
Ugh,silly me bought a skin at beauty avatar. The demo marks were on all the seam lines and on the lips. I couldn't tell by checking out the demo that the skin was really bad. Should have been a warning to me. But I loved it in the picture, so I bought it for a cool 1400. I was so irritated when I found seams everywhere. I had to im the owner and tell her about it. She fixed the seams in the neck, but that is it. I miss Minnu, her skins rock my world and at the same price, they are soooo much better.
Frick rocks my world too! Seriously, those mods are great!Should have bought all the skins there instead of one at BA.
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