So it’s SKIN FAIR 2015 time and here’s my first skin review, and it’s an absolute belter. We’ve got just over a fortnight of amazing skins to get through and I already feel like I’ve found my happy place!

Now, here’s a thing. I don’t  know if ‘Gina’ from ZOUL CREATIONS is supposed to look like Kim Kardashian or not, but bugger me backwards with a shopping trolley, when I put this skin on my shape (without ANY changes, same shape that I always wear) Kim was precisely who was staring back at me from my monitor!  I mean, JUST LOOK!

Isn’t it like her? WOW! I added a blonde hairstyle from TRUTH (Seeing as Kim’s cut her lovely  long tresses and dyed them blonde, I fear she will suffer a straw-like barnet for that).   I can’t say I’m a huge Kardashian family fan, but I do think  that Kim is pretty, which is a good job really because this skin is gorgeous.

And when I say gorgeous I mean sensational.

I’ve already got TONS of compliments on this one and it doesn’t surprise me one pop because whenI first discovered ZOUL CREATIONS last year at Skin Fair I could see this was a quality skin brand, and they’ve been a firm favourite of mine ever since. The skins that Shantia Soulstar lovingly creates tick all the right boxes for me:

• Excellent colour-depth and spread of tone across the torso, limbs and no unseemly issues with, erm..seams.
• Epic zoomability,  In other words, zoom in close on this skin and she still looks darn near perfect.
• Super fine feature detailing: elbows, nails and all the important places are well created with the right level of detail.

Of course, this year  is ALL ABOUT appliers.  Love or loathe the plethora of mesh bodies, gobs and norks out there in the metaverse as you see fit, but you have to admit that appliers are pretty important these days. I’m sure they’re the bane of any skin-makers life BUT the reality is that so many of us have mesh bodies/lips/armpits that to not feature appliers as a selling point  would now be considered seriously lacking, and it would also mean skin makers are missing out on a revenue stream in a class of its own.  So I like to find appliers that are responsive and HUDS that work. I’m happy to report that these do precisely what they say on the tin; I’m wearing the Slink Physique and Slink Casual hands in this picture and there are absolutely no problems with joins at all.  Oh, and the appliers are FREE. So, let’s move beyond my being a dead ringer for a celebrity who seems to have made making a sex tape an aspirational career goal,  and discuss why I’m loving this skin.

A strength of ZOUL CREATIONS has always been the brows.  Brows, as I’ve prattled about on these pages a million times before, are essential to creating the right balance to your look.  Personally I like my brows to be strong, but NOT full on ‘scouse brow’.  Brows are very much in vogue nowadays and there is nothing that disappoints me more than a wonderful skin base with brows that look as though they’ve been drawn on by a five-year-old. Sadly, I have encountered more than my fair share of those. But these aren’t guilty of that; they’re strong, defined and they look fab.  And so does the standard lip, juicy and full with great colour application. (All the pictures that follow are completely un-retouched by the way..)

The make-ups and lipsticks for this skin are an absolute joy; a thoroughly comprehensive collection of shades for the eyes offering great definition along with a fab array of luscious lip shades to choose from.  I went mix ‘n’ match happy as you can see in the pictures above, and this is just three combinations that I came up with from a palette teeming with colours.  Seriously, sometimes my mind boggles at the skill set of the skin makers we have in-world, and ZOUL CREATIONS, for me personally, belong in the upper echelon of Second Life skin designers.   If you’re the kind of avatar who spends a certain amount of your time swanning about in the nude you’d do yourself a huge favour to try this skin.  It looks absolutely beautiful naked, it really does, and I hope you can gauge that from the picture below.

Shantia is debuting a few other skins at Skin Fair too which I’ll come back to on the blog.  You’ve plenty of time to check these out but if you can’t get into Skin Fair at launch (yeah, like THAT’S going to happen!) then you should take a trip over to her store. There’s a number of reasons for this; number 1 you can check out the tantalising array of eyebrows that she sells, perfect for every avatar and cheap as chips, and number 2, you can pick up a FANTASTIC skin called ‘Monica’ at the promo price of…L$75.  It comes with four eyeshadows and four lip shades, and it is sublime, and possibly the bargain of the century too! Oh, and buying it gets you L$8 in store credit as well..come on Shantia, are you doing this for love or money?  Well, I’m going to take a guess, because when I was trying Gina on I got a real sensation of someone who is creating skins and make-ups just for the sheer joy of doing it.  You will know what I mean when you demo Shantia’s skins; I’ve seen frankly far lesser creators charging a small fortune for work that isn’t a patch on hers.

And here’s the thing; I actually asked Shantia about that and her response was, and I quote, “….well I want people with not so much money to be able to have nice skins too :)”

If that  attitude alone doesn’t convince you to seriously check out ZOUL CREATIONS I don’t know what will.   Actually I do, the prices..

• The skin fair releases are L$499 for each skin pack which includes ALL skintones
• The make-up packs are L$125 each (you can select eyeshadows or lipsticks. Just buy them all)
• Sweetlips appliers (not even used them in this review, can’t wait to try them!) also cost L$125 per pack

AND let me repeat my earlier point…

Skin appliers ARE FREE. Which quite frankly is utterly mad!  

So, go to Skin Fair 2015, and before you hit the stores featuring the skins that absolutely everyone else on the grid will be wearing, go to ZOUL CREATIONS.  You’ll probably find that you can buy everything on

You’ll probably find that you can buy everything on display for the equivalent cost of just one single tone of any other of the skins available at the event, but don’t take the low prices as an indication of low quality. These skins are anything but, and I’m totally entranced by Gina.  This is my first review at SKIN FAIR 2015 and the bar has already been set incredibly high but wow, with skins this good we’re all in for an utter treat aren’t we?

One final shot with no enhancements of any kind.  (Incidentally I’ve been using the ‘Canimod’ Windlight for all the pics in this piece, only the top photograph has been heavily edited using Picmonkey.)

If this doesn’t qualify as a must-have skin in 2015 then I don’t know what will. Be sure to check out ZOUL CREATIONS at SKIN FAIR 2015!