Hot Spot Review – The Shops At Crush Row

A shopper's dream world.

I am extremely happy to present to you…..*drum roll*….the shops at Crush Row. This is an amazing area that I stumbled upon while helping out a new resident/friend of mine. We were browsing through Tuli (which I’ve reviewed and given two thumbs up (-: ) and were approached by a lady named Elysium Eilde. Elysium was kind enough to give my friend a newbie package from her store, Elymode. I followed that to Crush Row and found myself in a virtual shopper’s dream land. Let me say a few words about Elymode specifically, and then I’ll give an overview of Crush Row.

Elymode is a lovely store, offering ladies’ clothing. The thing I love about this store is that you can mix and match the pieces to create several different outfits. The colors and lines of the clothing fit together so well. At the entrance to the store, you will find a box specially for avatars 30 days or younger. This is to help newcomers to Second Life. You can see a picture of this box, as well as its contents, below. If you’re older than 30 days, don’t fret. All items in the newbie box are available to purchase in her store. :-)

Elymode Newcomer Box

Notice how the clothes are form-fitting in the perfect places to show off your shape.

Excuse the image quality. Working on a better one.

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Now let’s get on with the rest of Crush Row. :-D

Crush Row offers some of the top designers of SL, featuring clothing, accessories, poses, and more. Below is a list of some of my favorites in no particular order.

• Atomic
• Crash Couture
• Malt
• adam n eve
• AOHARU
• Exodi
• Punch Drunk
• League
• Sn@tch
• axel

The first time I went shopping here, I didn’t know what way to turn. It was like I was completely surrounded by things saying “Buy me!” Now, the only thing that isn’t a total plus for Crush Row is that the prices are average. They aren’t huge bargains…however, they aren’t sky high either. And if you’re willing to pay a few L$ for quality items, you won’t be disappointed with purchases here. A good thing about this area is that most shops do offer freebies or dollarbies (or gifts if you click their subscrib-o-matics). I took my friend and she made out like a bandit on these items.

Here are a couple outfits I bought at Crush Row.

My newest outfit.

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Top: [Atomic] I <3 Noobs Shoulder Tee Gray (You can get the shirt in several different colors and they also have a regular tee version which suits guys well.)  L$ 100

Bottoms: League Booty Shorts – Dark Blue  L$ 120

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Every girl needs her LBD.

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League Scoop! Dress – Black  L$ 345

How To: Appearance (Dressing Your Avatar)

...Now what?

You’re in Second Life, you’re making friends, getting some calling cards, it all seems great. But how do you get rid of this newbie status?

Well, one thing to do is get rid of the newbie body. “How do I do this?” you may ask. Well, it seems like a daunting task, but once you get the hang of things, it’s no problem at all to slap on a new skin or try on a new pair of shoes.

First, I’m going to go over the basic body parts and articles of clothing, because this was very confusing for me during my first week or so in Second Life. In fact, I had a conversation that went something like this:

“Well, you’ll want to get a new skin.”

“What’s a skin?”

“It’s the skin on your avatar. It affects your appearance.”

“Oh, ok. Where do I get one of those?”

[Receive landmark]

“And you’ll need a shape, too.”

“What’s a shape?”

“The shape of your avatar. It affects your appearance.”

“Oh, ok. Where do I get one of those?”

And the cycle continued until I had had everything explained to me, and I was still confused. So, here we go.

First, you have a skin. It’s just that–the skin of your avatar. Just like the human skin you have. There are different complections, some have body oil on them for the “sexy” look. Some have lots of makeup, some have light makeup and I’m sure some have no makeup. My favorite store for skins (female only, I’m afraid. I’ll ask around for you guys.) is Tuli. (Other stores that I’ve heard about, but have no experience with are Alessandra and ALady.) If you don’t have a bunch of Lindens for a top quality skin like those offered in such stores, you can use the Picks rewards system. However, you only get the prize of the month. You don’t get to choose your prize. Anyway,the link to Tuli I’ve given you above takes you right to the board for the Picks reward system. It will show you the prize you’ll receive and explain how to enroll in the process. Once you have a skin you like, simply open your inventory, find the skin you want, wear it and see the transformation occur before your very eyes.

Next, you have shapes. Shapes are what define the shapes of avatars. Just like human bodies have shapes. Muscular, thin, chunky, whatever. I also bought my shape at Tuli. I haven’t seen a high quality free shape yet. You can modify the one you are “born” with. It’s not too hard. Just edit appearance and click the shape tab. Then just play with the settings until you get what you want. If you do buy a shape or find one you like, just wear it the same way you do a skin.

Other, not so necessary, body parts are eyes and hair. I say these aren’t necessary because I’ve found not a lot of people stare into pixelated eyes. They’re more worried about curves and muscles–thus the emphasis on skins and shapes. :-) Nevertheless, you have to have eyes. You can stick with the ones you’re born with, or you can buy some. I actually wear freebie eyes to this day. I like them. They look sparkly. And no one seems to notice they’re freebies. So when you find eyes that you like, just wear them. I said hair isn’t necessary because most people go bald on the “body part” hair and opt for flexi hair.

Now, let me explain that. You can pick up some flexi hair at the Freebies Dungeon (look through my reviews to find that), Tousled (for ladies), the Hair Center (for ladies and gents) or any other place you find some. Tousled and the Hair Center both sell hair but you can find some freebies if you look for them. Now, Tousled is one of my favorite stores. I love the products and the prices. But my hair that I usually wear didn’t come from there. It was a gift and was bought from Aden. Flexi hair gives the advantage of being flexible. Thus, when your avatar moves, it looks more natural. To wear flexi hair, you’ll need to go bald. Yes, bald. Either find a bald base and wear it, or go into edit appearance and manually make yourself bald. From there, just wear the flexi hair.

Next, we have clothes. Shirts, pants, shoes, skirts, underpants, undershirts, jackets, gloves, socks….and millions of attachments on top of that. But, when you think about it, you’ve worn stuff like this in RL haven’t you? And you can get dressed in the mornings, right? Well, you can do it in SL then. :-) For new avatars, the best place I’ve found for clothes is Freebies Dungeon. (See above, or my Freebies Dungeon review.) Keep an eye on my reviews for more places. Once you have the items you want to wear, just find them in your inventory and select wear. It really is that simple. :-)

Hot Spot Review – Freebies Dungeon

Freebies as far as the screen can see.

Freebies Dungeon is full, full, full of freebies to help Second Life newcomers. The dungeon takes up nearly an entire region and, as you can see, there are boxes of freebies everywhere. They range from clothes and costumes to candles and gestures. Most boxes are labeled with hover text to tell you what’s inside. If you aren’t sure, just click buy and scroll through the contents before you purchase.

The downsides: The region is so full of people all the time, there is some lag. But just be patient, the treasures are worth it.

Some things aren’t free. Most things on the walls will cost you a few Linden. (Nothing compared to some other stores though–generally around L$10.)

Another downside, for me, is the massive number of vampire bite offers. I’ve never been interested in being a vampire and being asked if someone can suck my blood every time I go here gets a little tiring. But you can always decline these offers. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, accept one. :-)

But I’ll end on a perk. :-) There are always friends to be found at the Freebies Dungeon because of the array of avatars that go there. So don’t be shy!

I took a screen shot of my mini-map so you can get an idea of how busy this area is.

Avatars, avatars, avatars...