Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Sierra Skins from CAKE

Stumbelina Ophelia from Cake has wowed me in the past with her Jessica skins - those sultry eyes, strong lips and rosy cheeks make them some of the most stunning skins around at the moment. If Caliah Lyon refuses to take a skin off, you just know it's good. Luckily for us, Stumbelina has unleashed her skin making talent once again to bring us a new range of skins, Sierra. The look is waif / gamine inspired, with freckles on the face and shoulders. While these skins will definitely appeal to those who are already a fan of the Jessica range, their natural yet slightly imperfect prettiness will also be attractive to those who look for something a little different in a skin. These are skins with character.

I was particularly excited about the freckles on this skin. While there are a number of high quality freckled skins available, most of them are either designed solely for redheads, or have just a small sprinkling of freckles across the cheeks, almost as an afterthought. The freckles on Sierra though are one of the main features of the skin, they are completely natural looking and aren't just confined to the nose and cheeks. There is also a light smattering of freckles across the forehead and on the chest, back and arms of the Sierra skin.

Sierra is available in four skintones - Cream, Ivory, Pearl and Toast - which range from milky pale to a light golden tan, but the fact that they are modifiable allows for some flexibility in tone. There is quite a varied selection of makeup available for each skintone. Sierra is only available in packs of four, which will set you back 3000L, with a facelight and four bald bases thrown in. Do the math and that makes these skins very good value for money, because you get four completely different looks in each pack, not just slight variations between makeups. All four skintones are shown below.

Top Left: Cream Set 1 - 400
Top Right: Ivory Set 2 - 100
Bottom Left: Pearl Set 1 - 100
Bottom Right: Toast Set 1 - 400

The eyes are a definite focus of the face; the eyeliner and shape of the eyelids create a sultry, wide-eyed appearance. The brows are very natural looking and provide a strong frame for the face without being overpowering. I find the nose to be one of the best features of the face, it's apparent that a lot of work has gone into the detail of the tip and the nostrils to give a very sweet up-turned appearance. The lips aren't quite as wide as those on the Jessica skin, and have a very nice curved shape. This combined with the detailing on the cupid's bow gives a slightly pouty appearance.

Makeup choices range from natural, to sultry, to almost avant-garde. On these skins, I find the neutral makeups to be most appealing, as combined with the freckles they offer a very fresh and natural look not seen on many other skins. But there are also vibrant lips and eyeshadows on offer, and of course Stumbelina hasn't let us down with the rosy natural looking blush, which is a relief because that is one of the most attractive features of the Jessica skins.

The body on Sierra is soft and smooth, no harsh highlights or freakish musculature in evidence here. The shading is best demonstrated on the darkest tone, Toast, shown below. The body shading becomes a little less evident on the paler skin tones, which is to be expected.

The skin is seamless and smoothly shaded. The attention to detail is obvious in the realistic shading on the front and back of the knees, elbows, ankles and feet. The shading of the collar bone and shoulder blades gives just enough definition. The work on the stomach gives a lovely curved look, and the handful of freckles dappled across it adds to the realism of the skin.

The top of the breasts is lightly dusted with freckles. The breasts are well-defined with large, natural looking nipples and well placed highlights. The detailing on the genital area is realistic, but not pornographically so. I am particularly impressed with the shading and highlighting on the buttocks.

Makeup choices vary between skintones, which will make choosing a makeup pack difficult, but take the demos home and play around with the sliders before deciding, as you can make some adjustments to skin colour. There isn't a huge amount of difference between the Cream and Ivory skintones, so if you are looking for a nice milky toned skin you will definitely be happy with either of these. The Sierra shape that is shown in Stumbelina's ads is also available for 500L - it has a delicate, waifish face that complements these skins perfectly.

Bedroom Eyelashes from Cake, IdealEyes in White from EyeFidelity, The Soho Hair - Blonde Collection from Armidi