Myrich McMillan Skins: $500L Can’t Be Beat!

I do so love review requests. Just thought I’d throw that out there. *hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge* Myrich McMillan contacted me today, asking me oh-so-politely to review this lovely skin set. I was flattered, naturally… and happily accepted the opportunity! Again, as with my last skin review, I will start out with the technicalities first for those of you who do not wish to read this whole post:

Creator: Myrich McMillan
Shop Location: None
Method of Purchase: SL Exchange
URL: Click Here (You will need to have mature content enabled!)
Price: $500L per skin / $2000L per fat pack (9 skins)
Total Variations: It looks like somewhere between 9 and 13 (unclear)
Other Notes: Comes with a free shape and face light

I’ll begin the review with a lovely note by Myrich to her consumers:

Thanks for trying one of my demo skins. Most likely the current skin you’re wearing sucks. You may have shadows hiding under your butt, your naughty bits are blurry, no palm prints, or whatever. It was for these reasons that I designed this line of skins.

As you’ll see when you try on this skin the seams are nearly invisible, there are realistic freckles over the body, there are no weird shadows under your boobs, you have palm prints, nicely painted nails, a shapely belly, knees, toes, toe nails….

The best test to see if it is worth buying this skin is to try on the demo, hop on a pose ball, and play with the lighting. As with all skins, an incredible amount of work went into this one. I promise you, this skin is one of the best.

If you see something you don’t like, IM me (Myrich McMillan). I’ll do my best to fix it.

If you are interested in other skins by me on SLEX, do a search for Myrich McMillan.

Have a great day!

Cheers,
MM

And now for ‘da good stuff!

Being as objective as possible, I will say that these skins have both their pros and cons… and they’re not even cons really. More like “room for improvement”, as ALL skins have. No skin is perfect. As with all things, practice makes perfect, and as first time skins go, this skin is actually VERY nicely done indeed.

As per usual, the first thing I notice on any skin I am looking at is TnA. That’s “tits and ass” for all you non-acronym folks out there. However, I’d like to do this particular review a little differently, just to make sure I get all the points I’d like to make across in an effective and efficient manner. Us fashionistas, always changing shit up… you know how we do!

I’d like to point out that these skins have a fantastically realistic skin texture. Freckles, veins, very realistic shading on certain areas of the body… it’s beautifully done, and honestly I’m impressed. The knees are splendid as are the shoulder blades in both highlighting and texture, two areas that I am for some reason very picky about. Another area I was very pleased to see go un-ignored, and SHOCKED to notice the realism of is the BACK of the knees… there are tiny veins and creases that add so much effect I was practically bowled over.

I feel like the vein point is an important one, because veins are something that too many SL skin artists overlook when creating realistic skins. When I saw them on the back of the knees, I was inspired to search over the rest of the skin and I am happy to report there are veins throughout the body… breasts, the left hip area, even the inside of the arms. We have BLOOD! Who knew???

Another point I’d like to make is the realism of the hoo-haa (kitty, vagina, pussy, genital area… pick your poison). It looks *delicious*. It’s sporting a very tiny landing strip (which honestly, I could do without… but I am really just biased to Brazilians) and is actually remarkably well detailed. As with many skins, there is some inner thigh smearing that needs work, but I am pretty impressed with the area for this particular skin, despite that it does have room for improvement.

Something else you’ll notice about this skin is the tan lines… I’m not crazy about them, but that could just be personal preference. As an addition to the skin, they’re not poorly done — quite the opposite — they’re actually very nice. But… I’m just not into tan lines. Maybe we could convince Myrich to sell both with and without tan lines??? Many options is always the best option in my opinion.

One thing I was ASTONISHED to see, that I’ve NEVER seen on another skin (maybe I’m just not looking hard enough?)… there’s an asshole. Literally. A tiny little sphincter-anus (I know, that’s not a word) painted right onto the lovely little booty. Granted, it’s kind of just plopped onto the skin right now… it needs a little shading work… a kind of “fade-in” to make it more realistic. BUT… bravo for initiative, man, because I’ve NEVER seen this before. As my good friend Codie would say, “I don’t know what made SL designers decide we didn’t need assholes.” *give this man a round of applause*

As for the ass itself, the cheeks need a little work. I am a sucker for the perfectly shaded ass, and it is a huge, HUGE deal breaker for me during a skin purchase… and while the tan lines add a little depth, if you take those away, you’ve just got a flat skin texture. Here’s hoping that a little bit of an ass-smash will take place on the next skin release! A little shading to give depth to the cheek goes a long way. Don’t neglect the boo-tay!

The hands are actually nicely manicured, as are the feet, however there is a big seam mishap going on with the fingers. Seams are a big problem for a lot of skin designers (there’s another long seam line on the legs), but with a little more blending work, this skin could be flawless in its match-up. Another very fixable thing that I noticed is the ears… they are a very different skin tone in comparison to the rest of the body. A little oversaturated, perhaps. However, I would like to point out that the ears are very nicely detailed and realistic and could be flawless with a little more work.

The demo skins I received to review (”Beth” in both Burgundy and Natural) are red headed skins and come with a full head of painted on hair, which I will be very honest about… I think is a BAD idea. While the drawn hair is actually not bad, seeing as how 99% of hair worn in SL is prim hair, if that drawn hair shows from underneath (which it did for my review)… that’s going to turn a lot of buyers off. In my personal opinion, unless it is a male skin and the hairline is VERY well lined up, skins should always, always, ALWAYS be bald. Another thing I noticed about the head of the skin… the nostrils are orange. I imagine this was just an oversight and will likely be fixed with the next release, so don’t fret! Also… the EYEBROWS on this skin are FANTASTIC. Very, very realistically done. I am actually a little unclear as to whether or not this skin comes in different hair shades (like I said, the ones I received are red-headed and thus have red eyebrows) but for you red heads out there, these red eyebrows would make you very happy!

My last point, and I’ll just be up front about this one — the makeup needs work. I actually do like the natural makeup versus the burgundy makeup more, mostly because the burgundy lips look very “painted on” and disproportionate. But the natural lips are actually quite lovely in their subtle pink hue. Same with the eye makeup… there is just too much going on with the Burgundy version. Less is more!

All in all, for the $500L you will pay (which also gets you a free shape and face light!), this is a VERY nice skin and INCREDIBLY well done for its value. Like many first time skin creations, there are areas for improvement — but I am very much looking forward to the next release by our dear Myrich McMillan. With this skin texture and the VEINS… I’m sure the next release will be better than ever!

Check out Ms. McMillan’s store on SLEX (URL) to buy demos and purchase these lovely skins. And don’t forget to share the wealth! The holidays ARE coming up after all… surprise someone with a skin upgrade! At $500L, you can’t go wrong. :)