♥ Hello Beautiful - Round 4 - Babysteps Part 1 ♥

Hi everyone!

Firstly, I want to address something I saw on SL Secrets. For those of you who aren't familiar with SL Secrets.. it's much like Post Secret (where you anonymously post online a picture/words regarding to a secret.. without the repercussions of people knowing it's you) 
Anyways.. so, SL Secrets.. I was browsing them last night - as I sometimes do when I'm bored.. to read what people are too cowardly to say to whoever and I saw a post that didn't sit well with me.. it was regarding bloggers and how this person claimed SL had no need for them. Well, I think a whole bunch of designers who rely on us to spread the word of their items would disagree with that person. If we were not required, why would designers look for bloggers? Why would designers actively seek them out? 
I started blogging because I like putting together outfits, plain and simple. I never expected to get picked up by creators or to end up blogging any events. Almost two years down the line and I started to get noticed.. which was fantastic! I was over the moon and slowly but surely I picked up a whole bunch of sponsors. Before I knew it I was getting at least 5 items to blog sent to me a day.. which is also why I got rid of all my sponsors and now I just blog what I like as it was so hard to keep on top of it all. Some creators have been fantastic and let me ask them randomly when there's something I'd like to blog and they'll send it my way. Other than the occasional time that happens, or events I blog.. I pay for everything myself. Some bloggers do it purely to get free stuff.. and that was never my intention when I started to blog. I just like to show off what I put together and hope someone else likes it too.. maybe they'll draw inspiration from it for their own look - or copy it completely! Too many people get butt hurt over people "stealing" their look from their blog.. if you don't want people to copy you, don't blog your look.. simples! 
I like not having the pressure to get posts out as frequent as I was before, means I get to think about what I write and put together a look that I'm really happy with. I try not to edit my pictures too much, as it wouldn't be honest.. I just tidy up anything that looks weird.
Anyway, to end my rant about this.. I'll just say.. if bloggers were'nt needed - why do creators look for them? Why do events do better with them? Even as a blogger I look at other blogs to find out what's going on, where the next event is.. what hot new stores there are.. etc etc. It's a lot easier than running around inspecting people. So, to that person who said bloggers aren't required.. I'm sorry you don't see the benefit of them - but I believe they are needed. If all bloggers went away I'd not know of events or anything and I'd probably just be stood in a sandbox on my own looking sad.

Now I got that rant out of the way.. I have more Hello Beautiful items to show you! If you want to see what else is on offer there, please see my last massive post featuring lots of great designers. Today I have an adorable skin from Babysteps to show you, found at Hello Beautiful. This is "Kandy Skin - Normals" and I'm showing it off on the super cute BooBoo mesh head from Cute Bytes. This skin looks absolutely adorable on this mesh head. I love it so much! It comes with an option for regular heads too if mesh heads aren't your thing.. and includes lots of different colour brow options. There's even a freckles option! This particular skin will be on sale after the event too.. there's a limited one at Hello Beautiful too, "Kandy Skin - Pastels", which won't be available for sale after the event - as it's limited.. which I plan to show you very soon. 

I'm wearing a cute outfit from Sugar & Spice called "Hadleigh's". Not only is the shirt and skirt very cute, but there's a HUD to change the texture of them, so essentially you're getting a few different looks for one price. I happened to think this shirt and skirt combo was nice, the shirt says on it "A little bit dramatic" which is so me! It was a bargain 50 lindens in the sale too! Can't grumble at that.

So.. this hair is from D!va and it's.. wait for it.. it's.. free! Yes, free! It's a group gift and the group is free to join too, so it won't cost you anything. It has a resize script in it too and sizes down easily.. it was a bit fiddly to get it to fit right on the mesh head.. but that's because I suck at positioning hair. I move it around, resize, move some more, resize some more.. then hate it and start again.. eventually I was happy with it though. Just took a lot of patience on my part.

Woodlands is open again.. and there's some fab stuff to be found. Including this pose I'm using from "the pose shop" - Not a store I'd heard of before, but definitely a store I'll check out again. 
Can I just have a grumble though at how many gatchas were there with outfits in them? Not like.. a whole outfit. But parts of an outfit! I absolutely hate that.. I understand why creators do it, because they make a whole lot more money that way.. but for the buyer it is really annoying. I like ones where you get a whole outfit, but you are not sure what colour you'd get.. I can deal with that. But when there's a million pieces for like 50-75 lindens a pop - it gets ridiculous. Seriously.. think about how expensive that outfit would be if you added up all the pieces individually. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't pay that if you saw it on sale for that price in a store or on marketplace. I refused to play those machines.. even though the ones from Turducken and Purretes were really hard to pass, because the outfits are super cute.. but I just can't justify spending that much. Hmm, that turned into another rant.. my bad!

Anyways.. I took three pictures. You should be able to click them for a larger view. 
Happy shopping everyone! ♥

Credits:

Outfit: Hadleigh's from Sugar & Spice
Hair: Hair "Bambi" (Black amber) - Free group gift from D!va
Necklace: Letter K Necklace - Gold from Little Ones Couture
Ring: Ice Cream Scoop Ring - StrawberryxGold from tsg
Bracelet: Fairy Tale Stamped Bracelet - Star Gold from .trinket. 

(Woodlands February 2015)
Mesh head: Baby Mesh Head #2 - BOOBOO from Cute Bytes
Skin: Kandy Skin- Normals from Babysteps 

(Hello Beautiful - February 2015)
Nails: Heart Nails ToddleeDoo from Awwdorable 

(Hello Beautiful - Feburary 2015)
Pose: // 4 macaroons from the pose shop (Woodlands February 2015)