New: Male skins @ Tete a Pied

October 10th, 2006 at 02:17pm Ryan Darragh

Tete a Pied’s new hand-drawn male skins, announced this week by CJ Carnot and Roslin Petion, come in nine color choices, four facial hair options, and two body hair options, with more in the works. The color groups are called Rosy, Bronzage and Asiatique, with Light, Medium and Dark versions of each. Facial hair options are Clean Shaven, Stubble, Goatee, and Beard; body hair options are Smooth and Natural. Single skins sell for L$1000, and four-packs with all four facial hair combinations are available for L$2500. Demo skins are available for L$1.

I’m not sure there is such a thing as the “perfect skin,” but I keep looking. My first purchased skin was a Bodyskin by Nora, and I loved it but eventually decided to move on to something more realistic. Sadly, last time I checked there were still no new male skins in the Nora line, and all of the previously available naturally colored skins have been withdrawn. My next and current skin is by Lost Thereian of Naughty Designs, and it comes pretty close to being perfect for me. (Somewhere along the way, I tried out a free skin or two, but we won’t discuss those.) But there are always those few little details that I wish had been done differently, just for me, because I’m like that. So I’m always interested when a designer releases new skins for men, and couldn’t wait to try on the review samples for the new male skins from Tete a Pied. It seems to me that a skin is a very personal thing, and one’s evaluation of a skin’s quality is both objective and subjective–some things just work for you, or else they don’t. So I’m not going to tell you to run out immediately and buy one of these new skins, neither will I tell you to avoid them at all costs. I am going to tell you what I like about them, so you can then go buy a demo, try it on and decide for yourself.

These skins are very nicely drawn, with good detailing on the torso (which I tend to notice first) and other areas. The navel is placed a little higher up than on the Naughty Designs skin, which gives the appearance of a higher waist–your low-riders will ride even lower. The color that I felt was the best match for me, skinny Irish boy that I am, was Rosy (Dark), which I am wearing in this picture. This is the Natural body hair option, which adds light chest and lower belly hair (the Smooth option has no body hair).

Having a variety of color choices available is desirable, not only because you want to be able to select one that feels “right,” but because, whether you realize it or not, your hair and clothing wardrobes undoubtedly reflect the general color palette you’ve settled on for your avatar, and this is very likely determined in large part by your skin tone.

The facial art is equally well done, and I was pleased to see that my features didn’t look odd in any way. I have tried on skin demos that were less successful with the facial features–one made my nostrils look like dark pits in my face, and another made my lips look permanently chapped. In this picture I am wearing the Bronzage (Light) skin with the Stubble facial hair option. I don’t usually go for facial hair, but I think this light stubble is very effective.

These new male skins from Tete a Pied are thoughtfully designed and definitely worth checking out. Demo skins are basically free at L$1 each, so try on a few or several to make sure the design choices work for you and find your best color choice.

Disclosure: Seen in World: Yes | Review Copy: Yes | Friends List: No

Notes: On Ryan: Jeans, Random Lowriders (light wash), by Garbage Prototype.

Entry Filed under: New Items, Skins, Tête a Pied