Butta's January Luxe Box Review

" I won't be buying it again..."
December Luxe Box Review

Sweater - Peyton Top - Foxes from Luxebox

Skirt - Vandi Skirt - Decoy from Luxebox

Shoes - Pointsettia Boots - Empire from Luxebox

Hair - Top Knot Hair - Besom from Luxebox

Building - Emiko Courtyard Cottage - Trompe Loeil @ Collabor88

Sofa -  Emiko Couch - Trompe Loeil @ Collabor88

Basket - Ashdon Pillow Basket Decor - Trompe Loeil

Rug - Home Collection Rug - [QE] Designs

Yes, I am a huge ole' liar! From now on just call me Butta Liarpants because guess what? I bought the January Luxebox. Yes I said I wasn't going to, but hear me out. I really wanted to see what would happen with the changes that the Luxebox team made for 2018. The big changes for this year are dropping the number of designers down to eight and dropping the price to just 1000 L$ per month. So? Did they really listen, did they do enough. Will the new year bring a renewed "Luxe" to this aging subscription box?

Sadly my answer is not really. Was this box better? Certainly so, in fact with only a couple of exceptions, everything fits/works fine. There still is a lot of value to be had in getting 8 items for just 1000L$. The main issue to me has been, and continues to be that the items we get are just not always "Luxe". There are often fit issues, designs seem uninspired or reused from other products. Luxebox team, on the off chance you are reading this, please consider the following as I really think it will approve your product:

• Have a quality control step. Get the products ahead of time and try them out. Find simple issues like the one with Ariskea this month before they go out to everyone. Things like this really impact the perception of products and Luxebox as a whole.
• Get more designers and rotate them each month. Ask your community, I am sure we can give you dozens of awesome suggestions. Designers are stretched to thin to make "Luxe" items each month.
• Drop support for anything other than Maitreya. I know this won't be popular but building items for lots of bodies just adds time and complexity and let's face it many designers are already just offering Maitreya objects.

Enough soapboxing! Sami (yes she bought it too) and I have each split up the box again. I am covering four and she is covering four of the items this month. You can see all four items I am covering in the photo above, so let's dive in and see what you get with a January 2018 Luxebox subscription.

Read Sami's Coverage of the other items in this months Luxebox.

Payton Top by Foxes

Skin pokes through

This top is cute no question about it. Foxes put together a cropped, off the should sweater top with a fold over upper edge only for the Maitreya Lara body. The HUD comes with 10 solid color options and the texture is wool in design.

Sadly though, this top has some alpha issues which make it far better suited to photos than to day to day wearing. No doubt making an off the shoulder top is difficult, you can only cut so much out of the underlying body, but in this case the fit of the sweater means that almost any motion will cause some breakage. I adjusted my shape to try and compensate without affect. Moving the arm up, or out from the body, especially extreme movements like above your head, result in body poking through.

Too much alpha for day to day use

In the image under the Besom hair entry below I used the Maitreya alpha layers to hide the underlying body in the photo. You can see the image to the right here that bringing my arm down to a simple arms at sides position reveals those alphas being visible on the shoulder. So you are left with a top that sadly has a lot of alpha issues for day to day walking around. If that doesn't bother you or you have an AO with very limited motion then this top is more likely to work. Otherwise, this top is still perfect for a casual look to use in photographs or otherwise posed.

Vandi Skirt by Decoy

Decoy made us a mid-thigh denim skirt for Maitreya Lara and Slink Hourglass this month. The HUD offers 10 color options. There really isn't a lot to say about this skirt. The fit on Lara is what you would expect. One of the best things about the skirt is it's mid-thigh length which makes it a great alternative to the typical mini skirt we see in Second Life.  The skirt does have some room to add extra alphas if you find it breaking more that you like when you walk. There is some sheering when you walk as the mesh pulls in on itself, but that is unavoidable with this length of skirt. The texture also does pull in the front especially with the larger leg movements. Overall, this is a nice skirt to add to any wardrobe, especially considering there are so few casual skirts in this length around.

Top Knot Babe by Besom

A last minute change in this months Luxebox, Besom stepped in for Moon to bring us this half up knot style long hairdo. What do we get with this months hair? You get seven HUDs filled with different color options, and 3 different hair styles. Two of the hair styles are for larger breast sizes and of course the one for a standard fit. As with the Decoy skirt above there is not a lot to say about this style. Like many long style the rigging does sometimes mean the hair get stuck in your shoulder or arm as you move. Really though its hardly noticeable as this is a pretty full hair style. If you are looking for a half up/half down knot style hair this should fit the bill.

Pointsettia Boots by Empire

Available for Slink, Belleza and Maitreya bodies this simple laced flat boot comes with what we all know as the standard Empire (tiny color swatches) HUD. These boots allow the sole, base, heel and laces colors to be changed individually. The boots come in version with or without materials. The materials version has the effect applied effectively giving the boots a realistic shine. There is a tiny, tiny little glitch on the mesh on the left, outside edge of the boot. Its impossible to see on the darker colors but you can see it on the Pink boots below.

The fabric texture on the boots feels inconsistent to me when swapping from the darker to lighter colors, especially on the materials versions. To me the darker colors almost feel like a solid leather boot, while the light colors almost have a felt look to them. I am sure its all meant to have a leather/suede appearance but it does seem to change with color selection. You can somewhat see the variations in the colors below, shown with materials enabled. The shine is far more noticeable on the black and red. Of course its SL and I am not sure people pay such close attention to footwear....

Over all the fit of the boot is good, and it comes with all the color options we have come to expect.

Well there it is. Another month of Luxebox covered, and this time only a couple days after the release! Last month I ended my post by saying I wasn't going to buy Luxebox again. I will end this month by saying I will keep a close eye on the designers which are included and in particular the actions of the Luxebox team to continue to improve the quality of the items offered.

Until next time this is Butta Liarpants signing off!