New Simself, Again (Summer 2018 Edition)

My game is officially in working order, aside from not being able to play with Seasons because apparently that EP is still connected to my dad's fucking Origin account, and it would be absolute heresy to let me install it for my copy of the game (fuck you, EA). I have also jacked it up with a fuckload of CC. I have thankfully been able to find and reinstall a vast majority of the CC I had in my game before. The void from CC that has been lost to website deletions and download removals has been filled with new CC that is just as cool as the old stuff (if not cooler).

I ventured down a road I hadn't explored before in order to complete my new simself. My wardrobe over the past few years has taken a pointed turn in the direction of floral prints on black, or (as I have deemed it) garden gothic. This required a number of floral prints to create a simself with a wardrobe that could mostly uphold accuracy to the clothing I actually own. Since the floral prints in the game are decent but nothing like what I actually own, I set out to find new floral patterns to use for my simself.

I found this to be harder than I'd initially expected, because a greater portion of what I found was non-CASTable images that had been manipulated into seamless prints. To which I say: you fuckers, what the fuck?! This ain't Sims 4, we actually have the freedom to create and colour as we please! Why would you do this?? I understand using this to for more complex patterns, patterns that would require far more than four channels, but there were a good number which could easily be parsed into four channels! We have this freedom, fucking use it buddy!

At the end of the day, I was blessed with a gorgeous pattern pack that I used four patterns from in total, and which I will link under the outfits I used it for. After having gone back to old simselves in search of CC links to redownload and finding none, I have decided that for this simself I will be linking all of the CC below each image, for my benefit and yours.

To start my new simself, I downloaded the most recent version I could off of the exchange, my four-year-old summer 2014 simself. Before delving into the outfit creation, I did a lot of restructuring work on the face. Here are some before and after comparison pictures.

As is visible here, I made a number of major changes. The first simself was too dolly-fied, looked far too Barbie-ish to really be me. It's weird how I used to think that was perfect, and now when I look at the two images next to each other the top one doesn't even register as being me. I moved the eyes higher and closer together, increased and rebalanced the mass of the nose, made the cheeks fuller, lowered the cheek bones, increased the eyelid height, changed the jaw and chin shape, increased the size of the lips and ears, and slightly altered the eye shape. I also changed the eyebrows, shortened the lashes, and changed the hair colour. I've been making my hair an ashy brown-blonde with dark brown lowlights for years and years, but recently I've realized that the balance is really the opposite, a rich brown with blonde highlights. I also made the eyes a little greener, on the recommendation of my mother :)

Custom Content
Default Replacements: CAS background, eyes (unicolour version), Naughty and Nice skin, Silk face skin
Hair: Sideswiped
Dress: Flower Splash Halter Dress

Everyday

There are a number of things to address here that are features which continue into other outfits. First, the glasses. These are much rounder than my actual glasses but they are the closest I could find (at least with a working download link, mumble grumble). My actual glasses don't come down quite so far and have a hint of a cat eye shape to them, however they are still pretty big and round-ish. The second issue is the piercings. I spent so fucking long searching for a functional vertical labret piercing, only to come up with two functional piercings that clip through my simself's lip, and two non-functional ones that operate on the hat slider, so when my simself opens their mouth, the piercing stays stationary and floats ominously in the center of their open maw. That dream had to die, but I made up for it by using an ear piercing set with far more helix piercings than I actually have. I currently only have one but I would love to have as many as my simself is wearing. The nose piercing is pretty accurate. The only inaccuracy there is that it's technically on the wrong side, but that hairstyle is parted on the wrong side, so I'm just rolling with it to keep the balance.

Onto the outfit itself, this is a newer outfit that's become a fast favourite. The crop top I own has an open lace back, so paired with the light chiffon-like midi skirt and my comfy sandals it's perfect for hot summer days, and hells of fucking gorgeous!! I match it up with my favourite spiked choker rather frequently. The one I own is a single choker with studs alternating between spikes and metal flowers. I would normally pair this with my white spiked bracelet and my lace skull earrings, but I have that nose piercing in the bracelet spot and I couldn't find any skull earrings to download for some reason. For makeup, I've done a black lip to make the lips pop and blend with the rest of the outfit, and used a rich pink and a pale purple for eye shadows, taking inspiration from the flowers on the skirt.

Custom Content
Outfit: Arisa crop top + large flower lace pattern, Supernatural skirt cleaned up (BGC) + large Cath Kidston's Chintz pattern, Athena sandals
Accessories: Big Round Glasses, ear piercing set, nose piercing
Makeup: New Year eye shadow, winged eyeliner, Swoop blush, Glam lipstick

Formal

This is definitely the most accurate of all the outfits I made. The dress is pretty spot-on, aside from the waist tie, which the actual dress does not have. The real dress also has a racer back instead of regular tank top straps, but that's getting really nitty-gritty. This pattern is ridiculously fucking close to the real thing and I'm so happy I found it!

This is another outfit I'd regularly pair with my white spiked bracelet. I've got a neat pair of silver hoop earrings with the moon and stars on them that I like to use here too. The makeup look is a neutral eye to keep the focus on the lip, which is a rich red to match the flowers. When I do this lipstick in real life I usually blend the edges to soften them.

Custom Content

Outfit: Endlessly Together Asymmetrical Ombre Dress + large Cath Kidston Rose Bouquet pattern, Athena sandals

Accessories: Big Round Glasses, ear piercing set, nose piercing, Lace Stocking

Makeup: Romance eye shadow, winged eye liner, Swoop blush, IN3S lipstick (not sure which of the five file names, it's the bottom left preview image)

Sleepwear

This one is the least accurate of the batch. The actual night gown goes to my ankles and the pattern is of small cartoon tulips in red, pink and lavender. I compromised with this beautiful pattern representing the red and pink flowers. It was originally my mother's nightgown from quite a while ago, made for her by my late nanna with a matching short sleeved overcoat of the same fabric. It's got some odd stains on the front but I don't mind. It's a very lightweight fabric and a loose fit so it's nice and breezy for the boiling nights in my bedroom, which is on a corner of the house and is the second farthest room from the air conditioning (and thusly very fucking warm in the summer).

Custom Content

Outfit: Cath Kidston's Flower Shower pattern

Accessories: ear piercing set, nose piercing

Athletic

This one's pretty close but not quite as accurate as it could be! I'm sure if I poked around I could find something at least close to the actual pattern that's on this shirt, but I'd probably never use it again. The actual t-shirt pattern is little dinosaurs, not just polka dots. I'm pretty happy I was able to nail a pattern for the shoes, though. Those are much closer to the real deal than I ever thought I'd get them, my good old flowery Vans.

Custom Content

Outfit: Goody Two Shoes Canvas Sneakers + Cath Kidston's Rose Sprig pattern

Accessories: Big Round Glasses, ear piercing set, nose piercing, Footies ankle socks

Swimwear

This is the only thing that has pretty much not changed at all since the last simself I posted on here. I'm still rocking this purple and blue flowered one-piece, although I've only used it in water twice. I was even able to find the same CC swimsuit I used before, and used the same base game pattern, making this the only outfit in this collection where I didn't use any of those Cath Kidston floral patterns I downloaded.

Custom Content

Outfit: Retro Go one-piece swimsuit

Accessories: ear piercing set, nose piercing

That's all for now! I will be starting my first file as a legacy with my simself and seeing how far I can get with it. Hopefully I will be able to make it at least as far as the simself legacy files I lost (I was ready to start fucking generation eight, that's the furthest I've ever fucking gotten and now it's gone, grumble grumble complain). I will post periodic updates of those adventures as they happen.