Personally, I prefer to go for the BEST I can find. No longer content with the freebies that I initially thought were such a bargain, I began to buy only what I felt were shoes of the highest quality. Sure, I've been burned along the way, but I soon learned that some makers are consistently EXCELLENT, while others are there just to take your money. You live and you learn (hopefully!). All I can do here is to recommend what I think are good choices.
As nice as a lot of shoes are these days, the look of open toed sandals and heels is often hampered by the pathetic-looking Linden (non-)Toes. Sure, we all share the same look, or at least we DID, until the advent of the Prim Toe arrived in SL.
What, you've never heard of prim toes? It's an amazing concept, really. The first I ever saw was by J's and was shown to me by a close friend who made me promise not to tell anyone. Well, the cat is out of the bag, Honey!
Hers were very early ones, before the idea was at all widespread. I bought a pair myself, and remembering my oath of secrecy, rarely wore them (yes, I have principles). I did take a pic of hers though, the first time I ever saw them:
They are normal shoes with one difference: the front part has some nicely-proportioned toes, complete with (optional) toe rings and color-change nails. There is a menu-driven skin tone changer as well, and with a bit of faffing about, a fairly good match can be made. I think it's great.
The idea was too good for others not to improve upon. Soon Stiletto Moody came out with their Bare line of shoes, the difference here being they created an entire prim foot instead of just the toes. An added plus with the Moody shoes is that the skin color can be changed by inputting an RGB value into the appropriate section of the menu for a very close color match!
The way you do this is to first make sure you are wearing something leggy like a short skirt. Take a GOOD picture in-world (use daylight!) and save it to your hard drive. You will then open that pic in PhotoShop or Paintshop Pro (other photo editing programs should do; those are just the ones I use) and use the eyedropper tool to sample a representative area of skin color. Save the RGB value to your shoe menu and you're done. Follow these instructions:
Once you are wearing the shoes, click on the left shoe to bring up the menu. Select Skin > Control Freak > Direct Input. There you can type in the RGB value that you got from your photo editing program. It will be three numbers, each with three digits. For example, mine was 165-97-69, but I had to enter it with zeros: 165-097-069. Then hit SET and you're golden. Oh, be sure to exit the menu properly, or go back and change your nail color, etc. You may have to try this a few times until it looks just right, but it is a very easy and accurate way to make things match. I love it. In fact I just went and bought another pair. Expensive, but SOOO good!
Well, upon seeing these prim toes, I thought, "Hmmm... why can't they just have prim feet, without the shoes?" Someone must have read my mind, because guess what?
Yes, that's right: Prim Bare Feet! Thanks to J's once again, if you buy their new bare toe flip-flops, there is an option in the menu for shoes/no shoes! Of course, as you can see, they come with the optional toe rings and color change nails. I just LOVE this look!
The difficult part for me was making a good color match. Just be sure you do this in strong light, outdoors at mid day. Included is a pair of ankle bracelets which help hide the transition between your new feet and your Linden legs. All in all, a really fun concept, and just in time for summer!
Prim toes are the new standard by which all SL shoes will be judged.
I have a feeling that I am going to be spending a lot of time barefoot this summer. Just see to it that you don't step on my toes!
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