What is Second Life?
Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Lab, running continuously since 2003. It is not a traditional game with levels, scores, or objectives. Instead, it is a shared, persistent online space where people from around the world create, socialise, explore, shop, attend events, and build communities. Think of it as a creative platform where you control an avatar, a 3D representation of yourself, in a world built almost entirely by its residents.
Everything you see inworld, from buildings and landscapes to clothing, hair, and the mesh head you may already be wearing, has been created by the people who use the platform. Second Life has its own economy, its own culture, and a creative community that has been thriving for over two decades.
People in Second Life are called residents, not players or users. There is no winning or losing. You set your own goals, whether that is fashion, photography, socialising, building, exploring, or simply having a place to relax.
Getting started
Creating your account
Visit secondlife.com and create a free account. You will choose a username, which becomes your permanent account name. You can set a separate display name later, which other residents can see above your avatar. Your account name is used for logins and transactions, so choose something you are comfortable with long term.
Downloading the viewer
Second Life runs through a dedicated application called a viewer. The official Second Life Viewer is available from secondlife.com/download. Many residents also use Firestorm, a popular third-party viewer with additional features and customisation options, available at firestormviewer.org.
Understanding the interface
When you first log in, the viewer can feel overwhelming. The key areas to focus on are these:
- Movement. Use the arrow keys to walk. Most viewers also support W, A, S, D. Press Ctrl+R to toggle running. Tap E or Page Up to jump, and hold E while moving to fly. Press C or Page Down to descend.
- Camera. Hold Alt and click on any object to focus your camera on it. Use Alt + mouse scroll to zoom in and out. Hold Ctrl + Alt + left mouse button to orbit your view around a point. Press Escape to snap the camera back behind your avatar.
- Inventory. Press Ctrl+I to open your inventory. This is where everything you own lives, from clothing and body parts to landmarks, notecards, and objects. Keeping your inventory organised from the start will save you considerable time later.
- Chat. Press Enter to open the local chat bar. Type your message and press Enter again to send. Local chat is visible to anyone nearby. For private conversations, open someone's profile and select Message.
- Teleporting. To travel to a specific location, click the search icon in the viewer toolbar and search for a place name, or paste a SLURL (a Second Life location link) into the address bar at the top of the viewer.
The Avatar Welcome Pack
All Second Life avatars have access to the Avatar Welcome Pack. This is a collection of mesh bodies, heads, skins, clothing, and accessories created by established Second Life brands, including LeLutka, Legacy, VELOUR, leLAPEAU, and several clothing and hair designers. It was introduced by Linden Lab in April 2025 to give new residents a polished starting point.
You can find it in your inventory under Library > Clothing > Initial Outfits. The pack includes pre-configured looks for both male and female avatars. These are simplified, HUD-free versions designed to look great out of the box with no adjustments needed. All clothing items include alpha layers, so you will not need to manually hide body parts.
The LeLutka heads included in the Welcome Pack are lite versions. They look great and use the same mesh quality as the full product, but they do not include a HUD, animations, or applier support. To access the full feature set, including facial animations, expression controls, HD layers, and the complete customisation HUD, you would purchase the full head from the LeLutka mainstore. The lite heads are a starting point, not the full experience.
Understanding your avatar
A modern Second Life avatar is made up of several separate components that work together. Understanding what each piece does will make everything else, from shopping to troubleshooting, much clearer.
The mesh body
Your mesh body replaces the default Second Life avatar body. Popular body brands include Maitreya (Lara), Legacy, and eBody (Reborn). The body determines your physical shape and which clothing will fit you. Most clothing creators design for specific body brands, so knowing which body you wear is essential when shopping.
The mesh head
Your mesh head replaces the default face with a detailed, customisable 3D head. This is where LeLutka comes in. A LeLutka head gives you fine-grained control over your facial features through shape sliders, plus a powerful HUD for managing animations, expressions, lashes, eyes, makeup, and more. Your head is the centrepiece of your avatar's identity.
Skins
A skin is the texture added to both your head and body to give your avatar its appearance, including skin tone, freckles, facial details, and complexion. For your avatar to look correct, your head skin and body skin need to match in tone. They do not have to be from the same creator. Many creators make skins designed to pair with specific body brands like LeLutka, Velour, and others. A mismatched tone is the most common cause of visible neck seams.
Shape
Your shape controls the physical proportions of your avatar: height, body width, facial features, and everything in between. Shapes can be edited through the viewer's Appearance editor. Many skin and head creators also sell pre-made shapes designed specifically for their products.
How it all connects
Think of it as layers: your shape defines the proportions, the mesh body and head provide the 3D form, the skin provides the visual surface, and then you add clothing, hair, eyes, and accessories on top. Each layer comes from different creators, and the art of styling in Second Life is making them all work together seamlessly.
Your LeLutka head
LeLutka has been a Second Life brand since 2008, and making mesh heads since 2015. The current line is Evolution. It supports high-resolution textures via the EvoX UV map, advanced facial animations, Bakes on Mesh compatibility, and a deep customisation system through the LeLutka HUD.
What you get
When you purchase a full LeLutka head, the box contains the head itself, the main HUD, a Style HUD for saving looks, eyes, teeth options, ear options, brow options, a set of facial expression gestures, voice gestures for lip-sync, a creator kit for third-party designers, alpha masks, a shape, and a facelight. Everything you need is in the box.
Right-clicking and the inventory
Most of what follows asks you to right-click an item in your inventory and pick an action like Add or Wear. The inventory is the panel you open with Ctrl+I. Right-click opens the action menu for the item under your cursor; left-click only selects it. The same menu is also available on objects already rezzed in the world.
Putting on your head
- Unpack the head box by right-clicking it in your inventory and choosing Add (or Drop on the ground if you prefer). The unpacker will deliver a folder to your inventory and detach itself automatically. Accept the folder when prompted.
- Find the head inside the new folder, right-click it and choose Add.
- Wait for it to fully load before attaching the HUD.
- Attach the HUD (it appears on the side of your screen).
- Optional. If you want your lips to move when you speak on voice, activate all three voice gestures from the head folder. This step is only needed if you use voice.
Linden Dollars and shopping
Second Life has its own currency called Linden Dollars, written as L$. Almost everything you buy inworld, from heads and bodies to skins, clothing, and furniture, is purchased with L$.
Getting Linden Dollars
You can purchase L$ through the LindeX, the official currency exchange operated by Linden Lab. You can access it through the viewer by clicking the Buy L$ button next to your balance, or through the Second Life website. The exchange rate fluctuates but typically sits around L$250 per US$1. You can also buy L$ through the in-app purchase system on the Second Life mobile app.
Shopping inworld
Most established avatar brands sell their products at inworld stores rather than on the SL Marketplace website. LeLutka heads, for example, are sold exclusively at the LeLutka mainstore inworld. When shopping, always try demos first. Most reputable creators offer free demo versions of their products so you can check fit, quality, and compatibility before purchasing. All LeLutka purchases are copy/no transfer and final, so demoing is strongly recommended.
How shopping works
Most avatar items are paid in L$, and most items are copy and no-transfer, which means you cannot move them between accounts or resell them once purchased. Demos exist for almost everything you might want to buy. Use them. Many creators also offer group gifts and promotional items at reduced prices or for free.
When purchasing at the LeLutka mainstore, wear your LeLutka group tag to receive group credit. Credits cannot be applied after the transaction is completed, so make sure the tag is active before you click Buy.
Bakes on Mesh and EvoX
These two terms come up constantly in Second Life fashion, and understanding them will prevent most common issues new residents encounter. Most readers can skim this section on a first pass and come back when something looks wrong.
Bakes on Mesh (BoM)
BoM is a system that allows Second Life's built-in texture baking to work directly on mesh bodies and heads. In practical terms, it means you can wear system skin layers, tattoo layers, and clothing layers from your inventory and have them appear on your mesh body or head without needing a separate applier HUD. BoM simplifies the process of combining multiple texture layers, such as a skin, a freckle layer, and a tattoo, on a single mesh surface.
EvoX
EvoX is LeLutka's proprietary UV map, a high-resolution texture layout that provides significantly more detail than the standard Second Life UV, particularly around the eyes, lips, and fine facial features. When shopping for skins and makeup for your LeLutka head, you will see products labelled as EvoX-compatible. This is the label to look for.
If your skin looks distorted, with textures in wrong positions, lips on your forehead, or a hairbase covering your face, you are almost certainly in the wrong mode. An EvoX skin requires your head to be in EvoX mode. A classic SL skin requires classic mode. Toggle this in the Head tab of your HUD. The skin determines which mode to use, not the other way around.
Common issues and how to fix them
These are the issues that come up most frequently for new residents. Knowing the solutions will save you time and frustration.
My face is animating uncontrollably
This is almost never a head issue. The cause is nearly always another attachment, most commonly a genital attachment, an animation overrider (AO), or furniture you recently sat on, that has animation permissions affecting your head bones. Start by removing all attachments except your head and body, then right-click your avatar and go to Appearance > Reset > Reset Skeleton and Animations. From a clean state, add items back one at a time until you identify the culprit.
My face looks shiny or metallic
Open your LeLutka HUD, go to the Head tab, and move the Environment slider all the way to the left. If the face still looks wrong, click the word BLANK next to Materials in the same tab. This is one of the most common appearance issues and is entirely controlled through the HUD.
My skin looks wrong or distorted
Check that your head mode matches your skin type. An EvoX skin requires EvoX mode; a classic SL skin requires Evo mode. Toggle this in the Head tab of the HUD. Also ensure that your hairbase and any other layers are compatible with the same mode. If switching modes still looks wrong, remove all your skin layers down to the base skin, then add them back one at a time. The mismatched layer is usually a tattoo, freckle, or makeup layer in the wrong mode.
There is a visible line between my head and body
Your head skin and body skin need to match in tone. Different bodies have different neck blend settings, so refer to your body's manual for the correct neck size or neck blend setting. Turn off any mesh neck blender on the body. If a slight seam persists, third-party neck blend layers from stores like Izzies can help.
My HUD is not responding
First, check whether you are in a location where scripts are disabled. Go to the LeLutka mainstore or a sandbox to test. If the HUD still does not work, detach the head, reattach it, wait for it to fully load, then reattach the HUD. If the problem persists, get a fresh copy through redelivery.
How to get a redelivery
Find the "Update my [head name]" item in your inventory. Wear or rez it, then click Redelivery (not Update). A fresh copy of the head and HUD will be delivered. If you cannot find the updater, visit the redelivery terminal at the LeLutka mainstore.
Essential terminology
Second Life has its own vocabulary. Here are the terms you will encounter most often as a new resident.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Resident | A person using Second Life. Not a player or user. |
| Inworld | Inside the Second Life 3D environment, as opposed to on the website. |
| Mesh | 3D models created externally and imported into SL. Your head, body, hair, and most clothing are mesh. |
| HUD | Heads-Up Display. An interface panel attached to your screen for controlling products like heads and bodies. |
| BoM | Bakes on Mesh. A system that lets texture layers render directly on mesh surfaces. |
| EvoX | LeLutka's high-resolution UV map for heads. Look for this label when shopping for skins. |
| Applier | A script-based system for applying textures to mesh. Being replaced by BoM in most cases. |
| Rez | To create or place an object inworld from your inventory. |
| SLURL | A Second Life URL. A clickable link that teleports you to a specific location. |
| L$ | Linden Dollars, the currency of Second Life. |
| Sandbox | A public area where you can rez objects for building and testing. |
| AO | Animation Overrider. Replaces default walking, standing, and sitting animations. |
| Landmark | A saved location in your inventory for quick teleporting. |
| Attachment point | A specific position on your avatar where items can be worn. |
| Alpha | A transparency mask that hides parts of your body, typically under clothing. |
Places to explore
Second Life is vast, and finding your footing can take time. Here are some starting points.
- Social Island and the Welcome Hub. Linden Lab's official starting areas for new residents. Tutorials, freebies, and other new residents to meet.
- Helping Haven. A community-run destination with experienced residents who volunteer to help newcomers with everything from avatar setup to camera controls.
- Builder's Brewery. One of the oldest learning destinations in SL, offering free classes on building, texturing, scripting, and more.
- FabFree 30 Days list. A curated list of designers offering free or heavily discounted items to residents under 30 days old. An excellent resource for building your initial wardrobe.
- The LeLutka mainstore. Visit to demo heads, explore the store, and use the redelivery terminal if needed.
Staying safe
Second Life is a creative and social space, but as with any online platform, it helps to be aware of a few things.
- Never share your account password with anyone, including people claiming to be Linden Lab staff.
- LeLutka heads are sold exclusively at the inworld mainstore. Any listing on the SL Marketplace claiming to sell LeLutka heads is a scam.
- Be cautious with scripted objects. When an object asks for permissions (animate your avatar, take controls, etc.), read the request carefully before accepting.
- You can block and report any resident who behaves inappropriately through their profile or the viewer's reporting tools.
- Be careful with links shared in chat or notecards. Do not click a link unless you are sure of the source and where it leads. Scams often hide behind innocent-looking links.
- Log out properly using Alt+Q or the viewer's quit option. Closing the window without logging out can sometimes cause inventory or attachment issues.
Getting help
The LeLutka community is active and supportive. If you need assistance with your head, your HUD, or just want to connect with other residents, here is where to go.
22,000+ members. The #help-lobby channel is monitored by our support team and is the fastest way to get help with any LeLutka product issue. The #general channel is a friendly, active space for styling questions, recommendations, and community conversation.
Visit to demo products, use the redelivery terminal, or browse guest designer items.
25,000+ followers. Product announcements, community features, and release information.
Everyone in Second Life was new once. The community is generally welcoming and happy to help. Do not be afraid to ask questions, experiment with your look, and take your time finding your style. Your avatar is yours to shape, and the only wrong way to do it is not to enjoy it.