Refreshing a few girls

Recently I noticed that a few of my girls faces were beginning to yellow due to the sealant being old. Two of the girls were pretty old and had not been repainted in years and they go outside for photos and doll meets quite often. So I thought some refreshing, ie. new faceups, were in order.

 

I contacted Eblktty about it and had her come by my place on Saturday. She was doing some other face up work too and said she could fix my girls up for me. All I had to do was prep an area for her to work and then clean my girls up to save her some time. That meant wiping my girls faces myself. I've done wipes before but since these girls mean a lot to me, it wasn't as easy to do. But I knew they would turn out looking so much nicer once they got redone so it wasn't terrible watching my girls disappear for a bit.

 

After pulling their heads off and removing the eyes and putty, I readied them for cleaning. Here's a before shot.

 

DSC_1506 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

In case you're wondering which girls these are, here's the list from left to right:

 

01 = Mamimi, 04 = Miyuki and the 02 = Sango.

 

After about an hour of cleaning with rubbing alcohol and a magic eraser, they were nice and clean:

 

DSC_1507 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Sorry for the fuzzy pic.

 

Anyways, here's how things went. I'll show yall before and after pics and explain what changes were made and why if any. My main goal was to get rid of the yellowing sealant and then update the looks of the girls to better fit in with the rest of my girls style. I think it worked out really well.

 

We'll start with Mamimi. She's an 01 head I bought off Flickr way back in April of 2011. She was my first DDS girl and also the first character I made to specifically be related directly to Manami. Mamimi used to sport twin pigtails but she hated being seen as a little kid so she has done whatever she can to make herself look older. She wears her hair down now and likes putting on makeup to look more mature.

 

Mamimi was the yellowest of all the girls, as you can see here:

 

DSC_1494 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

And her eyeliner and brows were also not as clean and crisp as I would have liked. But once she was wiped and cleaned properly, the yellowing went away and she was ready to be redone.

 

Here she is all refreshed and looking amazing.

 

DSC_1508 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1509 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

As you can see, her lines are crisp and neat and there's more detailing too.

 

DSC_1510 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1511 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

She managed to stay herself but still look different. I think she turned out really well.

 

Now for Miyuki! Miyuki was my 4th girl, I adopted her from the same girl I got Manami from. She arrived home in January of 2011 so she's also got some wear on her. Miyuki is a very outgoing nerdy girl.... she's my resident otaku. She loves anime, games and clothing. She looks up to Manami and tries to emulate her by wearing sexy clothing quite often.

 

Miyuki was yellowing a bit but not like Mamimi. But her coloring was fading and she needed to get that back. Here she is before.

 

DSC_1498 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

She also needed more detail and style so Eblktty updated her by making her faceup more mature and stylish and not so basic. Here is how she turned out.

 

DSC_1514 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1515 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1516 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Basically, she looks a little older now but she kept her cuteness too. She got more detailing around her eyes and now her eyebrows are thinner and the color better matches her hair.

 

And now last but not least is Sango. Now Ebl had been after me for close to two years to let her redo Sango. I was fine with how she looked but Ebl said she could make her look a whole lot better. While I didn't doubt her, I was hesitant because I really liked Sango as she was.

 

Sango is a custom 02 girl I got from my good friend Salica back in August of 2011. She was originally made to look like the anime character Kuroneko from the show "Oreimo". I thought she looked pretty close and was happy with her. But her character isn't like Kuroneko to me, she's the big sister to my Elisabeth and she's really into science and books. She really looks up to my Rei and is always hanging out with her.

 

Here she is before her cleanup:

 

DSC_1502 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I told Ebl to make sure she stayed as close to her original look as possible while still making her look better. The following is what I got.

 

DSC_1518 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1519 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Amazing huh? She actually looks more like Kuroneko now but she is still every bit Sango as she was. She's just cleaner and better looking.

 

DSC_1553 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1554 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

DSC_1555 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I'm super impressed with how nice Sango looks now.

 

So there's how the spa day went! I always praise Eblktty on her work and I know how wonderful she makes my girls look. But it's still amazing to see firsthand at how good they turn out after she's done. A huge shout out to her for making me and my girls really happy!

 

 

 

Billy

 

♡♡♡

It's super cool to see the before and afters--they all have the same expressions, but they're now rendered so much more crisply. It's sorta like seeing a 2D artist do a redraw of an illustration that they first drew five years ago. Or even like the bit in movies where they pull up an image and then say "Computer -- enhance" and its smallest details suddenly become crisp and refined

 

(also, science high five to Sango! Her character sounds cool.)

This refresh really upped the appearance of these girls. Congrats Baldylox! Well done EblKtty!

Oh wow they look great! They look so refreshed but still clearly the same characters

Oh! They surely looks great!

EblKitty did such a nice job, especially on Miyuki! And Kuroneko looks great too! I think this last faceup of hers makes her attitude "pop" more!

I was really used in seeing the girls with the old makeup, so I will probably miss it a little bit... but it is undenyable that they look much fresher and a-la-mode now

Good job, both of you!

I love you they changed without really changing. Congrats and good job.

wow, Mamimi really does look like she went for a serious spa facials week!

Didn't realize how badly she yellowed until before/after pics. The blush on her cheeks is so cute & delicate now ♥

Elbktty definitely does nice work, and it's nice to see how close they are to their original look. It's also nice to see how much of the yellowing got cleaned up.

 

If I had to redo my Limiteds I would want them to stay as close to their original look as possible. Part of what I love about Makoto and Chihaya is that sort of mischievous look in their faceups. What I really like about these is how they kept their original look, but have that extra fine detail. There is a lot of potential in that.

Wow! They really did get an amazing face lift without changing who they were. Fantastic work, they all look 100% cleaner and 100% like you didn't change a thing.

It's really cool to see the night and day improvement on the aged face ups on those, not only the fixing of the discoloration, but the improvement on the overall look of the girls especially Sango! The girls look great!

EblKitty did a great job they all have the same feeling to them, and look like themselves completely... just newer! i was SO shocked at the difference in manami's skin coloring now... that's amazing! i love how all 3 of them turned out. it is so incredible that they are still recognizable, but also look more refined and polished. when Ebl repainted them, she truly kept the spirit and personality of all of them. that is so talented and they were clearly painted with a lot of care and love.

Thank you guys and gals so much for all the compliments and love shown here!

 

It's so easy to not see how our girls can change over time without our influence. But once you do see those changes, you can't unsee them.... or at least I can't. That's exactly why I had to get these three updated ASAP.

 

And as you can see, Eblktty did a truly spectacular job with them all. To say she is talented is a true understatement.

 

Again, I'd like to thank her for all her hard work on my girls. And I'd like to thank everyone who left comments here too. It means a lot to me that I'm not the only one who can see the changes in the girls faces but an also still see the originals style and look thru that. Keeping them who they were was of utmost importance to me so it's wonderful seeing it applied and working better than expected.

 

 

 

Billy

Thank you! I think may just have answered a question for me. When I was attending the LA Dolpa, I asked Volks's reps about darkening faces on two of the limiteds I have. They didn't understand the question and couldn't give me an answer. Yes, it would make sense that a faceup might have a sealant over it. And, that sealant could darken with time. Anyone else know anything about this? Thank you in advance.

Thank you! I think may just have answered a question for me. When I was attending the LA Dolpa, I asked Volks's reps about darkening faces on two of the limiteds I have. They didn't understand the question and couldn't give me an answer. Yes, it would make sense that a faceup might have a sealant over it. And, that sealant could darken with time. Anyone else know anything about this? Thank you in advance.

 

 

If they are stock Volks then it is not sealant. They do not seal their faceups. If your dolls have custom artist faceups then that is the case.

 

The other option is that if you have hard vinyl heads those do actually yellow a bit over time. Even after cleaning those heads there was a difference in color if you compared to new vinyl.

 

Other than that the only culprit will be your fingers. You should avoid touching your dolls faces. I have gotten numerous heads in previously where people have handled their girls and just over time. Months and years, the gunk adds up and the heads are 5 shades darker.

Amazing! Really great improvement, thanks for sharing!

Amazing! Really great improvement, thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you very much!

 

 

Billy

Oh my! It's like Eblktty applied a HD texture pack to them!

 

It must have been really hard to wipe their faces! Even though Mari is just a Karin w/a new wig, I would still have a hard time ridding her of her cute face.

Oh my! It's like Eblktty applied a HD texture pack to them!

 

Exactly! It's night and day for sure.

 

It must have been really hard to wipe their faces! Even though Mari is just a Karin w/a new wig, I would still have a hard time ridding her of her cute face.

 

 

Yes it definitely was. But I have complete faith in Eblktty so I knew they would be back soon and looking better than ever.

 

 

 

Billy

They all look great, but Sango in particular stands out! Grats on getting these girls makeovers.

They all look great, but Sango in particular stands out! Grats on getting these girls makeovers.

 

Thank you! Oddly enough, Sango was the one I was the most worried about. I really liked her old face up and wasn't too keen on changing it. But Ebl had been on my case about getting her updated for a while and I finally caved. She pointed out that she didn't match the rest of my girls very well and that she could look a lot better with a redo. Of course Ebl was right and Sango is so much nicer looking now! She really looks amazing.

 

 

Billy