Conparison Request: SMD Tea vs DD Tan

Hey all! I have this vague plan to shell Entrapta from She-ra and the Princesses of Power (reboot version) and I initially was thinking a SMD Felicity in Tea, or a similar sculpt with a custom faceup, but apparently Dollfie Dream Tan skin looks really similar to Entrapta's color as well, so I was wondering if anyone with both would kindly share (or has shared, and I missed it) some photos of how the colors compare? Ideally I'm trying to move away from buying SMD due to the drama related to the company, but I still tend to prefer SMD faces- a dilemma that I have yet to solve, unless of course a tan DD would somehow suit a Tea SMD head. Which isn't out of the question until I see photos... but given how hard DD Tan bodies seem to be to get, I may be better off going full Dollfie Dream.

That was basically a long ramble to get to the point of

TL;DR: anyone have pictures of a Tan Dollfie Dream and a Tea Smartdoll together? I'd love to see it please and thanks!!

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Dollfie Dream or Smartdoll section. I figured the DD one would get more traffic, but it didn't seem right somehow.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Starwaia

@Starwaia

 

 

 

Please excuse the blase photos- my phone got stolen about two weeks ago, and I'm still figuring out the new one.

 

Speaking of new things, tea Eiji arrived today, and while I haven't seen much of either She-rah, Dollfie Brown seems too pale to make an accurate Entrapa. Which isn't to say that a Dollfie Entrapa couldn't look great, but the tea tone is closer.

 

In fact, if I could pull all the company vinyls on a spectrum, I would say tea is the closest. Dollfie Brown is just a hair darker than Smart Doll Cinnamon- they're very close. Both of these tans often look lighter on camera. Tea in particular is much darker than my phone wants you to believe. The middle shot comes the closest to their shades, especially in the shadowed portions for tea. They are unfortunately nowhere near close to hybridizing. On a scale of lightest to darkest tans, not counting offshoots like early Volks Tan or Smart Doll Ebony, it would be Smart Doll Cinnamon, Dollfie Brown, Obitsu Brown, Smart Doll Tea, Dollfie Tawny, Smart Doll Cocoa. There's a huge jump from Obitsu's lightly-tanned orange-brown to the rich tone of tea, and another huge jump from Volks' even richer Tawny to the deep Smart Doll Cocoa.

 

If it would be beneficial in any way, I do own examples of all of these except for Dollfie Tawny, and would be happy to make a comparison. Whether Smart Doll or Dollfie, Entrapa has a great facial shape for both, and an easy-to-find hairstyle. I can't wait to see her take shape.

 

And on the note of SMD, can I recommend checking out the Facebook selling groups? Between there, Instagram, and occasionally Ebay, I acquired 98% of my SMD stuff, and the groups are reasonably active. So far Smart Doll Trades and Sales, the one I've used, sees new posts every day.

Edited December 9, 2022 by PolitelyNefarious

There is a thread by Asianed with a lot of comparisons! 

I don't have any Smartdolls for reference, but DD tan (which I do have) is very different from SmD tea based on the photos I've seen. I don't think you can really do a hybrid between the two without blushing or dye.

DD tan is a light tan color with a cool undertone and is noticeably darker than the other Dollfie skintones. It's difficult to photograph so just know that pictures you see online may not look the same to you in real life. 

Edited December 9, 2022 by chantelle

@chantelle  My 2am brain blindsided this most excellent topic completely. Thank you.

40 minutes ago, PolitelyNefarious said:

If it would be beneficial in any way, I do own examples of all of these except for Dollfie Tawny, and would be happy to make a comparison.

Please do a comparison! Although Asianed's thread is super useful, he is missing both smartdoll cinnamon and cocoa colors. 

Ahhh, time to bring out The Pic again 😆

It's not my pic, it's an older one from within this very forum, I just bust it out all the time, lmao.

In order, left to right: DD Lilac, SmD Old Cocoa, DD tawny, SmD Tea, DD Kanu's Tan, DD Tan, SmD Milk, DD Flesh, DD Semiwhite, DD White.

As you can see, Tea is much richer in color than Tan. In person and in photographs, Tan's much more subtle to me, quite literally a "DD with a suntan" color rather than a proper dark skin tone.

9 hours ago, PolitelyNefarious said:

If it would be beneficial in any way, I do own examples of all of these except for Dollfie Tawny, and would be happy to make a comparison. 

8 hours ago, Lynn said:

Please do a comparison! Although Asianed's thread is super useful, he is missing both smartdoll cinnamon and cocoa colors. 

I second Lynn! If you could do a comparison that would be really great!

I'm especially interested about the difference between DD tan and Smd Cinnamon

Edited December 9, 2022 by chantelle

@Starwaia , @Lynn , @chantelle

Who has their conga maracas ready?

...Cha cha real smooth now. 😉

I'm going to retake these in natural light,  but for now we have:

Volks semi-white, Smart Doll milk, Smart Doll cinnamon, Volks brown/tanned, Angel Philia brown/tanned, Smart Doll tea, and Smart Doll cocoa. Tea's shade is much more accurate here. It is quite dark compared to average vinyl, and the closest thing to Volks tawny available year-round. From what I've heard, Volks flesh and Smart Doll milk are virtually identical, but unfortunately I sold my old Volks heads years ago and don't have any in flesh to compare. Yet. 

 

You will notice that there is a clear difference between cinnamon and tan:

(Volks tan, Smart Doll cinnamon, AP brown)

However I think these general photos do hybridizers a disservice. For one thing, I noticed that the arms which came with this guy torso were from a slightly darker batch:

 

@Starwaia , @Lynn , @chantelle

But let's put the head on the torso:

 

 

 

This is what I mean when I say it's only a hair darker. While the headcap stands out against the torso, when you put the head on the body, it's a difference so minor most people wouldn't notice. Any faceup artist could minimize it further.

@PolitelyNefarious Thank you so much for the great comparison photos!

Thanks so much @PolitelyNefarious and everyone else who replied (sorry I didn't get back to this sooner, for some reason I wasn't receiving notifications for this thread oops-) !! It really does look like SMD Tea is the color I want, so I'll add that to the list of potential doll plans-- unfortunately that list is still a bit long so it may be a while before I get around to shelling Entrapta as there is still work to be done for current dolls I've neglected. But the detailed comparisons are very helpful and really appreciated! Thank you!!!

I can't afford the crazy Culture Japan shipping costs currently, but since my cinnamon Smart Doll got her first tiny stain, I'm realizing it's time to protect her even more than I already do. Would a Tan DD bodysuit be a close enough color match to protect my girl? I'm mainly worried about her neck which fell victim to a grey halter-neck top since I had covid and didn't get a chance to change her outfit as frequently as I usually do (two weeks with the grey on her neck, poor girl)

26 minutes ago, pericat said:

I can't afford the crazy Culture Japan shipping costs currently, but since my cinnamon Smart Doll got her first tiny stain, I'm realizing it's time to protect her even more than I already do. Would a Tan DD bodysuit be a close enough color match to protect my girl? I'm mainly worried about her neck which fell victim to a grey halter-neck top since I had covid and didn't get a chance to change her outfit as frequently as I usually do (two weeks with the grey on her neck, poor girl)

I don’t have a photo atm but I own both tones. DD Tan and SMD Cinnamon are very similar! Tan is more cool toned but it shouldn’t be super noticeable and the body suit should work well.

@chantelle thank you so much! Now to determine which dollfie body type measurements are closest to a Smart Doll. Probably DDdy?

2 minutes ago, pericat said:

@chantelle thank you so much! Now to determine which dollfie body type measurements are closest to a Smart Doll. Probably DDdy?

No problem!

I think DDdy as well since they both have curvy hips! Not sure how loose it would be in the bust area though but I suppose that could be covered up.

Loose isn't a concern since my girl has a standard or medium bust depending on the clothes she's wearing (she's based on an original character of mine so the medium bust is more in-line with the character, but some clothes only allow for the standard bust). Thank you so much for your help!

2 hours ago, pericat said:

Would a Tan DD bodysuit be a close enough color match to protect my girl?

If you want to see how close DD tan and SmD cinnamon are, @Tierparkzone posted pictures of his tan Erina and my cinnamon Ion standing next to each other (I asked him to take those pictures specifically to compare skin tones):

 

Somehow, this thread went under my radar until now, so sorry for the late reply.

On 12/9/2022 at 3:18 PM, Starwaia said:

TL;DR: anyone have pictures of a Tan Dollfie Dream and a Tea Smartdoll together? I'd love to see it please and thanks!!

As others have stated, DD Tan and SmD Tea are very different and it's going to be fairly tricky to hybrid these together.

 

17 hours ago, pericat said:

Would a Tan DD bodysuit be a close enough color match to protect my girl?

As you should have seen in the photos that @ragnamuffin linked earlier, DD Tan and SmD Cinnamon are very similar. Bodysuits tend to be a little off the vinyl color anyway, so a DD Tan bodysuit should be perfect for your Cinnamon SmD. On the other hand, SmD bodysuits consist of three separate parts (if they're still constructed this way), which makes them a lot more versatile than the "monolithic" DD bodysuit.

 

16 hours ago, pericat said:

@chantelle thank you so much! Now to determine which dollfie body type measurements are closest to a Smart Doll. Probably DDdy?

If it fits either DDdy or DD L-bust, it should be fine on a Smart Doll.

 

For future reference:

The images in my signature (and their equivalent large versions in my doll directory entries) are all taken with consistent lighting and camera settings. So the differences between skin tones should show up properly. - You can always download these images and use them for comparisons.

Bonus: Here's a nice comparison of some skin colors "in the wild".

From left to right: @MagicalRozen's Ann (DD Flesh), my Saki (SmD Tea), @MagicalRozen's Khepra (DD Sun Kissed) and @XOHimitsuOX's Mio (DD Tan).

@chantelle I ended up getting a DDdy bodysuit in tan for my cinnamon girl and it's a super close match! There's a little extra room around the hips, and it doesn't hug her waist as close as I would've liked, but for just under $20 from volks JP.. I'm super happy with it! I'm glad I went with the DDdy version because I'd rather it be loose than too tight around the bust (since my girl has a medium SmD bust)

3 hours ago, pericat said:

@chantelle I ended up getting a DDdy bodysuit in tan for my cinnamon girl and it's a super close match! There's a little extra room around the hips, and it doesn't hug her waist as close as I would've liked, but for just under $20 from volks JP.. I'm super happy with it! I'm glad I went with the DDdy version because I'd rather it be loose than too tight around the bust (since my girl has a medium SmD bust)

Great to hear! 😄 I’m so glad it worked out for you!