Face up trends

As the title says, what are some face up trends that you have noticed in your time in the hobby? What's fashionable now that wasn't even in the scene years ago? Or what was the gold standard that now has fallen by the way side?

I'll go first. For me the trend of adding small little details of shapes (hearts, skulls, flowers, sparkles) to the eyelashes/eyeshape. It's a cute detail to add character but it seems very popular now compared to back when. I wonder who got it started? I dont see many company face ups with it (seems very tedious) but custom ones seem pretty common.

@Giragira I think I can (somewhat) answer the history on this one.

Back in the early days, BJDs and Dollfies were heavily influence by Japanese street fashion, and this extended past just the default sets we're familiar with. The people buying them styled them after these trends as well, and small tailoring business sprang up everywhere to make the clothes that the doll companies weren't providing.

One of the fashion styles under-catered to was decora. The first years of BJD and Dollfie Dream were largely gothic / lolita-inspired, and so cyberpunk / mall goth and big fluffy dresses were very popular. But the demand for soft cute things and bright colours increased inside the fanbase, and decora made its way to the forefront as one of the early big trends for doll looks. Of course there weren't doll-sized stickers, so people painted them on with the faceup.

BJD companies have never fully gotten in the swing of releasing decora dolls (The style has waned in popularity for other, similar ones like fairy kei and candycore / kidcore + it's tedious to make all those details, as you said) , but they have made some stripped-down pastel / neon dolls meant to emulate the look. Meanwhile vinyl has never touched decora, at least that I know of. And that leaves its designs in the hands of fan faceup artists. Adding the sticker graphics to the painted lash / eye outline area itself is a twist unique to anime aesthetic. With the nostalgia trend that is hot now, old discontinued doll sculpts are becoming popular again, and so are the fashions / faceup trends of yore. BJDs are seeing a comeback of cute shapes painted on the cheeks as well.

That and some of the big, expensive Japanese faceup artists have been doing the eyelash stickers for a bit- it may have caught on simply because of them.

 

I'm a tad out of touch with current trends, but a few from the past decade-and-a-half have included:

• Gory candycore / decora. Largely prompted by a popular and talented BJD customizer, Elfgutz. Stayed mostly to the BJD side, but I've seen a couple of Dollfie heads in this style over the years.
• The 'Basic girl'- a soft styled faceup composed of natural-looking brows, pink lips, and a simple shade of eyeshadow, usually in a cool tone or purple / pink. Completed with faux eyelashes. It was meant to emulate everyday makeup, and match a variety of outfits. Barbie for BJD / Dollfie, more or less. Popular on both sides of the hobby, but was trending hard in the twenty-teens.
• The classic shoujo. Heavy detailed brown eye / lash liner, usually with the catchlight details painted on. Dramatic brown brows, lips painted to appear fuller, usually in a soft peachy shade or occasionally, a complimentary darker tone. This was moreso on the Dollfie side.
• Lead-singer-in-an-alt-band. BJD trend, largely unisex, but notable for how many people and their dog were getting their male dolls painted this way. Dark, sometimes thick eyeliner, typically purple or black eyeshadow, either nude lips or dramatic dark lipstick, and often a small detail like cyber dots / card symbols / numbers or a barcode on one or both cheeks. Glued on or drilled piercings sometimes accompanied. Incorporated pointy shapes like diamonds, stars, and triangles. Not always goth, but sometimes.
• 'If it's a fantasy creature, we put a design on its forehead'. Anything goes. Celtic knots and patterns styled after them. Abstract shapes. Celestial bodies. But always stylized, especially by a well-practiced artist, complex, and finished with shimmer powder for that 'magical' touch. Often incorporated small crystals, strategic dabs of colour on a white design, or a coloured outline with a white center, to make the design 'glow' on the forehead. Sometimes accompanied by smaller graphics around the eyes or cheeks, but typically constituted a nice but plain faceup otherwise.
• The wing / edge lashes. Dollfie and anime dolls. There was a period where we went the opposite direction from the soft shoujo, and newer faceups were coming out with thick, dark lashlines that were crisp and precise around the edges. Sharp, triangular shapes, reminiscent of both vintage and some modern anime.
• Putting a second colour in the lashlines. Also a vinyl / anime doll trend that has been around for quite some time in Japan, but seems to be slowly catching on overseas too. I quite like this one, as the secondary colour, usually a bright shade against the darker brown or black of the eyeliner itself, makes the doll's eyes pop and come to life.
• 'If it glues, we will use it'. Stickers. Cut-up bandaids. Beads and studs / spikes. Moss. Rhinestones. Clay sculpting. For a while there, if you could glue it to the doll, it was in. Some incredible faceups came out involving whole layers of texture / transformative effects on the heads, made by attaching other objects to the head with clay and adhesive. It went from simple to full-blown modification. I miss this era.
• Sticking a neon or bright colour in a strategic part of the eyeliner. Usually the lower lashline, or about the wingtip of the main eyeliner. Was popular with wingtip styles, as you could use them to form sharp, striking lines with that secondary colour.

Edited November 23, 2024 by PolitelyNefarious

One of the more surprising trend shifts, in my opinion, has been the recent-ish trend of using the faceup to create larger eyes without actually enlarging the eyewells of the sculpt.

Back in the day (and by this, I'm talking like 2010 or so, which was when I first discovered the hobby), anyone looking to make a doll's eyes larger focused on subtractive modifications to the head itself. Nowadays, artists all over the world take a standard DD sculpt and extend the lashline to give the appearance of bigger eyes. Even Volks is doing it on some of their default faceups, such as the Natsuki/Moe anniversary release. It's different! It's unexpected! I don't always like the end result, but I appreciate the artistry that goes into it.

19 hours ago, Thespian said:

One of the more surprising trend shifts, in my opinion, has been the recent-ish trend of using the faceup to create larger eyes without actually enlarging the eyewells of the sculpt.

Interesting. I'm having a hard time picturing this, do you have an example? All I know is that I generally prefer newer faceups and sculpts than even stuff from the early 2010s. I'm wondering if this has something to do with it.

6 hours ago, kudoku said:

Interesting. I'm having a hard time picturing this, do you have an example? All I know is that I generally prefer newer faceups and sculpts than even stuff from the early 2010s. I'm wondering if this has something to do with it.

Not who you asked but I think what they're referring to is called over drawing. This face up by penguins.doll on insta shows this. The eye shape is over drawn, since the eye hole is much smaller. 

The blank space of skin between the hole and eyeliner to the naked eye is going to be perceived as more sclera. It saves more time and energy for the artist to not have to increase the eyehole size this way.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C15ttMqS1DX/?igsh=MTljNG16eW14Nm9nZQ==

 

Edited November 24, 2024 by Giragira
Added some words and added a link

It's an actual makeup effect too! The idea is to widen the eye artificially with makeup to make it look larger than it actually is! I was introduced to it via doll faceups cause I don't do makeup IRL.

11 minutes ago, RozenGermain said:

It's an actual makeup effect too! The idea is to widen the eye artificially with makeup to make it look larger than it actually is! I was introduced to it via doll faceups cause I don't do makeup IRL.

Yes! When I did cosplay it was a trick to get anime eyes!

The overdrawn eyeliner is my favourite thing ever tbh, I just don't like faceups that don't do it.

I think it also creates a more ... lively or almost realistic look, because it emulates the waterline. Or at least that is how I use it for my own faceups, with using pink pastels and adding gloss at the end.

More classic faceups just look sort of uncanny to me, esp if they use eyes with big irises where you can't see any white, or barely any of it. It makes the eyes just very dark and ... well, doll-like.

I do love the trend of incooperating a lot of color in the eyelines as well, to make it match really nicely with the color of the hair and whatnot.