Resin Yellowing: Causes and Protections

Okay. I have two old-resin beauty white boys. I got one quite recently, and one six months ago. The difference between them is minimal, and I don't keep my SD in their boxes or anything. Like you, I keep them out in my room, not in direct sunlight, but they're not hidden away.

As far as I'm aware, the yellowing problem is far worse for beauty white dolls than for regular skintones. And I actually PREFER my older boy, who has some signs of yellowing - he's now a warmer cream tone than white.

I wouldn't worry about yellowing at all. If it happens, then decide how you're going to deal with it, but to be honest, I'll be surprised if you notice unless you're in the habit of comparing them with brand new dolls.

 

The new MSC UV spray is the only thing that I can think of that -might- help.

 

*just ordered 2 cans of it from Domuya for her BW boy* I don't want him to turn all yellow-y ;_;

Well, it's for him and my other dolls too - I want to blush their bodies and MSC will help seal them ^_^

 

Oh! I'll do a Paranoid about Yellowing club.... 'cause I'm paranoid too... I'm freak... when choco is too much closer of sunlight I get something to cover her from it ¬¬ I let her like a priest XDDD
It is 'cause if she gets yellow I'll feel bad 'cause I'll feel it was my fault... Like letting my baby on cold in winter and then she gets sick, got it?
But.... if all of you say it is not that bad I think I might get better.... maybe.... oh, Gosh :cry:

 

I've never worried about it much since my room is like a tomb anyway. Due to my frequent migraines, I keep thick velvet curtains over my window at all times, so no sunlight reaches me or my dolls.

*is as pale as her dolls*

 

i second that =)

 

Hm. I have tan lines. Assume you just have the sun/lack of it to work with, to get rid of an uneven tan, you can 1) stay indoors for ages/cover up totally outside... or 2) wear something cut differently that evens out the tan next time you go out.

Relevance?

I was just thinking about doll yellowing -- apparently it can be triggered by sunlight exposure. Has anyone found their doll has yellowing in exposed areas only? Instead of just sanding outright, have you considered exposing the rest of the doll so there's a more even yellow to begin with before sanding? I'm curious how people handle this!

 

xD That's hilarious. xD It's like dolly tanning! Make sure they cut back or they could get skin cancer. x3

I heard yellowing appears in patches sometimes in exposed areas, don't know how you'd help that. And if your doll has yellow patches, then you expose the whole doll to get evener yellow, the already yellow areas will get darker, wouldn't they?

And it would take a while I assume so they'd be naked or close to for a while. Sanding would be easier?

To make a even yellowing they'd need to be nekkid then? x3 This topic is funny! Someone post a picture of their doll tanning. Err, I guess you'd call it yellowing...

 

**wonders if this would be a possible doll-tanning method** Hmmmmm.... **adds it to the 'ideas' list**

 

Maybe there needs to be a special BJD suntan lotion?

Ponders.............

 

I thought I was having this problem! Haruhiko has yellowed quite a bit (Luts beauty white) over the year and a half that I've had him, and it first it seemed like he was yellower in the parts usually exposed to light, but after I washed him, I found that much of what seemed to be a yellower area was really dirt and oil residue from my fingers, probably, and he has yellowed evenly all over his body.

I think the truth is, while sunlight does quicken the yellowing process, dolls just yellow with age and that's the way the resin is ops:

 

If you want to cover-up the yellowing, you could pick up the March 2005 issue of KERA Japanese fashion magazine.

Why?

Page 104 - 105 has an illustrated tutorial on how to re-finish your dollfie using a paint and acrylic-gel medium in an airbrush. Awesome stuff.

 

I've seen warnings on Delf and AI that their resin can/will yellow. Has anyone had their doll yellow? If so, how yellow do they get? And how fast does it happen? I have this vision of Perisa and Twix looking like crayons in a few years. Is this a problem with Volks too?

 

that's an interesting question, I'd like to know how yellow they can get in time, but I don't think people had thier dolls long enough to say so.

Some had their dolls for 2-3 years and have not seen any yellowing, while other did.

 

Juniper is at least four years old, possibly older. I've only had her since Febuary, and I haven't noticed her become more yellow since then, but she is definatly more yellow than any other doll that I have seen. I don't think it looks bad at all, in my very arrogant opinion the whole doll-yellowing thing is overhyped. I wouldn't worry about it at all :P

For examples of quite a yellow doll, see the Juniper photo album (will get around to updating.. eventually): http://photobucket.com/albums/a285/xniomi/juniper love/

Here's a picture of her compared to Souldoll and Customhouse. The CH and Souldoll are quite new and haven't yellowed at all.

 

There are quite a number of helpful threads on this subject that might answer some of your questions:
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35437&highlight=yellowing
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36299&highlight=yellowing
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25402&page=3&highlight=yellowing

It has also been said that whitening toothpaste and some other sort of cleaner has helped clean dolls that have become too yellow.

 

How bad is yellowing in dolls with whiter skin tones?
I've heard that it can be worse then the yellowing of a doll with a darker skintone, and that body brushing can help with keeping the resin nice.
But I don't really want to get body brushing done.
Is there any other ways to help prevent sun damaging and yellowing?

 

Yes, yellowing with whiteskin dolls is definitely more noticeable then with normal skin tone dolls. The most you can do is coat your doll with Mr. Super Clear UV Flat and keep the doll out of the sun. Besides that you might want to unstring your doll every once in a while and clean her up and take off the old coating. I heard bon ami is really good for cleaning white skin dolls. After the cleaning you go ahead and recoat her with MSC.

 

Have the doll coated with MSC, keep them in long sleeves, pants, and a hat when outside, don't keep them near sunlight in your house. My one boy came to me yellowed so unfortunately I can't do anything about that now, but my other two white boys will hopefully stay beautiful for a while. The only time they're in the sun is when taking photos, which only lasts for a few minutes. Otherwise they're kept in my room where I keep my shades closed at all times. Most people find it a bit obsessive/paranoid, but..they don't have three hard to replace white boys to take care of

Eventually all dolls yellow, even if kept in their boxes, but one can prolong the yellowing from happening by being cautious.

 

I just adopted a doll from e bay and I got her for really cheep. Shes home and and OMG shes yellow. Like her head cap doesnt match the ret of her at all its that bad. Now I see why she is so cheep.

I'll post pics of her later, I'm not sure what to do with her right now. Shes also very very dirty so I need to take care of that.

 

define "out of sunlight" for me?

like... completely dark like a closet?

or away from an open window?

 

As a sidenote, bon ami, baking soda, and sanding only do so much. A lot of sun damage is deeper than the tiny bit that mild abrasives remove. It's permanent; it ruined a doll of mine is less than a week.

So "out of sunlight" for me now means in a room with the blinds drawn all day where they sit on a table in the corner.

 

I wonder about this too.. we know direct sunlight is bad but how much indirect sunlight is tolerable? my room currently doesn't have the sun shining in directly but it's still fairly bright and never completely dark.

 

you could just be safe and keep them in their box or carrier when you're not actually playing with them...

 

I kept one of my white skin doll in a box and she's still yellow. I guess, the resin age and cause it to be yellow. With direct sun contact I guess it will be yellow faster. But with mine in the box, it's still yellow.

 

Yeah mine is like Golo's. The sunlight doesn't hit my room directly, but it's still bright.

So..would it be fine like that?

 

i have two BW luts boys....and they didn't yellow. The actual COATING on them yellows tho.....the MSC is bad about yellowing. Cuz when the face ups are taken off, they are white again. i've noticed that.

i've also noticed that people need to be certain the doll is actually "yellowing"....i've noticed that SOMETIMES my doll is pure white, Sometimes, he is yellowy, and sometimes, he is actually GREEN...i think the light source plays ALOT on that...

Under bright florescent light, my boys look Green!

 

can I ask what doll it is, and over what time period the yellowing happened? I suppose not much can be done, but i'm still curious.

 

even human skin isn't purely that creamy pinkish, because of all that goes on underneath it, but white takes on all sorts of reflections.

 

While nothing can replace constant care of your BJD when it comes to sunlight, I used Arm and Hammer peroxide and Baking Soda toothoaste soaking for half an hour on arms and fifteen minutes on hands on a Pinky White Narin that was yellowing and I saw a noticable improvement. Perhaps this should be done often as a preventative measure if you're really paranoid. But too much sunlight is still the enemy!

 

I've heard that tooth paste does wonders.

 

It's gotta have baking soda and peroxide, though. The combination of the two effervesces and breaks up staining.

 

I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am to read this!! I was beginning to think I had *completely* lost it because sometimes my boys look green. And my home office lamp is a small fluorescent. Phew!!

 

What about Customhouse - does there resin yellow like Souldoll's? I have a petite ai and I think she may look a bit yellow - am I crazy, paranoid or facing reality?

 

they do yellow... I don't know about Souldoll but I made an experiment with my Hyuns broken hand. He is white skin so maybe he yellow different than yours. One month ago, I hang his hand in my window so that there has been sunlight on it every sunny day since then. I have not kept Minou in dark places however, but there is already a visible difference of the broken hand and his real skin. Maybe not much, but... It has only been one month. I don't know if anyone has done a similiar thing with their dolls so I don't know if this is bad or not, all dolls yellow slightly with age .p I mean.. You don't leave them in the window exposed to direct sunlight all the time.

 

i gettin a white skind el soon and i would like to keep him a white as i can .

 

I have had a BW Delf Lishe for about nearly 4 years and I just make sure that I don't expose her to too much sunlight. From what I can tell she is still as white as when she arrived.

There are a few protective sprays available too which prevent the sun from yellowing the resin. There was (up until recently) Mr Super Clear UV cut, I am sure there are a few other types available too.

Just have a good look around in search for MSC UV cut and yellowing etc etc.

Hope this helps!

 

Is there someone that can paint over yellowing on a doll? what if someone had some yellowing spots that they want to get rid of?

 

Painting over a doll might look weird. The examples I've seen where people have tried to replicate a natural skin tone don't look good. I suppose you could have the doll blushed with a more normal skin tone but that wouldn't completely hide the yellow, just tone it down. I heard that scrubbing the doll with whitening toothpaste or soaking it with denture whitener can help.
Hope this helps

 

Sanding also helps. My older Volks Chris had yellowed, and I bought a soft sanding pad and sanded off the outer layer and this helped a great deal. While not pure white, (oldskin BW was never pure white) he definitely has restored that whitish luminous tone. Then I had him professionally painted so that his face would be sealed right away with MSC. Went from this:



to this:

 

Lightly sanding will take the yellow off usually. I've had to do this to a CP body I bought second-hand, and I also sanded the Cory I'm selling.

 

hi i kno it's not the most original question and most ppl would reply store him in a cool dark room... prob is my room is brightly lit with a huge window and i like to take Rae out for photos.

So... how can i prevent him from yellowing? If the sun comes through my window but not very intense is it ok?

How can i remove yellowing?

How can i check he had yellowed? I only have one doll...

 

Is there any place in your room out of the sun? I'd keep him there... maybe under a sheet when you're not actively playing with him.

You can check to see if he's yellowed by comparing the color on the inside of his body/headcap to the color on the places most exposed to the sun, like hands and arms.

 

Can you create some shade? Don't worry about taking them outside for photos- so long as it is not prolonged exposure you will be okay- it is the day to day storage that will make a big difference

 

This is probably a really dumb question but why do they go yellow? is it the resin?

 

My friend Brad made a sort of 'wall' on the side of his desk to set his 'son' on the other side of, It blocks the sunlight and he hasn't yellowed noticeably in a year just keep sun exposure down to a small amount

 

Yellowing really scares me.... When I finally get a doll, I dont wna ther to yellow or stain or break! :'(

 

Does coating the doll with testors dullcote prevent it do you think?

 

One of my dolls is white, like stark snow white, though and through. I can understand some of the flesh toned dolls yellowing in sunlight, but does my white doll also apply, is it the resin itself or is it the color in the resin that discolors?

 

Thats a good question The Mad Prophet. My Mo is white skin so he's not really fleshy coloured at all..so would be interesting to know if the same thing occurs in white skin dolls o_o'

 

It's the resin. UV light (which is part of sunlight) damages it over time. Besides minimizing sun exposure, there isn't anything you can do to prevent it. But I did read a thread where somebody had de-yellowed a doll using the stuff people use to whiten their teeth.

 

White skinned dolls are the worst for going yellow from what I've read/seen.

 

White skin is the worst at yellowing.

Really, the only way to truly prevent yellowing is to keep them out of the light. You could always make a fort for your doll out of old sheets. It's not a one-time event that will yellow your doll, but the storage of it.

 

so the yellowing applies to any brand of bjd because of the resin used? that's good to know.

 

They need sun block, ne? j/k >w< Try using toothpaste and a toothbrush and scrubbing them down under warm water. The toothpaste is abrasive enough to take away the yellowing of the resin, but watch it around the face up!!!!!!!!! Some face up might come off in the cleaning process! Also be sure not to scrub to hard, this may damage our doll!

 

Yipes! Well, that's good to know then and at least there's a way to reverse it should it happen. I'll just pull the blanket up over them and draw the drapes until I can find a spot that's always shady in my room.

 

times like this i'm happy my room is on the north side of the house, ans has a tree outside. ^^'

 

Er, forgive me if I've got this wrong - but isn't this why some people choose to coat their doll with Mr. Super Clear UV-Cut Flat?

I'd thought that was supposed to prevent resin from yellowing due to sun-related exposure.