How long do your faceups last?

I gave Chloe her face-up almost two years ago (I got her for Christmas in 2002), and it's "kept" just fine even though I only sealed it with acrylic paint sealer instead of MSC. Only the lip color has faded a little bit, though I think that's because I used the cheap craft acrylic paints for her lips. ops:

 

I'm still learning how exactly to go about painting a nice faceup, so Salim changes faces about every 4 months or so; anytime I get a new idea.

 

For a while it kinda became this thing were if I'm sitting around with nothing to do, I'll be like, "Hey, let's change Florizel's faceup!" And then there were times when I'd get nitpicky about one aspect of his faceup and end up doing the whole thing. I've had him for almost four months, and he's gone through...at least nine or ten faceups. But I guess it's partially because I really haven't found "the one faceup I really love," so I keep trying new things.

 

I don't want to change anything on Bastion other than hair, as he was my first.
Tatsurou I ordered specifically for his makeup... If I ever get a DoD, I may do a faceup on it...

 

I haven't changed Io's faceup yet and it seems to be holding up fine. Her coated and blushed body on the other hand is a whole different story. Anywhere she moves (in any joint pretty much)there's coating chips. Grrr.

I ended up lucky, I was happy with the first face-up I did. And while I will change her in the future to clean up some things I feel could be better, I'm not in any hurry right now.

On another note, I have 2 other heads to paint, but I feel like I can't do it yet since they don't have their proper wigs. They are characters, so their face-ups will be set in stone.

 

My Nora was born June 2003 and her face up looks the same as the day I got her, thank God. I believe the artist who painted her did at least 4 coats of MSC.

I'm not super active with her as of late but I have definitely had my fair share of playtime with Nora and she looks awesome so it's cool that the coating is holding up. I've often considered giving her another coat just in case, but I don't want to remove her eyes and I wonder about how her lashes will hold up.

I simply will not alter her faceup in any way from how it was originally done and so far I haven't HAD to so I'm lucky.

 

I see from some threads that some of you describe your doll's face-up rubbing or brushing off-how does this happen?

I understand the default/selected face is painted on, so not actually coloured resin, but how long does an average doll's face-up last?
I have grown to love the epxressions on the doll's Im getting-but Im worried now that I wont be able to reproduce it exactly if something happens.

What can I NOT do? Scratch them, wipe them down, add temporary make-up, swish their hair across their faces? Im starting to get a little worried now...

Thanks for all your help, by the way-this is a greatsite, Im glad I found it when I did (before I buy my dolls) as your input and experiences has been a huge help!

:-)

 

My Sylvie (airbrushed faceup by Robin's Egg) has been with me for almost two years now, and her faceup is still in pristine condition.

My Kohya (paint + pastel faceup by Pookie) was only with me for a matter of weeks before his faceup began rubbing off. Granted, he gets "played with" a little more heavily than my girl does, but as best as anyone has figured, he just wasn't coated properly before he was sent to me. I think the combination of poor coating + pastel-based faceup (opposed to Robin's Egg's airbrushing) led to his faceup being much more delicate.

So, it really depends on the method used for the faceup and how heavily you play with them. Purposely scratching them is probably a bad idea; very gently wiping off dirt with water shouldn't harm anything. My boys in particular have been inside, outside, climbing to the tops of microwaves, with dripping wet wigs, pounced on each other, ect., and other than the cast with poor coating, I've never really had a problem.

 

I've had my MSD Ken for over 2 years. He's still got his default faceup, no smudges or anything, and I play with him constantly. ^^; When he gets dirty I clean him with a Mr. Clean sponge, which doesn't take any paint off.

 

Chocolate - took 6 months and she fell once too (with a little damage), so...
Mikael - He is almost a year home and his face-up still the same. Never fell.

 

Maybe it's the company also... like does SD last longer than others?

 

Oh! I forgot to mention: all my dolls are dod dolls ^^
Chocolate is a DOD Mir and Mikael is a DOD Hoo

 

It all really depends. When you get the faceup done, as soon as you can, coat it. Most companies that coat their faceups, don't do it well, from what I've heard. You can get Testors Dullcoat from quite a few hobby/craft stores or you can order Mr Super Clear online. If you think the coating is thinning and the faceup might be in danger, coat it again.

Avoid touching it with your hands, oil from fingers can eat the coating away without a lot of effort. Just generally, be careful. Accidents will happen no matter what, but if something does go wrong, there are a lot of talented people here on DoA that will be able to get it pretty close to the original if something does happen.

Make sure you get a good picture of the faceup, if you think you might want it recreated later.

And don't be worried about looking at them wrong and them falling apart. They might appear delicate and fragile, but really, they're tough little buggers.

Oh and if you want to clean your dolls with a Mr Clean Sponge, it will take off coating, so don't use it on their faces or anywhere that's coated. If they have body blushing, it will take that off as well. It's a cleaner, after all.

 

The Testors on Mona's face tends to wear off on places like her nose and chin and te=hey get shiny so I re-coat her regularly to make sure that the important parts don't start doing this as well.

 

With Arwen, her whole head is a "face-up" X3 (because her skin is airbrushed to be that color too to cover the super sculpey, as well as her normal face up of lips etc). She's been HEAVILY played with (and trasported in a suitcase with no protective face cover) for 8 months now, and no rubbing off at all. I think it's becasue she was airbrushed too, and she was sealed with sculpey satin glaze (WAY thicker than sealing with a spray. I would not reccomend it for sealing a whole resin head though).

Humm...well I think recoating now and then with the dullcoat or MSC or whichever you use would extend the life of a face-up.

Or you could just do it again... *shrugs* if it's not a limited doll with it's original face-up that you might want to try and perserve...

 

well Shinku arrived with damage to her faceup.. (AR dana) And I was wondering how the AR faceups fare time-wise.
I am considering taking up their offer of getting a replacement head, but if they are really delicate anyway I might not bother.

 

Shige's been here since august and his lips are rubbing juuuust slightly but thats because I touch them too much :X I really need to work on that!! But other then that I've never really had faceup problems.

 

o.O I cleaned my DOC U with one of those magic eraser type things and it took half his lips off >_<. I was so mad. A small section was starting to rub off anyway, but it wasn't really a big deal... but that... I'm still mad about it >.>... Err, anyway, the rest of his default face-up his fine though.

 

Sorry OT: actually regarding recoating it gets pretty confusing for me. When you guyss recoat, don't you have to redo the glossing too? @.@"

 

I've had my Dana boy since April of 05, and the only wear on his faceup is a spot of rubbing on his chin, because I'm bad about grabbing him there to turn his head. I've had NT Ren since September, and I'm not seeing any wear on his faceup (I try to be better about the chingrabbing because he's so heavily blushed). So the AR faceups I know have fared pretty well under medium use/abuse.

 

I guess you would have do re-do the glossing if you put coating over it. XD

I re-did my Yen's faceup after about six months, but the original one held up well until then - there was a little bit of fading going on with one of his eyebrows, but that was about it.

AR faceups - I've had my Cien since May of last year, and his faceup is exactly the same as it was when he came out of the box. I think I'm a little bit more careful with him, though, because the work is incredibly detailed and I could never hope to repair it if it got badly damaged. ^^;

 

My DoD's faceup has lasted 5 months with no sign of fading

 

Jillian's face-up would be still intact, if my cat hadn't knocked her over causing her to have a stain across her face.
I removed the stain with Mr. Clean magic eraser and it removed some of the coating, which made her shiny in a few spots.
With Mr. Super Clear, I was able to fix that. ^^
My advice is, if you think that the face-up is coming off, just coat it again just to be sure.

 

I just had to buy some MSC because my Kaede's default is shinny on a couple of places on her forhead (luckily you can not see them with a wig on). But I wanna make sure that it does not wear off anywhere important.
As for reglossing, just pick up some acrylic gloss mediam and gently coat your doll's lips. This is available at most Art supply stores. I would recomend Liquitext. ^_^

 

I was wondering today... I ordered my Homme Ivan from DOD with the basic makeup...

How long will it last? I'm hopeing for a while... Will it smudge? I am new to BJDs and have looked but I think I'm looking in the wrong places. x__x

Will it last forever untill I use a magic earser on it or will it fade?

Sorry for all the questions... ^^;;

Gracia

 

I'm not sure how long face-ups will last, I guess that partly depends on whether or not the face-up is sealed. I don't think DOD seals their face-ups, but I'm not 100% sure. I've had my Hound since April (face-up from Luts) and it hasn't smudged or faded at all. If you're worried about the face-up fading, you can always buy a can of Mr. Super Clear (flat) and use that to seal his face-up.

PS, congrats on your Ivan!

 

I've heard of DOD Faceups lasting or about a year if not longer o_O; My boy has face planted ::>> My fault really:: and I've accidently rubbed his face countless times since I've had him and not a scratch or anything.

I could be mistaken though ^^;

 

I do Corpse's faceup myself and it lasts an average of six months, depending on the sealer, I find Testors does not last as long as MSC or Citadel Purity Seal

 

My Yen (DOD) has the default makeup from DOD since two years and three months and is perfect ^__^ My Mir (DOD) has the makeup from DOD since a year and ten months and is perfect too ^_^

 

I was looking in the thread where people post how their BJDs have evolved. In this thread, someone said, from one picture to the next, "After this faceup wore off, I did this:"

My question is, does faceup wear off even if you coat it? Conversely, if you wanted to take off faceup that was coated, could you do that easily?

Sorry if this is a n00bish question, I haven't seen anything pertaining to the first question in particular. Thanks in advance for any help =].

 

Yes and yes. xD

Eventually with playing, a doll's faceup will start to chip, because it's not actually a part of the resin, but painted on top of it. From what I understand, the coating just temporarily protects it, otherwise it'd smudge and wear off VERY quickly.

However, if you're careful, I guess they can last for a good while.

And yeah -- I think I've seen people use acetone free nailpolish remover to get rid of face-ups.

 

I hope ths is in the right place.
So, I want to know how long your face-ups last. Which sealer was used and if you left them sitting on a shelf or if their faces were touched alot.

 

My faceup has lasted five months now, and I handle my Moon all the time though I avoid touching his face unless to clean it. Sealed the hell out of it with testors. Had no problems so far.

And my other head was about 2 months before I redid it. Hope that helps!

 

As long as you want them to, within reason. The two year old parts of my one doll's faceup are now coming off (baby needs her lips redone, they're flaky and I thought a flake was a hair and so made it WORSE) and I believe it was default from the company. I'm sure that if the lips were resealed they'd be fine, but since they're coming OFF I'm going to have them redone.

Use Mr. Super Clear, don't touch the face during play if you can help it, and all of that. I would say something about resealing but I am not a faceup artist and so don't know. I can tell you to NEVER reseal with your doll's eyelashes in, it will ruin them.

 

I use Testors Dullcote and avoid touching their faces as much as possible. I have one doll with a faceup that's been on for close to two years and one that's had his faceup for a year and a half. I redid Liam's after a year, but it was because I wasn't totally happy with hit, not because of damage.

 

well if you ever feel like its smudging or coming off... take out the eyes and the eyelashes, spray the face with either msc or testors dullcote, let it dry completely[i leave mine sit for an entire day before touching it, otherwise it gets dirty] and then go over the lips with liquitex acrylic varnish to keep the lips glossy and sealed. i don't know what you'd use to put eyelashes back on though

 

From what I have read, Emores Glue or any regular white glue is used for the lashes...that way you can change them without any hassle

 

My Hound is about a year and a half old, and his face-up (from Luts) is fine. My LD Cara's face-up ,that is almost a year old, needs a touch up. I've played with her more, so her face-up has a bit more wear.

 

Lots of helpful information for people new to all of this, but I'm curious. I saw information on the faces from DOD and Lutz, but what about Dollmore? That's where I'm getting my first two SDs from, and I'd love to know how long I can expect the faceups from that site to last.

 

I'm curious if anyone who's had a leeke doll with factory faceup for a while could comment on the condition and lasting of their faceup? i know the l-boys and such are new, but perhaps one of their older dolls? i would much appreciate it

 

As with all face ups, it really depends on how you treat the doll and it's face-up. If you don't touch the head at all (even under the chin---only touch it by touching the wig) it could last years. I know of someone here who has limiteds with face ups from 2005 and they still are absolutely PERFECT, even the sealant is intact; all because they NEVER touch the face.

 

Oh wow! Okay, that's comforting to know!!! that's pretty much what i do XD; i only turn his head by his ears through his wig. i was just curious as it seemed different people had different experiences with different companies but this info relieves me haha.
Thanks very much ^_^

 

I do face-ups for a friend with two small children. I have to redo those dolls every few months or so. T.T;; The kids don't abuse the dolls or anything, but the dolls are handled by the kids or accidentally knocked over or so-such-what-not.

 

I have a FCS doll from 2003 and he still has his original face-up. I've only coated it once with Volks UVcut and this I did maybe...well whenever the spray came out. No more than a year ago. So that's 5 years now the face-up has been perfectly in tact. I do pose and mess with him...I'm just careful.

2003:

2008:
I know I could probably wipe him and do something fancier and more modern, but I'm just nostalgic I guess.

 

Assuming that the face-up in question is done with appropriate materials, is touched very minimally, kept out of the sun or extreme temperature changes, how long should a face-up last? Also, do you have any tips to help it last longer, besides what's mentioned above?

(I did look for this in the forum but didn't see anything, and the search function simply wouldn't cooperate! Sorry if this is redundant.)

 

I&#8217;m not sure there is a &#8220;real&#8221; answer to this,
as there are plenty of factors that might affect
the longevity of a face-up. I&#8217;ve had my CP VDES
head, with custom factory face-up for over 4-years
now, and it still looks like when I first got her from Luts.
No blemishes, no chips, no fading (at least as far
as I can tell, same with my SD paris, but I had him
for a year less than I had her). ^____^

I never touch my dolls&#8217; faces, never expose them to any
sun light, and they never spend more than 2-hours outside
their boxes (because I live with five furry-boys, who would
most likely endanger themselves if my dolls were out in reach
of their paws XB). I&#8217;m never at home, so there is no real use
for them being outside, exposed to the &#8220;environment.&#8221; XD
I can&#8217;t say that&#8217;s what&#8217;s helped maintain their face-ups for sure, but
four out of all my dolls have custom factory face-ups, all are still
intact, as the day they arrived to me. ^_____^

The ones I&#8217;ve done myself, don&#8217;t last too long because I have an obsession
for redoing my own work, over, and over&#8230;so I can&#8217;t help there, but I think
even non-professional face-ups, would also last (relatively) long,
as long as you don&#8217;t remove them yourself.


- Enzyme ^.^

 

I last did Tanal's face last September, of all my boys his wears the fastest because it includes blushing to recolour his entire head. But so far this one is wearing very well, it's just gained one little dark spot that actually looks so cute it may be included when I redo.

Gamrut's face has been on him for about a year now, and since I got his arms wired has taken no damage (he used to smack himself in the face, so there's a line across his nose from that).

I can't remember when I did Christopher's face... I think it was in May or early June last year, shortly after I finally got him a blond wig as the previous face up was very much too dark at that point. But his face has no wear visible on it at all.

On the other hand, I've done amanati's Luka twice since September, and he's getting another face up from someone else this weekend. He loses his eyebrows like nobody's business.

One thing that might help lengthen the life of a face up is occasionally giving them a careful cleaning and then a fresh topcoat of sealer (don't seal dirt into the face up )

 

I have a Souldoll that was discontinued well over a year ago, and her default face-up still looks really good. I also have a doll that I painted myself over a year ago, and his face is also holding up fine.

If you are careful, a well-sealed face-up can last for ages. I have seen dolls on the Marketplace from 2004 or 2005 that still have their factory face-ups in great condition.

 

I have an mnf elf shiwoo painted by luts from two years ago, his face up is completely perfect still

it really depends on how much you handle the doll

 

I just want to second that as long as your not rubbing their faces or anything crazy it should lost a very very long time. My Souldoll Claira has a face up from 2005 and She still looks brand new I don't take her outside but she sits on a shelf or I play with her in doors and her face looks like the day I got her =)
Also my Unoa 2.0 has a custom face up from a local artist and it has kept its self perfect too and I change her clothes a lot (and have a tendency of of tuching her face a lot too in order to change out her face plates) so don't worry to much

 

Hi

I wonder if the face up is fading after some time?
I've seen my doll face up...it's getting lighter and lighter...she's still may be 5 months or so...
Have you faced this problem before?

Thank you

 

Yes, it happens. My Customhouse Gene's default faceup faded almost to nothing--it took a couple of years to disappear completely, but I started to notice the fading within about six months of receiving him. Luckily, after a couple of misfires, I found a wonderful faceup artist who was able to restore his original look!

 

so the all the faceup will dissappear? theres no way for the faceup to stay on them? even if you dont touch there faceup

 

Yes, I have seen this happen. For me, my older dolls have face ups that are fading (dolls that are 3 years or older). It is sad because some of them are limited faceups, but I love the sculpt and won't sell them, so I will find a talented artists to redo them ^_^

EDIT: eloisa I have never had a face up fade away completely, they just tend to get very light and loose the depth of color and contrast they once had. My oldest doll with a default face up is 5 years old and you can still see the face up just fine, it is just washed out looking. This face up was done with acrylics and sealed heavily as well. I have had other dolls with non default faceups done in pastels that have faded much faster. I think it comes down to faceups are not meant to be permanent, thus the medium tends to fade.

 

thanks NabeeRain too bad i really love my dolls faceup oh well

 

This thread is interesting.. has anyone found a medium that DOESN'T fade? >3<;; Like really high quality artist acrylics, I would think would work..

And I guess this means body blushing will fade too. *cries* That would be a pain to redo every year or so..

 

I know a lot of high quality artist acrylics and pastels should last a long time and keep their vibrant pigments but I think what we have to use as sealant is what rubbs off in the long run? The pastels and acrylics may not be able to "hang on" to the coated resin the same way they can for a canvas, etc?
It would be nice if I could keep my El's faceup on him forever but, realistically, I know he'll need a little touch up or two further on down the line. Maybe someone will eventually find a sealer that works better? :O

 

I've had this happen, Luts faceups seem to be really bad for it, the lip colour fades really easily beneath the gloss. I've lost two and a had a third fade noticeably in the three years I've had it whilst Dollmore faceups much older are still perfect.

I'm hoping that one day there'll be a breakthrough in sealants and someone'll find something better and more accessible than MSC that prevents such things.