Maintenance PARTIALLY removing a faceup?

I've redone a face and salvaged the lip paint before. Just be really careful working around the lip area. I sprayed over the lips and then reglossed them but you might be able to somehow mask them off when spraying.

I'll note that I was working on a MSD head with tiny lips...such work might be more noticable on larger heads. I've looked close and I can't really tell any difference but you never know. I think if you work very carefully it should turn out fine. :grin:

 

Perhaps use uncured sculpy to mask out the lips when spraying the face??

- Therese

 

Hi -

Is it possible to just remove the factory lip paint so the lips can be redone?

What is the best way to do this without disturbing the blush around the mouth, including cleaning away whatever I used to remove the old lip paint (likely non-acetone with no additives or W&N brush cleaner).

I may not need to remove the old paint totally - the color is a bit darker than I want but a line around the edges and crease may be compatible with what I want.

Alternately, I could try just overpainting some lighter highlights on the lips and regloss.

Suggestions?

 

I would use a q-tip. You can pick off most of the cotton, so it's a very small swab and scrub away at it with your choice of remover. It's perfectly safe to paint over the default paint so long as you don't put too many layers on and make it super thick. But then all that would do is make it a pain in the ass to remove later. :3

 

I think you have answered your own question; the best way to avoid damaging the blushing around the mouth is to just paint over. For example get a white or beige (or lighter version of whatever the original colour is) water-colour pencil and draw in some vertical lines, then smudge them with a dry q-tip, and re-gloss if you are satisfied or wipe it off with cold water if not, and try again.

If you try to wipe part of a faceup there is a high possibility that you will nick the blush in the surrounding area, since there is often blush even where you think there isn't any.

 

Well, this is interesting.

I want to redo SD Kun's lips. They look like they were painted on with a Q-tip dipped in melted orange sorbet. I don't wish to redo the rest of her at this time, but her lips are too big and orange-smudgy, with no real definite edge to them.

I probably will have to touch up the blushing around thr mouth somehow then, because the original lip paint in this case cannot just be painted over.

 

Karisu wrote:

That is what my Shinsiya's lips look like! She came with the Volks default face-up...I was not impressed.

 

If you need to redo lips that have blushing around them, I would suggest wiping the lip color with your paint remover of choice, then carefully sanding away the blushing with a fine grain sandpaper to avoid the jagged edges that can occur when coating is wiped away. MSC a few times before painting the lips, then seal again and apply gloss if desired. I've done this a few times to fix details on sealed faceups, and it works like a charm--it may save you the trouble of wiping an entire faceup. ^^


~Kalmia

 

Thanks for the tips, Kalmia! ^__^
I know I have super-fine-grain sandpaper around here; just need to figure out where I put it...

 

I'm full of questions today!

I'm thinking of re-doing my boys' faceups, but I really, really like the way I did the eyebrows, and the eyelashes. Is there a reliable way of only removing part of the faceup (ie: the lips), or removing the eyelashes without damaging them?

I'm not worried about re-doing the blushing because that's easy

I've also read that some people simply cover half of the face, and wipe off the part they want to re-do, and just spray it with Testors. Wouldn't this mean you wind up with uneven coats, or a "spray line" across where you've covered up the rest of the face?

 

I've only done a few faceups, but I have a tendency to mess up the lips right as I'm finishing. The first time, I very carefully scraped off everything on the lips, which seemed to work fine. This is only something to do if you are confident in your find motor skills and have a fresh xacto blade.

Second time I messed up, I used brush cleaner to remove the lips. I wasn't careful and ended up with a horrible mess (I have pics, it's not pretty).

Third time (or was it more? Oh, the pain), there was too much gloss for it to be scraped off easily, so I used a toothpick and a q-tip with a tiny amount of brush cleaner on it. After that I went back with the sponge eraser thingy and feathered the edges of the removed parts so that where the Testor's had darkened from the brush cleaner were removed and any remaining smudges were removed.


Hard to see, but this is after I removed the lips and before I applied Testor's. Behold, my sock hand.


I just got his eyelashes even, so I didn't want to take them off to spray. So I made a little mask out of cottonballs and tape. This is after several coats of Testor's and two layers of pastel application.

There isn't any spray lines that I can see, and his lips seem to have come out ok (I haven't yet applied the dredded gloss). So, my ghetto way of fixing my mistakes.

 

I had a similar problem with Chy during his last face-up: Everything was going wonderfully until I got to the mouth. There was no way I was going to redo the entire thing, though, so I only removed the paint and coating from the lower part of his face. At the time, there was a very noticable difference in the two halves, but once I re-coated, it seemed to blend well enough. I can't see anything now.

 

I've redone just lips many times, but you have to be careful that your removal chemical doesn't go outside the lip line or else it will cause whiteness and flaking of the sealant (if spray sealant has already been used) around the mouth.

 

Has anyone ever just redone eyebrows? Would this same technique work?

Thanks,

Laura

 

What you could do is take some baking soda on a damp washcloth, and gently rub the area that you want to remove the MSC and paint from. This is what I had to do recently when my doll's face got scratched and wood stain got down in the scratch. If you scrub gently the paint and MSC will come away smoothly, and there won't be a defined MSC/NO MSC edge.

 

Thank you- I'll try that. :-)

Laura

 

i want to redo only part of my doll's faceup- namely, her lips and teeth. the eyes and blush on her cheeks i am perfectly satisfied with. my first question: is it possible to remove only part of the MSC on her face, and reapply it to part of her face, or will it layer up and look queer? secondly, what medium would you advice for colouring lips- coloured pencils, pastels, etc.? and thirdly, where does one buy MSC in the first place?

thank you anyone who answers! i'm sorry to be such a noob.

 

Hey does anyone have any suggestions on removing just a bit of the gloss enamel from a faceup?

Can I use paint thinner on a small brush to remove it?

thanks in advance!

 

Are you wanting the area more matte and not so shiney? If so perhaps you can use a matte medium and paint over the area.

I'm afraid if you were to use paint thinner, then it would take away the paint and coating. The coating can get sticky and clumpy when being removed with paint thinner.

 

what type of matte medium should i use?

could i just spray over the area with mr.super clear flat? (and just cover the rest of her face that i dont want matte?)

 

If you try to mask off other areas, you could end up with a visible line where the new coat of MSC did go over. There are ways around them, but they're not fool proof.

I'd suggest liquitex matte medium. Thin it, apply very thin layers, wait completely for each layer to dry, and after a couple coats the area should be matte.

Are you matting the lips or around the eyes?

 

You know how Luts puts those dark spots at the corners of their lips? I didn't really ever notice them until I actually got my dolls from them.

When I ordered my Lishe(s), I hadn't known that the dark lip-corners are a default Luts thing, so I didn't know to ask them to not do them.

I think they look funny in person, and in any photos I've taken so far.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to remove such tiny bits of paint, without messing up the rest of the faceup? I really, really like the custom faceup Luts did for me, but I don't like those darn dark spots. I think they make the faceup look much less realistic, 'cause it looks like she's got little holes next to her mouth.

It seems to me I'd have to wipe the entire mouth to get rid of them, and if so I'll just live with the dumb spots, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them! ^_^

 

Maybe you can paint over them?

 

Yup. That's what I'd try too.

 

I actually chipped a pair out because they were a thick layer and I wasn't sure if painting over would look too heavy and/or not cover. I'd gotten a set of what were sold as polymer clay modeling tools off ebay, came in sleeves labeled as wax carving tools, and look for all the world like various dental scrapers. I used two sets of reading glasses to magnify the area and very delicately scraped away the paint.

I plan on using watercolor pencil to even out the edges of the lips and add a lighter shadowing to the corners, and then will seal with Liquitex matte medium/varnish, since the rest of the lips are done in a matte/semi-gloss finish. Until I get that done, it's still not bad, and is only even noticeable in very close-up pictures.

I hate those "chocolate drops" in the corners. Only very few look good in person.

 

I use a toothbrush... XD with nailpolish remover...works perfectly fine >_>

 

Hm, something you could try first might be sturdy wooden toothpicks, or the sharp tip of a bamboo skewer... Less likely to scratch the resin, and you could even dip that in whatever paint remover you're using.

 

I was wondering if when you decide to change a face up... do you have to change the entire thing? Or, if you like the eyes... is it possible to change the eyebrows and lips, but leave the eyes be?

 

In theory you can.You have to be really careful removing the old make up.If you have any blushing on the face there will be obvious straight lines where you have wiped.
I tried to change just the eyeleshes,but ended up wiping everything except the mouth. When I wiped with the nailvarnish remover it was ok,but when I tried to wash the face the varnish just went everywhere and made a mess.

So to sum it up,in theory you can just change a part of the faceup,but in practice it is quite difficult.

 

What if it is just the lips? I would think they might be a little easier, since they are their own seperate bit.

 

In theory, if there's no blushing done under the lips, you can wip it off with remover and wash it with the head upwards so it doesn't remove anything else. The problem is, you may also remove whatever used for coating, and that may create a color difference (I think sometimes the layers of MSC change color while being removed/peeled off?)

 

Its absolutely possible!! But you have to be really careful. When i was removing
the lip makeup from a doll I stuffed the eyesockets with tissue ( the shape would look almost like a flower coming out of the eye ) and then wrapped paper towels around his eyes and forehead. Doing this really helped protect the painted lashes and eyebrows. If you wanted to keep the blushing in tact i would suppose you could wrap the head in such a way where only a little square with the lips is showing.
If you wanted to remove the eyebrows i would suggest doing it with the head upside down. that way none of the achohol or whatever you're using streams down the face and leaves streakes on the cheeks. Well thats my two cents.

 

Yes,if you have to use anything stronger than soap the coating will come off too.Even a magic eraser will take the coating off if you rub too hard.I know MSC is more hardy than Testors,but after removing the lip makeup it would be good to wash the head,coat,then paint.
Also I have found that the best way to remove lip makeup is a cottonbud.You can sort of shape it to fit in the lip groove too.

 

It is possible, but only if there is any shading around the area you'd like to erase. If there is- you'll be left with a patchy-looking faceup that's almost impossible to fix without removing the whole thing and starting from scratch.
And I know that from bitter experience >.> <.<

 

Ah! I have the same questions.
I think it depends on how much blushing is on the face.
I put a LOT of blushing on my face-ups.
So recently I decided to re-do just the lips and what a disaster!
The uneven coats of MSC are extremely noticable and leave a weird texture.
It was impossible to even out the clean spot next to the previously blushed spot because the line of MSC would get really dark fast.
Now I am a total amateur at face-ups but this was nasty business.
If you don't have blushing around the mouth then you should be ok.
But my face-up looks like the poor guy had skin graph surgery.
If anyone knows a trick to evening out the blushing I would love to know it.

 

Oh yeah, I was using pastels for this. So airbrushing might be better???

 

If it was initially done with an airbrush, i think it would be best to finnish it / fix it up with the same tools, but I can't be for certain since I've not done that before ^^

 

S'alright. I cleaned off the face.
I could use the practice anyway.
And you could be onto something, I won't mix media this time.
...I don't want his face to look like a collage.
(good grief, can you imagine?)

 

I would really love to see more advice for this! I have my first bjd and love her faceup, except I would like to change her lip color. I wonder if it's possible to do that and use some kind of acrylic sealer brushed on without any spraying? I don't want to ruin the rest of her beautiful face.

 

I also wish to wipe the makeup off the lips of one of my dolls, and redo it in a much softer color, but leave the rest of the faceup.
Hopefully it goes well.. I have to build up the courage.

 

I have been told this is a no. I'm not a faceup artist, but I've been told by people who do them that no, if you're going to wipe you have to wipe the whole thing once it's been sealed down...

 

Okay, so. I just painted my doll today and only later on came to the conclusion that I made his lips too dark (among other more easily fixable mistakes). They're sealed with MSC and glossed already.

My question is, is there any way to remove just the lips without leaving an annoying line between the unsealed resin and the MSC? Or any good method of fading it, so that it won't be visible when I coat the face again? There's no blushing anywhere near the lips, just a few MSC layers on the resin.

I was planning on trying to remove the paint along the lines of the lips so that the MSC line would be covered by the new lip colour but I'd have to be really accurate and that's going to be extremely hard to do.

I really really wouldn't want to re-do the whole face but I will if I absolutely have to. So, any help & ideas are welcome.

Thanks in advance :3

EDIT: Never mind. I got the lips removed by rubbing them with a magic eraser block. Took a long time but it didn't leave any line on the MSC. :3

 

I don't know if this would work, but perhaps try going over the lips with a lighter colour? I don't think you should try to wipe the lips alone, that might have bad visual effects. Try things like lighter colours or perhaps even white...only experience with this I have is my Leya's faceup arrived to me with the eyebrows fading from age and I had another board member just draw over them in the same position and reseal. Of course, we were going darker but maybe if you do try that lighter colour...if it doesn't work, just don't seal it and wipe it off =/

 

It doesn't work that way with my pastels -they don't cover anything that's darker without making the lips look horribly chapped. It would probably look even worse. -I've tried it sometime.
I've managed to go the other way around with removing everything but the lips, so I was wondering if there were pointers on how to go about just removing the lips...

 

hi guys..Im new to the forum so hope this hasn't been asked before
I have a DZ Wing with the tattoo on his brow.Can anyone tell me how to remove it please??
will appreciate any advice..thanks

 

Remove it exactly the same way you would remove a faceup. I would suggest Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and 90&#37; isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. If you do not want to remove the rest of the faceup, work on the head with the top of the head pointing towards you. Take out the eyes when you are doing this, and respray the forhead with a coat or two of MSC or Testors when you are done to avoid the resin getting stained.

 

thank you so much! I will try to do that later.

 

hello! i was wondering if it was possible to partially remove a faceup?

on one of my dolls i was able to paint it's face up and i'm very satisfied with it's eyes and eyebrows. the lips are a different situation, I'm not quite happy with the way i had done its' lips and i really wish i could remove the faceup on the lips with out damaging what i had already done. Is it possible to remove the face up on the lips with out damaging the surrounding faceup and/or leave residue stains and colorations on the surrounding sealant?

 

The best thing is to try and remove the area before sealing. I have never had any luck doing it after, even carefully with q-tips.

 

Removing parts of faceups never goes well. You can try to paint over it, but you're going to be better off just removing the entire thing=/

 

I've managed to redo lips alone a few times without damaging the faceup, you just have to be really careful and make sure you rinse the lower half of the face to get rid of all residue. I use Windsor & Newton brush cleaner and restorer + q-tip + cocktail stick.

It takes a while - you can't let the cleaner run at all outside the lip area, so you can't use too much cleaner in one go.

When you've removed the lips, mask off the top half of the face (to avoid getting MSC on the eyelashes) and re-coat the lips with MSC. I mask off the top half with loosely draped kitchen paper, so you don't get an MSC line across the face.

However, if you are removing the lips because you have gone outside the lip area you will likely need to redo the entire face as you may get a ridge of MSC when you remove the lip paint.

 

i have a similar question. there's one spot on my doll's eyebrows that's a little too dark. it's been sealed, but if i rub it gently with a magic eraser, will it just remove that part? anybody know?

ill give a shot and post results here.

EDIT: okay okay, it might have worked, but i think i rubbed a little too long. so therefore i think its possible to remove some of the eyebrow/lip/whatever without damaging the rest of the faceup.

 

I have interest in just extending the lip line, is it possible to blush over gloss?

 

i've tried that before, and anytime you put msc over gloss, it ends up weird and discolored, and then reglossing on top just makes it look even stranger. i guess it might depend on the type of gloss youre using, though.

 

I was going to use golden gloss medium... The top lip on this faceup is so thin but everything else about it is wonderful ;_; Frustration.

 

you could try removing the gloss first, blushing a little, and then reseal with gloss over it.. but theres no guarantee it wouldnt remove the color right along with the gloss

 

Another thing you can do would be to extend the lip just a bit, then brush MSC over the newly-blushed part so that you're not getting msc on the original blush/gloss. Then gloss over that.

 

How do I brush MSC, spray it on the brush? And how do I avoid smearing the pastel?