Face up practice

What materials are you using for your faceups? And what size brushes? You've got some nice fine lines on the lips-I would try to fill in the brows with fine lines like those, it will make them look more realistic. Usually it's better to use the thinnest paint you can make and make several coats than do thicker lines. I really like your colors though, and the ears on the first doll are very cool-did you do that mod?

 

If I were you, I would use a base color of pastel (maybe a lighter purple or grey) to get the basic shape of the eyebrows-not lines, just the shadow shape of how you want them to look. To help make them look even, go take your head and look at it in a mirror-that helps you see the true symmetry. You can use a kneaded eraser or wet ear bud to shape or erase them. Then, when you've got the eyebrow shapes the way you want (not too dark, just dark enough that you can see the shape), I would go ahead and spray fixative on the head so they'll stay. Then I would take either a watercolor pencil sharpened very sharp, or some watercolor or very dilute acrylic paint and a makeup eyeliner brush (a very long, skinny brush) and do your lines. A flat brush is not the right tool for this. It's a good idea to load the liner brush, then put some lines on some paper till it's the darkness you want. Then do your lines. Since you've fixed the pastel layer, if you don't like what you've done, you can take water and wipe the lines off and practice as many times as you like (acrylic is a little harder to get off). You can do the same thing with the lips-put your basic pastel color down, spray it with fixative, then practice lines till you get things the way you want. Seriously, I can't recommend the eyeliner brushes enough. I've been struggling with eyebrows for years, thinking that shorter bristles were better. They're not. And eyeliner brushes are really cheap.

 

I think all the advice you've already received is great, but to add on as another option for brow lines, I personally like to use gouache.

 

Seconding gouache paint for fine lines - it flows more nicely, I think, but also it's easier to erase with a bit of water if you goof up. If you have shaky hands like me, it's a godsend!

Also, don't dampen your brush to apply pastels. The colour will look much smoother and nicer if you just kind of dab it on dry! You'll need a couple of coats of sealant on the face to make the pastels grip it, but you should be doing that first anyway to make sure your colours don't stain. Keep at it!

 

I have a little bit of trouble understanding you, but if I understand corectly, you used the damp brush instead of a dry one to get a more saturated colour out of the pastels?
If so, the answer is to either use a more pigmented pastel, or to do more layers, or both. A saturated colour takes time to build up and you can only add so much pastel at a time before the layer is saturated and it starts to go on unevenly. Using pastels dry is the standard method when doing face ups, but a wet brush can be used for special techniques, such as linework where you want a very faint, semi-translucent line.
Work slowly and any time you get stray pastel somewhere you don't want it, make sure to remove it right away. A kneadable eraser is great for this as you can shape it into a fine point and just "pick up" the stray pastel. This will give you better control of where the pastels go and helps keeping the face up clean and neat.
Another thing to pay attention to is how the sealent goes on. If it's the wrong kind or if it's applied under the wrong conditions or in the wrong way, this can give a surface that picks up pastel powder unevenly.
If you want an opaque layer, acrylic or gouache is a much better medium than pastels.

 

No worries, English is not my native laguage and I'm sure I make grammar (and spelling) mistakes all the time.
Glad I could be of help. Best of luck with your future face ups!

 

"diluted water"? I don't understand. Do you mean water colours? You absolutely can use water colours for lips. Just be careful about the amount of water you use, since it can bead up if it's too wet.
For lipstick levels of fully painted lips I usually use acrylic paint. I like Citadel paints for this, since they are usually thin enough to be used without diluting and they are very pigmented.
You can use multiple layers of pastel to build up a solid colour as well, but it will give a softer look and won't have the sharp edges that you'd expect from a lipstick.

 

As long as the doll is properly sealed there shouldn't be a problem. My two oldest dolls have dark painted lips, done with Citadel paints (it's an arylic paint made for War Hammer miniatures) and they have never been stained by it. I hade redone their face ups a couple of times over the years as my skills have improved, so I would have noticed if there was any sort of staining.
The only times I've heard of dolls being stained by dark colours is when the sealent have been the wrong kind or improperly applied or when the wrong type of paints have been used.