Liquitex matte varnish in a can removal?

Did you try acetone (or at least nail polish remover with acetone in it)? I use liquitex brush-on matte varnish and acetone wiped it right off.

 

So you have access to MSC but switched to Liquitex spray by choice? Can I ask why? There's a reason MSC is the preferred choice for dolls. One of them is that it comes off easily when you want it to.

You might try Winsor & Newton liquid brush cleaner. That's what I use to remove faceups, and it's pretty intense stuff but not as intense as acetone. It's designed to get dried up acrylic paint out of brushes, so it should do something to an acrylic varnish.

 

Note about Windsor & Newton brush cleaner in Europe - you will want the W&N brush cleaner and restorer, but it's hardly available around here, it seems. The one that is *just* a brush cleaner does nada. Sometimes the faceup needs to soak in the solvent for a bit to come off so it's not all doom and gloom if it doesn't wipe immediately but at least softens up.

 

Just to check, you said you chose Liquitex and it's in a can? I have not seen people using that one. The Liquitex Matte Varnish I know of that people including myself use on these dolls comes in a plastic bottle and can be watered down to use in a paint spray gun or put on with either a nail art sponge or a brush. I have not heard of anyone using the spray version however. If you intend to use it in future I would suggest looking for the one that comes in a plastic bottle with an orange label. It's very cheap, seals well and wipes off easily with either 99% iso alcohol and a bit of hard scrubbing with some magic eraser or the windso and newton brush cleaner and restorer.

I hope you are able to get this off, I'm not sure what else to suggest though since I have never seen or heard of this issue before. If you haven't tried it yet, instead of just using cotton pads, get some Magic Eraser and scrub with the cleaner AND that. It's slightly abrasive so helps to clear off the stubborn sealant so it might help. I'm really sorry you are going through this, I wish you luck with head and the removal of this stuff!

 

Please don't soak it in solvents! Acetone and isopropyl alcohol are resin solvents, they'll soften and weaken the resin and then the parts become super easy to permanently scratch. Also, thin resin parts become more prone to pitting and chipping if you soak resin parts in any of the mentioned solvents.

 

I'm glad you eventually managed to get it off. I'm sure it was a very stressful experience. Hopefully this information can be archived so that others don't have to go through it.
The liquitex spray varnish is absolutely intended as a permanent final layer on fine art. It's always hard to say how such things would fare for Faceup until they had been thoroughly tested.

 

It's a very honest mistake, I haven't seen anyone use the spray but would have also assumed it's similar to the bottled version. Both bottled varnish and spray have permanent in the product description, too. I'm sorry it was such a hassle but I'm glad you got it off and have another sealant to go forward with

 

Aerosol sealants are just inherently different in every case. Even if it looks like it's the same because it's one brand. Aerosol have different ingredients by nature than a liquid formula. Liquid varnish is of course also supposed to be permanent for artwork, but because of these differences in ingredients is the big reason you really don't know until it's been tested safe or not, both types of products.

 

I made the same mistake too, only I didn't spray one doll with it but multiple it seemed so promising at first, the texture felt nice to touch and took pastels in very nicely, watercolor pencils didn't work on it but I was able to get what I wanted some with a fine brush and acrylic paint. Then I moved onto the second doll, changed my mind about what I wanted to do with her face and decided to swipe it all off, only to realize that while the pastels and paint came out easily with the acetone free nail polish remover I've been using the varnish did not. I don't remember how many days I spend scrubbing that head to get it all off but it was hours of work and I used the mentioned nail polish remover, magic eraser and a lot of elbow grease every now and then washing it with dishwashing liquid and lots of water.

Then I realized that I had sprayed the same shit on multiple dolls and went to remove it from them too. While at it I noticed that it comes off pretty easily from the Chinese dolls I have (Myou, Doll Family-H and Asleep Eidolon ones in this case, they have this sort of shiny smooth resin) but Korean dolls won't let it go without a serious fight (Luts and Demit doll in this case, they're more matte feeling/looking material) I think the resins they use are different and for some reason it sticks to Korean resin more deeply. So I'd say that it might be alright to use on some dolls with the shiny type of resin but others will give you hell when you try to remove it.

My reason for buying and using it was simply that it was easily available and everyone always says good things about Liquitex matt varnish, how different could the spray version possibly be? I used munitorum varnish before but they've changed it to be more satin and it's too shiny for me now so I've been looking for a replacement and thought that this was finally it but alas... *sigh*

 

Here's the official Liquitex product page, it also contains a do- and don't-list.
Matte Varnish Spray

To be honest, I used Liquitex Matte Medium as a brush on alternative once, because many hobbyist vouched for its quality as a MSC alternative, but to the same effect as @CleaningSnake. The cleaning process took more than one hour for one doll head, and while I did not soak the head in isopropyl or acetone, the solvents definitely had a negative effect on the resin (although I frequently stopped to wash the head with water and non-oily dish washing liquid). In my case, it seemed to have removed a thin layer of resin that had been covering an air bubble. After the cleaning was done, I was left with visible surfaces scratches (I was only using cotton pads and Q-Tips) and a tiny 'pothole' where the resin was removed.

Edit: Isopropyl Was absolutely useless when I tried to clean off the the layers of Liquitex Matte Medium. It wasn't able to remove anything, but only transformed it into a sticky, gummy mess.

 

Acetone is the best remover. You just have to respect its power.

My friend will wipe it with a papertowel dipped in acetone and then rinse it off in a running sink. She repeats as much as needed and she hasnt ruin any resin. She also soaks it in a baking soda bath after to help neutralize all the chemicals and give the resin one last time to remove any deep dirt.

Its a long tediously boring process to watch.