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Modification Modifying existing faceup?

Dec 25, 2023

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    1. Hi y’all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

      I was super lucky to get the beautiful Guo Jia for Christmas from my parents, and I adore him! He came with his faceup because that’s apparently all Ringdoll had in stock at the time. I honestly love his faceup more than I originally expected, but to make him into the character I’m imagining, I need to nearly completely or completely remove his eyebrows to make them smaller, as well as adding scars. Does anyone have advice on modifying faceups without removing them entirely? I was thinking about going in with alcohol like I would for a typical full removal to only remove the eyebrows and then smoothing the transition between removed eyebrows and sealant with a magic eraser, but I don’t know if that would work.

      I also wouldn’t mind tips on applying eyelashes- he came with some beautiful lashes already applied and I’d love to add some lashes onto my dolls that don’t have them, but it was so difficult when I last tried.
       
      #1 Alex Secord Designs, Dec 25, 2023
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    2. Adding on top is quite easy - just seal again, paint the scars and seal/gloss (remove the upper lashes before you do all that).

      Whenever you remove parts of the faceup, you will probably also remove some blushing which can be difficult to make look seamless again, though. Brows are on quite a prominent part of the face as well so you might end up with something that looks like weird tan lines :sweat. You can try! But you should certainly be ready to have to wipe and redo the whole face quite possibly.

      As for lashes, there should be quite a few tutorials in the workshop part of the forum :)
       
      #2 cobaltconduct, Dec 25, 2023
      Last edited: Dec 25, 2023
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    3. Congrats on your Guo Jia! He's gorgeous. I agree with cobaltconduct. Also, if you remove the eyebrows only, depending on the sealant Ringdoll uses, it can leave white stains/lines in the borarder where you removed the faceup.

      If you still want to try this, remove the eyelashes as they'll get white and thick when you stray the sealant and won't look good.
      Good luck!
       
      #3 Thanato-Cat, Dec 25, 2023
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    4. Thank you for the advice! This is super helpful. I’ll try it out and see what happens, being super careful. If worst comes to worst I’ll redo it entirely, but I won’t feel as bad since apparently Ringdoll upgraded my mom to the faceup for free since they didn’t have the blank doll in stock, so no money lost.
       
      #4 Alex Secord Designs, Dec 25, 2023
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    5. To add what the other two already said, I just want to say flat out: don't even bother. The amount of time and care you need to put into removing something from a face-up to make it look somewhat good greatly extends the amount of time it would probably need to just start fresh. And in case of eyebrows, it is near impossible to do so nicely because of all the extra blushing surrounding the eyebrows in the overall eye area.
      You can sand the eyebrows off for example, but the sealant layer will be visibly lower and you will most likely damage the blushing as well. You cannot use alcohol for this because it's a liquid, and it will cause for things to smear/you cannot use it in a controlled way that is needed for a spot removal of a specific area.

      What will most likely happen is that you try to remove the eyebrows, with or without alcohol, then somehow try to cobble some back on again and greatly dislike the look :sweat It will always be visible that you did such a removal beforehand.
      So yes, just wipe the head completely and start fresh. That way you can do things correctly from the start and also layer them better (scars tend look better when added to a blank slate and worked into the base blushing vs on top of existing blushing).
       
      #5 Ara, Dec 25, 2023
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    6. That’s a good point. I may entirely remove the faceup as you recommend, then. I think I may test to see if I can remove the eyebrows successfully, but operate under the assumption that I’ll likely have to fully remove the faceup. It’s unfortunate since the faceup is really pretty and I do like it quite a bit, but the character I’m going for has very small eyebrows, as well as white hair. Rip Guo Jia face!
       
      #6 Alex Secord Designs, Dec 25, 2023
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    7. If you do attempt to remove some/all of the eyebrows, I'd suggest using a magic eraser with a little water (or dry) and take it slow. Definitely don't use alcohol or any other solvent. If you're able to remove the eyebrows without damaging the blushing around the eyes, then you can just mask the remaining faceup with paper towels when you reseal and blush what you removed. Otherwise, remove the eyelashes (use a damp q-tip to loosen the glue), so you can seal the eye area too.

      For applying lashes, here's a tutorial I made years ago. Hopefully it helps. :)
      The Forgotten Kingdom: Tutorial - How to Apply Eyelashes
       
      #7 LupusDarkmoon, Dec 25, 2023
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    8. Magic eraser seems like the best bet! I’ll see what happens. I’m definitely planning on masking off the eyes and mouth while I do the scars and eyebrows (as long as the faceup doesn’t need to be fully removed) to preserve the eyelashes and the gloss.

      Would you say it’s alright to use black/brown eyelashes on dolls with light colored hair? Because I have extra dark lashes and wouldn’t mind trying to use them on my dolls with blond and white hair.
       
      #8 Alex Secord Designs, Dec 25, 2023
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    9. Best of luck! I hope it works!

      I think black/brown lashes are fine on lighter haired dolls. Plenty of people with light hair have naturally dark lashes. It also depends on the look you're going for, too, ofc.
       
      #9 LupusDarkmoon, Dec 25, 2023
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    10. The use of the magic eraser was surprisingly successful! I'll include some before and after photos. I didn't want to fully remove the eyebrows since I think that's a little jarring, but make them significantly shorter. I may go in and shorten them some more, but as of now I'm happy with the length they're at. I plan on painting over some of the strands with white to match his hair and make them a little lighter too, but I won't be making significant changes to them past that, nor fully removing them. It took several hours, but I didn't exactly have anything better to do since all of my faceup and sewing supplies are at my college residence, while I'm at the family home for the holidays. Will probably try to make the ~40 minute trip to my college residence for a couple days next week to do a little more work on the faceup, and maybe start on his clothes.

      [​IMG]
      [​IMG]
       
      #10 Alex Secord Designs, Dec 26, 2023
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