Resin + MSC + Cleaning solutions. Tested methods for face-up removal

I don't bite my nails, but at least half of my lunches involve eating with my hands so gross taste transfer would really suck. I'm checking tracking like every 30 minutes right now as he's been released from Customs and is supposedly on his way to my local post office. Given the time right now, I'm going to assume he'll be delivered tomorrow, which is okay by me. I'm excited to start tackling this project this weekend as we're supposed to have yet more rain *sigh*.

 

I have another question!

So far the paint removal is going quite well with the isopropyl alcohol (99%) and a LOT of elbow grease as well as a final scrub with a magic eraser. I also wash the parts with Dawn dish soap after the alcohol scrubbing and rinse everything again after the magic eraser scrub. I've put in 10.5 hours of scrubbing so far and I'd conservatively say I have about 1/4 of him paint-free. There is some very, very light staining in some areas (you'd need to really be looking for it in an area with strong lighting to see it). That may actually be my fault for not wiping stray drips of alcohol fast enough/changing the pads often enough as I work. I'm okay with that though as it's difficult to notice and looks like a very slightly dingy/dirty spot on his grey resin.

At any rate, I saw a YouTube face-up removal tutorial and the person doing it said that alcohol caused her Iplehouse doll's resin to become brittle after using alcohol several times to wipe his face-ups over several years. Should this worry me any with relation to my guy? My guy is an ImplDoll (so not even the same company but I'm nervous now after seeing that video). I've not noticed any issues yet and I've been working on various bits of him for nearly a week now. I've worked on his head 2 different times as well. I have left some parts to soak in alcohol for about 30 minutes to help loosen the paint and again haven't noticed any issues or suspicious looking after-effects to his resin. Should I continue to use the alcohol or just switch wholly to Windsor & Newton?

The person from YouTube also said she soaks cotton balls in W&N and lets those sit on the eyes and mouth for about 5 minutes to help loosen the paint in the eye corners and lip crease that just don't seem to want to GTFO. She also mentioned letting a head sit in W&N for 10 minutes to really speed up the cleaning process. I thought letting W&N sit on resin for any amount of appreciable time was straight up bad ju-ju and not something you should ever do. Was I wrong? Are short periods (5-10 minutes) of soaking okay? I think I'd still be too nervous to do that, but I want as much info as I can get on this.

I will be purchasing some W&N after work today because there are areas of his face that just refuse to come clean with the alcohol alone despite my best efforts (he's got a ton of nooks and crannies in his sculpt that aren't limited to his face) so I need to up the ante. I won't be the one to do his face-up (I completely lack the skills for that) but I want to send his head off as clean as I can make it. I'll also want his body as free from paint as I can make it, obviously. If I still can't get all the paint off from the problem areas of his horn/bone projections, I may metal leaf them and a clean base there is highly desired but I can also work with some spots of paint because I'd likely use a multi-toned copper leaf I have to hide the imperfections (paint under metal leaf will affect the finished colour). I'm a little too nervous to use acetone so W&N is the strongest I'll go.

 

@Iron_Dog I've never personally seen the 'alcohol makes resin brittle' warning in action, but I have noticed that the texture is sometimes different after. I'll usually let a piece sit for another day or so after I've soaked in alcohol, and it seems to dry out to normal.

Winsor and Newton brush cleaner is my back-up for when alcohol alone won't cut it. And if I don't have the energy to sit there long enough to use alcohol, I will often just bust out the W&N right away.
What I will usually do is, get a q-tip wet with it, dab a little on and spread it all over the head, then let it sit for a 2-3 minutes, then try to wipe/scrub it up with cotton balls. I wouldn't let it soak in the stuff though. Just the dab/spread, then scrub a little, is usually enough, even for tougher faceups.

 

Cool. Thank you for helping to ease my mind on that. I may see how quick the W&N does compared to the alcohol on the next piece. If it's a lot faster, I might go guns blazing on that and save my poor wrist some pain (arthritis and intense scrubbing are not a good idea together). So far, I clean 1 piece completely in one sitting (the head excepted because of the nooks and crannies). The head was 2 full days apart between cleanings.

Bear in mind that I'm also not doing a face-up removal but full body, black acrylic spray paint removal. There's also some pastels, aqua pencils and gouache paint (and sealant). I'll definitely be giving the dab/spread/wait/scrub method a try.

 

I´ve tried nail polish remover with acetone (no colors additive, or oil treats) but it created funny coloring of my doll. It didn´t dissapeared even after normal acetone remover. It´s not so visible, but I wish I knew some things earlier. Guess I can only learn from my mistakes...

 

Hello, I want to ask a question about cleaning the stain. Is the multi purpose cleaner ok to use? It's a cream that can remove stain from leather,cloth or even an electronic appliance. It did consist of petroleum jelly which considered as an oil? I know it doesn't safe for resin but if I just use only tiny amount of it and remove it immediately, is it ok to use it?
Normally, I use magic sponge but I belive it thin the resin. One time I used it as a sponge to clean a plastic case,it thinned the shiny layer down and scared the hell out of me.I didn't trust my hand enough to use magic sponge anymore.

 

Hey, I'm trying to look for the contents of W&N but I can't seem to find it. I was hoping to compare it to a make up brush cleaner that I found earlier. Acquiring W&N brush cleaner for me is close to impossible and it's kinda pricey, so I wonder if has anyone here tried using "make up brush cleaner" in removing face-up?

 

I’m not very knowledgeable on face-up equipment, but I am knowledgeable about make-up. It’s not similar with the recommended face-up materials, and it won’t cut through any sealant that’s been used. Best case scenario it won’t do anything, but worst case it could have an adverse effect on resin (depending on the brand and ingredients of the make-up brush cleaner).

As far as cheap alternatives go, though, I’ve gotten by using a little bit of isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs/q-tips, and a little bit of gentle elbow grease to remove any face-ups. Always test it on resin before going right for the face, I recommend the head-cap.

 

W&N is designed to remove (especially dried) acrylic and oil paints, not makeup, so it's very unlikely there would be any similarity between W&N and anything designed for makeup. I'll second what @Neela suggested with using Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol), with the addition to get at least 90% concentration (regular "first aid" rubbing alcohol is usually about 70%, but you can generally find 90%+ near it for a little higher cost). Even though I can get W&N, isopropyl alcohol is much less expensive and works very well with minimal extra effort, so I always start out with it and move up to stronger methods only if necessary.

 

Thank you for the info!

 

Is 100% pure acetone safe for tan skin? I used it on my cocoa Momoni to remove the body blushing her previous owner sent her with, and there seems to be a bit of a white film (not extreme). I was careful to wash off the acetone periodically with soap and water. I dried her with a cloth when done, then sat her on a shelf to dry properly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

@priscigee007

Some people swear against pure acetone, but others swear it's the best.

Generally, a white film sounds like leftover sealant that hasn't fully come off yet, though I have not used pure acetone before (I generally stick to isopropyl alcohol and Winsor & Newton brush cleaner), so I can't speak from experience. I'd just try giving it another round of cleaning to see if it comes off more then. And you can always post a photo as well, which might give people a better idea.

 

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I took a photo and edited it so the said white film can be more obvious. I’m a bit worried Let me know what you all think!

Btw. Sorry, I don’t know how to directly upload a picture on to here.

Check it out!

 

It's unfortunately a little blurry, and not well-lit enough for me to give you a 100% positive answer. I'm leaning towards it still being sealant though, because it is lingering in the more shallow areas. (Like the dip on both sides of her tummy and hips)
If you used one large cloth to wipe over the whole piece, it would have been in more contact with the more raised areas (the top of the tummy and the more raised part of the hip). Also it looks like there's some in the belly button too, which backs that up. So you may need to use some smaller cotton balls or pads, and cotton swabs or toothpicks wrapped with cotton to get into the smaller areas and crevasses a little better.

 

Thanks for your response! I did, in fact use cotton swabs.:/ I went over it numerous amounts of times, and I feel like it’s still there. I’m going to try again later, hopefully this time it’ll break through. Do I need to scrub hard?

Thanks for your response! I did, in fact use cotton swabs.:/ I went over it numerous amounts of times, and I feel like it’s still there. I’m going to try again later, hopefully this time it’ll break through. Do I need to scrub hard?

 

You might need to; I'm not sure how acetone responds. When I try to clean my dolls with alcohol only I see the residue from time to time, which I can kind of skritch off with my fingernails. And then I know I need to give it another go. When I use Winsor and Newton brush cleaner it kind of liquefies the sealant faster I think, so I don't really see residue with that.
I'm really only familiar with those two solutions.

You can always try just another round of wiping with acetone then washing, and if it still doesn't clear up after that, try scrubbing harder.

Of course, it could always just be marbled resin coloring, as well, though I think Momonita dolls don't usually have those kinds of issues.

 

Should I possibly try Windsor? Or will that somehow have a negative effect since I already used acetone?

 

If the acetone has been washed off with soap already, and the doll is dry, using a different solvent shouldn't cause any problems. The only concern might be an unknown reaction on the resin due to mixing multiple liquid solvents (which again, if the acetone has been cleaned off shouldn't be a problem).

 

Have you used alcohol on dark resin before? I think I may try that, since I have some on hand.

 

I have used alcohol on a few 'tan' resins, I haven't had any real issues with that.

 

Well, she still has somewhat of a white “film”, but it’s more comparable to grain... like when you take a photo on low light and there’s a bit of “noise” on the darker areas. This is the best way I know how to explain it. . It’s pretty even though. I’m starting to wonder if this is just the way her resin is, and I’m overthinking it... especially since i was used to seeing her blushed and the msc gave her a somewhat darker/ shinier look.

 

Yes, that is always possible!

 

I used 100 % Pure Acetone to clean my Mirodoll Dark Chocolate skin colour Lightning, she is a tad bit grey. To clarify it is like a white residue is on her, around the edges but a face up can cover it pretty well.

 

@Deifilia

As a general matter, white residue is most often leftover sealant that just needs to be cleaned more.

However, I have heard some horror stories of Mirodoll messing up with their resin somehow, so it might not always just be residue, at least as far as Mirodoll goes.

 

I have scrubbed and scrubbed as far as scrubbing goes, it might be something definitely something weird with the resin! I hope the next time I go to wipe my doll's faceup off it is just residue >_<. But, thank you for this tip. I will definitely remember this!

 

One of the most effective tool i find to remove make-up was an electric toothbrush.
I buyed the cheapest of the supermarket and makes a wonderful job with the thinner, specially in some difficult places like lips or ears.

 

My secondhand Fairyland faceplate came with a heavy face up. It wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t the character I had in mind. I’ve removed Fairyland paint on other heads with no problem, but this one was stubborn. However, I read the advice here and used first alcohol, rinsed then used acetone. I was about to give up in despair, but early on someone posted this helpful sentence: it takes a really long time. Also, use toothpicks.
So I kept at it and eventually all the paint came off. Except that now the face has an ugly shiny texture. What happened? Will MSC adhere to it and make it a nice surface again? Does it mean there is still some residue left? Or did I ruin it?