This is one of my personal faceups on a Kana Doll Lucien Nr. 08 head originally in white skin, but matched to Soom'S cream white. I modded his human ears to curled elvish ones as he's a unicorn (his horn is magnetic and stays along the wig.

He's the thief that stole my Soom Heliot's hoofed body, but that's okay, he looks very sweet on it!

Enjoy this quick video of his shimmery faceup

I added a ton of gold shimmer to his ears, eyes, and lips. The earrings are only glued on as I don't like piercing my own dolls' ears (despite having modded them already).

What a sweet unicorn boy, all decked out for traveling!

Want to see more of my work or commission me? Then please check out my website at www[dot]IzasFaceUps[dot]com!

I've been waiting for better lighting but it's cloudy so there is no good natural light right now.

It's ok. I'm not happy with the lower lashes, but that's ok, too. I don't think I will be happy with anything I do ever.

I don't dislike this.

Progression:

Do like shorter lower lashes on her because longer lower lashes exaggerate her droopy eye shape, but my hands didn't want to.

Now I sit with this faceup for a little while to decide whether I want to go to the effort of installing lashes or want to redo it.

I may be a wiz with eye putty, but eye lashes are the bane of my existence.

I know no one will believe me because of the nature of this blog (admin probably won't post this off anon even if I ask, which is fine, I get why) but while at first I wasn't interested in DXg1rly sculpts in much the way a lot of anons here describe (though I know better than to be a dick over subjective distaste), recently I joined the BJD Discord and seeing their dolls all made up with professional faceups and actual clothes makes them look a lot more appealing (in fairness, maybe they get posted on their Insta too, but given I didn't think I'd like the sculpts, I never followed). They aren't so amazing I'd drop everything to get one, but I like seeing them go by in the chat and such. And if I had the funds to buy every doll I think looks cute (unfortunately, I have to stick to dolls I have characters to shell into), I'd definitely have one or two. Honestly, I think a lot of people are in my position where they can't drop several hundred on any doll, and I think if the economy was in a better place and there wasn't an over abundance of options in the hobby now (I hear about a new artist doll every other day it seems. All of them are so damn cute, but. My wallet 😭) they'd be getting a lot more sales. And seeing them finished and dressed up makes a huge difference, that goes for any doll honestly. While it's fun to watch the process, the process includes blank bald nude dolls and a LOT of artist dolls don't look amazing in that stage. So finding owner pics who put a lot into them is key.

~Anonymous

Abigail, my only ever second MNF that I've ever owned. I love how cute she is, truly. I still miss Elyra, my past owned MNF Ryeon.

The what is what:

Sculpt: Fairyland MNF Alicia on the A-Line body in natural skin

Wig: Dollzone 7-8

Dress: From frezje on Etsy

Shoes: Monique

Eyes: SoulinaBox

Hair Accessories: Me

Faceup: Me over at @izasfaceups

˚✧₊⁎Eshdevi⁺˳✧༚

Class: Elemental power

Governance: Light

Nature: Exceptionally curious, often impatient, no sense of privacy.

Eshdevi is a 65cm RuggedRealism Geneo from the Rites of Passage series in Java resin.

Eyes, wig, faceup, and sparkle harness by me. :)

The Vanora head i ordered shipped today!! I wasn't expecting her to ship until near the end of next month based on the time frames people were listing in the Dream Valley waiting room!

Since it's just a head, the order didn't qualify for free express shipping, so I chose air mail, which can take a while, so she might not get here until the end of next month anyway. But still!! She'll be here soonish!

Which is probably a good thing given the recent recasting shit with the star line for Impldoll :( i hope they won't discontinue the line, and that they'll still go ahead with the new muscle body, but if she's here sooner, then i can get a better idea of if the head will work and look into ordering a body. The star bodies are so pretty, and even the basic and model ones are toned, so even if they don't post more about the muscle girl soon (impldoll please! you said it'd be coming soon in January! T_T i need info!!) one of them would work nicely for her I think. Probably the basic one because she's shorter and has a more natural shoulder line.

Then I can worry about figuring out a doll for Faolan too. I'm still debating between a soom head and one from switch. And asking Resinsoul if they can make a custom Cen body that's a smidgen taller, so he can be taller than Vanora (listen, he's two inches taller than her and he fought for those two inches xD He deserves to have that height difference saved in doll form too, ok)

I guess i need to really work more on that faceup mockup in csp now though!

Cordelia faceup take 3 :3

So the second attempt did not even MAKE it online because I wasn't happy with it. The sealant and paint just were not cooperating with me and the pastels were too pigmented. On a whim I wanted to work on it this morning and mixed up a really good pastel color for her blushing, which then inspired me to wipe the old faceup and start fresh :)

^ the boring steps of well. White as fuck -> painted the right color to match the body. This image is showing how it's slightly off from the head cap (which I painted during the initial faceup) but it DOES match the body really well.

My first step with the faceup was starting by using a pale watercolor (peach color pretty much) to map out the moles on the face, and then another sealant layer before I started blushing. The peach watercolor isn't the permanent color for the moles but it helps me map things out (same thing I do with the eyebrows, starting with a lighter color and then building up the color/adding watercolor pencil hairstrokes on top. Or at least I should because some dolls have such thin eyebrows that I have to do only acrylic. But that's besides the point)

^ much more subtle blush color than I can normally achieve with her :) normally it's MUCH too dark but I feel this really subtly brought some life to her face and some warmth (which I always love to add to my dolls with yellowed resin as I prefer leaning into how it looks instead of trying to use cooler colors to counter balance it)

^ added more blushing here, and added the eyebrow vague shapes and slightly more color added onto the moles to help them not blend into the blush as much lol. I wanted her to have a youthful and happy appearance so the flush is helping to me :). The brows were VERY faintly done (to the point idk if they will survive the sealant lmao) and the moles were touched up slightly, as well as the color on the lips more built up. I promise the brows will get darker it's just scary right now bc of how pale the resin is, if I make ANY mistakes it will show up unless I use a super light pastel. And if I have to redo the faceup well. I'll have to repaint the entire head all over again. So I'd rather build up slow and careful than too fast and make a mistake (although I'm sure I'll make plenty of those the further I get lol, esp since I'm doing a lot of this on nearly 24 hours awake <- not a good time to rely on my hands to be steady sadly)

I went a bit silly watercolor mode but I added some pink to the lips (to mix with the more orange-peach pastel color underneath) and added some medium brown on the moles to do their final highlights. Continued to work on the brows and next layer will be the pencils on them, pencils on lips (since the color underneath is pretty much perfect for what I'm going for). And then the eyeshadow time <- dreading this

^ sideways image bc I stay silly okay. And also far too sleepy to edit it. I've committed to doing this all in one go at this point (at the very least to get to a passable basic faceup). This is not a good idea. Just to be clear. I'm very sleepy.

^ eyebrows and lips done :) also did the waterline, I'm really happy with this. Atm unsure if I want to do a ton of pink eyeshadow or what but I think I will add the freckles next and then try everything on the doll to see if I need it. It was one of the features I rly liked about the original faceup so. Honestly unsure. Do firmly think the lips look a lot better here because well. The first attempts lips were supposed to be pretty natural looking and didn't really end up that way. Very happy with brows even if they're not symmetrical because I think for whatever reason everything is clicking on this faceup like by FAR much more than other times. We will see how it progresses tho lol.

With everything put together, it confirms I do def still want to mess with the eyeshadow but due to the physical symptoms I am stopping for the night. Tomorrow tho? Silly style (eyeshadow and eyeliner and probably freckles and gloss on the lips. We will deal w that later tho)

^ eyeshadow layer one and thankfully going at it on a day where I'm much more awake is helpful. I need to keep building it up as both my sealant method + just how pastels work can take some of the color away but I think it's all coming together. Mainly I want to have a darker layer of pink on her eyelids, as I think that'll look nice, and then I have to do the eyeliner <- dreading this step the most of all I fear. At some point I also need to add freckles which I think is also quite scary. For me, I've done a faceup with all over freckles (Theo's) and was happy with it, but I want these just on the cheeks. And I think hand painting them just doesn't look as good as using the brush flicking method. So I have to also figure out a way to cover the areas I don't want freckles on.

Eyeshadow layer 3 or 4??? + freckles. They will not tell you that toothpicks really work well for freckles but they do. I'm going to seal this layer and then keep working on eyeshadow and eyeliner but I'm nearly done :) I might go in after a couple layers of sealant and do the brush method to kind of add the very small freckles in but using a toothpick is a million times easier than a brush (for me at least. But I have very shaky hands so). I added some light pink paint on the eyelids to emulate a slight color change and then did an even lighter color, blending it together with a wet paintbrush. I am hoping to be able to get the eyeliner thinner than the light pink color but we will see :) so far happy with it since I did want a very vibrant pink on the lids :) unsure what ill do with the eyeliner color (I did a copper/gold combo to make it be a bit more natural looking for the first time but i dont think it popped enough so we will see :))

Ended up on deciding on black eyeliner but here's it done :) the watercolors on the lips still need to dry and I need to gloss stuff properly but that will be in its own post once she's all back together :)

some resin comparisons (jan 2023)

here they are! the natural light images are truest to life, though the tans look more different in reality. dika doll tan is a smidge yellower (though that may just be age), and fairyland tan is much redder. I had heard that fairyland and unoa tans were close enough to hybrid easily, but they do seem significantly different in person- it would likely work if a unoa head was given a warm/reddish faceup though. 

the fairyland tan and normal resins, the alchemic labo unoa paradise and fresh resins, and the dollzone yellow resin have been kept almost completely out of the sunlight (until this picture lol). the other two have been in the sun underneath wigs.

these pictures were taken with my phone (an iPhone 12) in front of a window with indirect sunlight

I hope that these can be of use to someone o/

herb bride doll anon but not anon anymore. I didn’t want to drop a nude doll in your askbox and my attempts to make a properly shredded outfit aren’t going well so I had to find something that fit her. But this is my herb bride! I am still learning faceups so I didn’t get the lips (I wanted them more natural) or brows quite right. Anyway uh… here she is

SHE'S SHOOOO CUTE... HER FLUFFY HAIR... i can't imagine how much skill it takes to paint one of these and can only guess such a small canvas demands so much patience and meticulousness so i'm in awe of this little thang... GOOD LUCK IN YOUR FUTURE DOLL ENDEAVORS SOLDIER 🫡🫡

I remade the faceups of my two bjds. The last time I did Serena's faceup, she ended up with these huge cartoonish lips haha. She looked ok in person but was so bad on photos. With her new face she looks more innocent and joyful. I think this is the vibe I wanted for her all this time, she looks really cute.

Daisy's face was chipped on multiple spots and she deserved better. I added sheen to the lips and under-eye to both dolls but on her I, without realising, slipped with the brush and the sheen looks more like tears coming from her eye. I tried to gently wipe it and now the top coat of the faceup is weird :( thankfully it's barely visible.

I also changed their eyes and Daisy looks absolutely adorable with the brown eyes and larger pupils.

In the future I want to make new wigs. Currently they are both wearing plastic wigs I bought. I want something more natural looking for them too. Serena has this wavy blonde wig I made, thinking about something similar.

Upcoming Dolls. I put them in about the order I suspect they'll arrive in too.

Dearmine Vivien L Spring Princess in White 1/4th MSD Anthro Fullset Arrived 15th April 2024

Soul Doll Kid Alaya in Neutral Tan Fullset 1/4th MSD

Soul Doll Sweetest Zoe in Normal Skin Basic Faceup 1/6th YosD

Fairyland Minifee Phoeb in White Fullset Basic 1/4th MSD

Fairyland RealFee Luna Vampire Rabbit in Natural Violet Rabbit Parts Fullset 1/6th MSD

Upcoming/Possible

Smart Doll Legion Semi Real in Cocoa 1/3rd SD

Now this commission on a pink YBee Doll Nora was quite the challenge! First the faceup needed a bit of adjusting because I hadn't interpreted the request right, but it worked out in the end!

The tattoo itself was the most challenging part though. The client wanted gold sakura flowers along the upper chest going down the left arm as a whole sleeve tattoo.

I didn't sketch the blooms before hand because my hands were shaking so much, so I just freehanded them on the body with a long bristled brush as it naturally corrects the tremor in my hands.

Either way, I am pleased with the end result, as was the client!

Want to see more of my work or commission me? Then please check out my website at www[dot]IzasFaceUps[dot]com!

Been so lost in the sauce with writing my fanfic about Riyo and Hiei, that I haven’t been doing much of anything with my dolls, let alone other hobby shit bahaha.

But I did manage to commission Komorebi Dolls for faceups for Sachi and Reigen and got them shipped out today. c:

Reigen will have a pretty basic natural faceup, and I figured I’d stick with the simple smokey-eyed look my DZ Annie version of Sachi had…though, I recently watched Hyuna’s Attitude video, and dammit if the bare make-up look she has with the black hair didn’t do something for me lmao.

Hello, folks of the TBC, this is your Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™️ again. I think this may be one of those rarer cases where I am not going to talk about recasts. But I hope this is still of some interest to you. As we usually say, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and that’s definitely the case with high-ticket purchases, I think.

A while ago, a series of conversations we’ve had concerned PVC vs resin as doll material. I mentioned that the reason why PVC is not usually used as the base material for internally strung dolls has something to do with the inherent properties of the material.

In that conversation, I mentioned that PVC has been used as the basis of certain blind box dolls as well as a company known as ÜƑDoll. At that moment, I mentioned that since both companies are rather new, I do not know enough about these dolls to speak on them. But now, I have a little bit more information. And perhaps you’ll find them as fascinating as I do.

A Chinese doll collector bought one of ÜƑDoll’s larger, PVC, strung dolls. It arrived late last year. This person shared some photos of their unboxing and they were quite unhappy. The material tends to stain, so the person showed photos of staining of their brand-new doll. They mentioned that there were black dots and spots all over the body, including 3 just on the head itself. Unfortunately, there were no photos for this part. They also mentioned that the material is also prone to cracking (which is something we also speculated earlier). The doll’s feet were filled with tiny cracks that had turned black. The PVC is a softer material, so they reported a series of scratch marks found on their doll, some deep enough to be felt by light touch. The mold injection process, if not handled well, will lead to streaking in the doll surface (see on the calf photo). And finally, the joints can be warped due to the tension in the strings. This can be seen on the last photo in the thigh joints. [Mod: photo links didn't work, alas, maybe you need to be logged in to see, I just get a logo]

What was also not shown was the nature of easy staining makes faceups quite difficult. The owner mentioned that many faceup artists refuse to work with PVC heads because it was very difficult to erase previous faceups without staining (and one risks warping the material of the head with alcohol or other solvents).

I have a feeling that these issues are due to the PVC material in specific. It means that the larger the strung doll, the more prominent these issues are going to be (this owner bought a 1/3 doll). The smaller blind box dolls do not seem to have as many issues – or these issues have not been found yet. Some of the commentators conceded that PVC is a much cheaper material which contributed to the lower price point for these dolls, but there are real drawbacks to using PVC. If this is something you cannot accept, then a PVC strung doll is definitely not for you. I hope this follow up was of some use to you, my fellow TBC members. Happy collecting!

~Anonymous

I'm not sure this is his forever faceup, but I've painted my Qian so he can hang out with the other big boys. (bad photos because it's winter and natural light no longer exists, but I'm too impatient to wait until tomorrow)

Next step will be clothes for him (manageable) and his bird mask (design choice I'm regretting)

Dollmakers around the world: Anna Queen

Anna Queen is an artist from Taiwan with years of experience in BJD making.

(Pictures taken from her instagram page, bjd head is her Blreno head sculpt in natural skin, available at her shop)

She started her endeavour in dollmaking in 2007, when she decided to make her own BJD as the ones being sold in the market were too expensive for her back then. This resulted in her first doll, that despite being brittle, made her love the proccess and pushed her towards improving her skills. Not only does she sculpt the dolls, she does the faceup and makes the eyes as well, making her a very versatile artist.

(In this image, the doll on the right is her first doll ever made, and the ones on the left are her first casted resin dolls)

Her sculpts range from bigger 1/3 full dolls and heads to smaller ones, and includes humans, animals and fantastical creatures. She shows her proccess and the result in several social media platforms, from designing and sculpting to customization, and some showcase of her art dolls.

Price: Low-Medium (depending on the item)

Her accessories (animal ears, bag heads) range around 16,35€

Her handmade eyes hit the 29-30€ Price range

Her BJD original heads are about 163,50€ per piece without faceup (she offers a lovely faceup option as well)

Full dolls (such as her dog BJD) and bust reach >600€

Social media:

Pinkoi (Shop)

Instagram (Please check her instagram to know when she opens faceup and body commissions!)

Youtube

Flickr

Facebook

Blog (outdated)