"best" and "worst" resin qualities by company?

I like heavy resin with some tooth. I really dislike resin that is naturally shiny, light, and looks like plastic. When I'm working on my dolls, especially blushing and faceup, heavy and toothy plus the sealant's tooth make me think it holds the pigments better and looks more like real skin.

 

I agree, I hate seeing pictures and the resin looks super shiny and fake looking or plasticy. Like if it's made of plastic that's one thing, but when its just a cheap-looking resin it turns me off to the doll.

I've heard that spiritdoll has very heavy resin, which makes me even more excited that it will be my first purchase.
I really still want a withdoll, but the photos of the dolls make their resin look super cheap or light.

A few other companies that seemed to have a more...light resin were doll-leaves and doll-zone, but that might just be pictures.
Just like souldoll and iplehouse look like their resin is super heavy and hearty.

 

I agree, shiny looking resin isn't nice to see on pictures. My Doll Love god enjoy has such a shiny body. I like the resin of Dollmore much more. It wasn't shiny and seems to be heavier.

 

Can anyone explain to me what the environmental resin is, the pros and cons and how do you know what type of resin is used on a doll?

 

you can spray shiny resin with MSC to make it look matte, so it's not that much of a problem - But it did bug me seeing my dollzone girl's head (matte) on a shiny Angel of Dream neck - I hadn't heard about the MSC trick back then (not that I have any!) My Angel of Dream doll was a lovely heavy doll though - really weighty! So shiny-ness isn't an indicator of poor quality resin - it's just how they sand it and finish it.

I'm not sure about environmental resin Robin Fletcher - I'm waiting for a doll in that type now. I think Island doll use it? It is slightly translucent and looks 'waxy' - quite 'real' compared to matte, normal resin - but I really like matte, normal resin, so I'm not sure if I'll like him! Ordered back in February - dollzone changed the resin without telling anyone *sigh* I have heard environmental resin yellows quicker, but that may just be a myth - I will find out the hard way I guess!

 

elve, I can't speak for all environmental resins, but I do know the WithDoll ones have a "sunscreen" mixed in to help prevent yellowing, which is part of why I picked it. Blushed and sealed, it lost a bit of its "waxy" look (though it didn't have much to begin with, thankfully; I've seen some photos of environmental resin dolls that look like they came from a candlemaker!) and matches pretty nicely with my standard resin dolls.

For myself, I've been fairly impressed recently with the weight of Little Monica's dolls (I was a little shocked at her weight when I got her, actually!), and the UV-protection and overall appearance of WithDoll's environmental resins. I don't mind the super-shiny ones, since as I get through my collection, I am blushing everyone fully, which covers that shininess nicely, and a bit lighter doesn't bother me, either. I think I'm just a bit easy-going on resin quality.

 

The resin from my two from DollZone is quite heavy, yet sooth and shiny in places, while the resin from my Dear Mine boy is quite light and toothy. My boyfriend's Luts girl is weight-wise, somewhere in the middle, but her resin has a very light tooth to it.

 

I've owned a lot of environmental resins and personally I LOVE them!

One thing I do want to point out is Environmental vs French resin: They are NOT the same, but because both are somewhat translucent, people get them mixed up. The French does yellow faster. Old Impldoll was French, and the one I had was butter yellow in about a year. Environmental actually yellows slower, barely at all. The ones I've had yellowed slower than my regular resin dolls. French tends to look waxier, where Enviro has more of a realistic "glow to it.

Here's an idea of enviro next to regular. Jayden is a Jie Doll Michel in environmental chocolate resin, Alex is a Custom house Choa head on Bobobie body, both in regular urethane resin. Notice how he has a bit of "glow" to him that she doesn't?

 

I've also got a JieDoll in environmental resin (possibly NY?) as well as a BBD in environmental (peach skin). They do indeed have a glow to them and I know with the lighter colours that I have, when the sun is behind the doll, areas of thinner resin (like fingers) will take on a stronger glow/translucence. I can't speak for yellowing as I've nothing to compare them to and they spend 99% of their time in their boxes (safety/display issues *sigh*) so their amount of possible yellowing is further reduced due to lack of exposure to the most common causes of it.

As far as resin types go, I've currently got 24 dolls from about... 16 different companies. The feel, weight and shininess/matte aspect varies wildly by company. MY RS boys are probably lighter in weight (taking into account relative size as they're tinies and MSD's) than any of them. My Leeke boy is heaviest (again, taking into account his size as he is a 68cm SD) but my OD (produced by Leeke) is not overly hefty for his size. The feel of the resin between my SD Leeke and my MSD OD is also different with the Leeke having more tooth than the OD, but there's also a few years between the two so that could be chalked up to a formula change. My tiny Impldoll is surprisingly heavy for his size and he's likely the heaviest of my tinies even including the tinies that are bigger than him. My AoD's are very sturdy feeling but not actually massively heavy dolls. My Doll-Love has a nice bit of tooth but I'm not sure if that's because he's been dyed or if he came that way.

 

Thanks for this thread, it is very useful , I agree, don't like shiny resin it looks like an abs doll.

 

i also dislike shiny resin. doll family - h has really shiny resin for their normal skin.
i want to try out a jie doll now because i keep hearing good things about the resin they use!

 

Nothing compares to Volks's resin... it's heavy and luscious and sturdy and luminous, and when it ages, it mellows into a beautiful ivory instead of a harsh yellow. It's also a pleasure to touch-- it's like satin. When I'm restringing or dressing a Volks doll I like to just stroke its limbs.

Iplehouse's resin is lighter-weight, but has always had the most wonderful luminosity & nuance of color, at least in their colored resins (tan/realskin). They've recently changed their formula to regular opaque urethane for supply reasons, which is sad, even if it can't be helped. My last 2 dolls from them had shiny spots on the surface, and a chalkiness to the skintone that never used to be there. I'm glad I bought most of my Iplehouse dolls in the past decade while they were still experimenting towards the perfect skintone (I personally think they reached it in about 2007 with Tan Lion/Aaron's release, and they just kept fine-tuning its beauty up till last year). My tan/realskin guys photograph like live breathing people sometimes, it's awesome.

Dollmore also has nice smooth resin; I've only got one WS doll at home, but I really love their NS resin, which is such a lovely peaches-and-cream color. They also feel incredibly light-weight compared to Volks resin, but then everything feels light-weight compared to Volks.

Soom's resin is also nice, but their quality can be dodgier... I have seen more than a few Soom dolls with marbling on their bodies from poor color-mixing. I lucked out with my own two Soom dolls though. Their Brown-Tan resin is so nice (Chalco 'Forest King'), I wish they could make it more often & more consistent. am guessing they don't do it too often because it's not easy to make well.

 

I really like Fairyland's resin! Although I have nothing to compare it with XD

 

I love my Souldoll Shaun! The resin is very heavy and toothy. My two Withdolls are very light compared to him and especially Kyle, being UV resin, was very shiny before I blushed him. Luckily blushing (or coating, most likely) helped with that and he doesn't stand out that much - at the moment the shiniest is my MNF, she needs new coating... I also like the weight of Luts' resin but it could have been toothier.

 

Speaking from limited experience, as there aren't any meet-ups in my area, I only know the feel of my own dolls. Of my four, my Souldoll Miryu's resin is my favorite so far. Heavy and not shiny. But like everyone said, shiny can be fixed easily. It wouldn't keep me from buying, it just takes the glitter out of that very first company stock photo impression for me. But if I fell in love with a shiny sculpt, I can fix. And as for weight...I guess heavier makes me feel less likely to break it. Like its thick and sturdy. I know it's not really the case...but in my brain it is. Haha! Its all about personal preference.

 

I agree that I less like shiny resin because it looks like common plastic, although the price has a big difference. I have my first doll from DF-H and his body was shiny, so I solved the problem by coating him with MSC UV cut Matt. (even though it was just temporary) So afterward he looked much better. So far, I think IH resin in NS not bad. I personally owned a JID Ryan who is 4.5 years old and still looks great. And I also like DollnDoll's resin in NS. It isn't too yellowish.

 

So far, none of my dolls or heads have shiny resin so I can't say much about that. But I started noticing the thickness of the resin in heads after seeing this thread.
9-10" heads
*Soom ID72 have pretty thick sculls. My guy did a backflip and landed on his head with the weight of his own body but didn't break.
*Iplehouse EID have thick resin also. The cap once leapt out of my hand, flew 3 meters in the air and landed on the other side of the room but didn't break.

8-9" heads (by order of thickness)
*La Légende de Temps has the thickest resin out of my 8-9" noggins. His head is smaller than Dia but he was just REALLY heavy. 120g
*DollClans has pretty thick resin. He has a very small head, 8", but the insides are like, 5mm. 120g
*IOS M - has a good weight despite being on the small scale.
*Soom Dia head - is average, I couldn't see light through it.
*Soom Wolf the Knight (one of their newer sculpts) has the most shockingly thin resin. Just picking his head up, you can tell he has no weight (feels like plastic) and both parts are thin enough to see light shine through them if you hold them up. 100g

bodies
*Soom ID72 and Iplehouse EID are both around the same weight.
*Soom old SuperGem male bodies - is light and kind of thin around the edges - even without holding the body up, you can see the light through the edges of the arms. The design of the body is SD17 so it is skinnier.
*Soom new SuperGem male bodies - is thicker by far and because they buffed them up, are actually heavier.

EDIT: I went nuts and broke out the kitchen scale and weighed my heads.

 

It will be impossible for there to be any consensus on what resins are good or bad because it is largely up to personal taste AND there are so many different factors (texture, color, strength, weight... thickness is more of a sculpting thing, though!). AND, as others have said, the same company can use different types of resin at the same time or over time.

I really don't worry about resin quality too much. I'll just read comments from owners about the dolls and as long as they don't have complaints, I figure it will be just fine.

Shiny can be fixed with MSC.

Thin resin is a problem with the sculpt or casting, not the resin.

If you have a particular dislike or preference, definitely do your homework and check out owner-comments, and ask questions in the size/company threads. It's usually pretty easy to find out if a company uses resin formulas that suit you or not.