Best. Eyes. Ever!

Well, I had wanted a certain pair from Masterpiece and managed to get in a group order for them. The ones I wanted looked beautiful on the website and I always saw great comments about them. However when I got the ones I really wanted, mine were damaged. I emailed them and poked the person who ran the group order but got no help what-so-ever. This was years ago now so there is nothing I can do anymore but after that experience I won't ever buy from them again.

I REALLY want to try gumdrops though. I've admired those eyes for a long time after my experience with Masterpiece.

 

I can't afford to shell out 50 dollars for a pair of eyes, as lovely as the expensive ones are, but I do love Mako eyes and think that they are wonderful for their price. Also, I do buy glass eyes from eBay. You might think that eyes for under ten dollars would be rubbish, but some of my favorite eyes were bought that way.

 

I love glass eyes unfortunately I've yet to find a pair with small irises and low domes instead of the humongous pocking out of the socket that are available. XD
As long as the colors are appealing to me, I don't mind what brand they are but it's hard to put them in any of my dolls because of the huge domes.
So far my favorite pairs of eyes have been custom ones. I got a few from Masterpiece but again, their irises are kind of on the large side; all of my
dolls have smaller, narrower eyes so even if I wanted to like huge irises they don't look good in any of them. My all time favorite so far are the ones
Dreaming Tree Studio custom made for me with digital painted irises by my best friend. I have about 8 pairs of them because I have three version of the
same character and couldn't decide which irises would work best until I got the eyes in their respective heads. They were extremely inexpensive (especially
compared to the custom Masterpiece ones) but they are the eyes that best fit the character they are meant for, something that I haven't been able to replicate
with any of my other dolls. Sadly, DTS doesn't take custom orders for her paperweight style eyes anymore, so I can't have proper eyes for any of my other dolls. ):


There are not a lot of choices for custom eyes (not just the coloring but the size of the iris, height of the dome, height of profile etc. Makes me wish I knew how to make
eyes myself; all of my dolls would have proper eyes instead of just wearing whatever fits inside their sockets. I love standard glass eyes and Eyeco's but it's just not the
same as having custom made ones.


These are the eyes I'm referring to, DTS custom 12mm Sephiroth Mako eyes, 5mm irises; low-dome; low-profile; flatbacks. Another version of the same but with 7mm irises.
And the tiniest version I have of them 6mm with 2mm iries.



- Enzyme

 

Oh! Eyes have to be one of my favourite topcs!

Without doubt my hansdown absolute favourite eyes would have to be Candy Kittens! She has a stunning range of colours available in various different sizes. The clarity coupled with their sparkly beauty gives them a depth you just don't get with glass or acrylic- they really catch the light beautifully

The incredible quality of the products themselves, coupled with the fact that Candy Kitten herself is a joy to work with, gives them a mega thumbs up from me! :fangirl

Here is a picture of Cassia (MNF Celine) happily modelling a pair!





[/URL] Cassia by ash2027, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

I had a pair of Soom silicone eyes, which were... Okay, I suppose? I liked the vibrancy of the colour, but they didn't catch light particularly well. I wasn't all that happy with them. I no longer own the doll or the eyes (I sold them together with the head), but I still have an old photo or two kicking around. This one shows their luminosity fairly well, with a bit of editing help. Since I no longer own the doll, I've posted a link instead of embedding it.

The pair of eyes I have for my girl at the moment are... I don't remember the name of the brand, but I believe the word 'rose' was in it somewhere. I wanted a really muted green without going hazel, and they were the absolute perfect colour. They have a higher dome, but they fit into my girl pretty well, and they reflect so much light they sometimes look luminous without editing. These two photos were corrected for overall colour only, and the eyes were not specifically edited in any way, unlike the photo of the Sooms above. The one on the left was taken with a normal point-and-shoot potato, and the one on the right with a borrowed DSLR.

EDIT: Checked through my old PMs. The glass eyes are Rosecross, which is apparently a Taobao shop. I managed to Google them, so the link to their shop is here. Since it's Taobao, though, unless you live where they ship, or have a friend or relative who can play middle man for you, you'd have to use a shopping service.

 

I don't do "default". I'm also one of those people who will happily drop a few hundred dollars on the right pair of glass eyes. I don't use non-glass eyes; they don't reflect as well IMO.

Absolute favourites: Antique Rose. $$$ easily if you can find them; they haven't been made in 10 years.

18mm Antique Rose in #39 (Rose).


18mm Zoukeimura in GE-01 (Kite Purple).
These are old Zoukeimura eyes that were made by the Antique Rose artist (I have the packaging).​

I have one more pair in Lemon that isn't in a doll at the moment. They're gorgeous eyes. I need more of those but I keep getting outbid by people with deeper pockets.

For 14mm, I usually buy from Silver. 15mm (for my Mecha Angels) come from an artist who goes by Rosa. 16mm and up are normally Zoukeimura, Hitomiya, or Miyakosuga. Hitomiya also used to do a lot of 12mm for Unoa or similar, if you can find them.

 

I have a pair of Ersa Flora eyes commissioned which are beautiful… just the waiting time is kind of meh, but well worth it. The Candy Kitten ones I've seen are amazing, but it looks like they might fade quickly? Anyone had experience with that? :/

 

Oh, here's a picture of the aforementioned eyes! I didn't realize the OP had asked for pictures.


the girls by RazzyBJD, on Flickr

Bad night lighting and light flash, but you get the point. Very little editing in this image. These eyes were like 8 dollars with shipping from eBay.

 

Self made custom eyes, they are made with a Acrylic base which I find are no different from silicon or expensive urethane or glass, it's cheap and I can make it any color/shade my dark little heart desires.
No more being disappointed with eyes that don't match monitor colors and such.

 

I must admit, I have trouble seeing the difference in quality between different kinds of eyes, at least when it comes to glass eyes (acrylics eyes do look cheaper to me). I'd love to see a comparison that shows what makes those really expensive ones worth it to those who buy them.


When it comes to animetic eyes... I'm thinking I might be a fan of SQ lab eyes! I only have one pair, but I really like them. After that, I like the newer Volks animetic eyes. Twin-snow has beautiful eyes (color, design, and depth is gorgeous) too, but the plastic on them feels kinda cheap and D.eye.Y like. I wish I could get ahold of some of the custom eyes I see out there, especially the ones used by the artist Totechi.

 

Hmmm, it's not something I've noticed. My oldest pairs are around a year old and seem just as pretty as when they arrived . Maybe someone else can help? Its dark here now but if you like I could try to take some pictures tomorrow?

 

Well, I'll take your word for it
Not sure how they're made, but the colours are beautiful enough that fading would be a bad thing.

 

The best eyes ever as far as I'm concerned are these:
http://mysticeyes.blankiblue.com/gallery/custom/custom016.htm

They're Mystic brand urethanes custom made for one of my dolls whose character has albinism and thus translucent irises. The level of detail they achieved on the tiny pink veins is just insane. They're absolutely perfect. 3 of my 6 dolls have Mystic eyes. One that's left is a sleeping head and doesn't need them, another is waiting for Nyx glass and the last has Hand Glass eyes, my other favorite. I'd initially tried Mystic for her eyes too, but these give her a much softer look that I just love. Hand's has the most beautiful selection of natural colors and the threading on their D400 series is just ♥. Not that the detail matters much for pictures. I can't really capture it. XD But it's more important to me that they look good in person. ^^

 

This is such a great thread as eyes are always essential and can be so frustrating to find! Would there be any way to get links to the aforementioned stores? (Thanks Safira!) I'll have to check them out myself!

I don't know what your fall back to is, but one company I /love/ is http://www.safrindoll.com/index.php/doll-eyes.html Saffrin Eyes. They have a wide variety of glass, acrylic, and a few urethane (I think). They are really beautiful in person and--the best part--they are reasonably priced for most pairs. (They also can do almost any size, which is awesome.) It also looks like they updated the site so you can see better examples of what the eye color appears. I thought for sure it'd be mentioned by now!

Unfortunately, this is the best picture I have right now of my two small girls with their eyes:

 

I love Mako eyes and Candy Kittens urethane eyes. Mako eyes are a great quality for the price--and sparkly. My only gripe is that the colour usually turns out a little different than the stock pictures so you have to be open minded. Candy Kitten eyes are just plain GORGEOUS. And she takes custom orders, too!

 

Since I need to pick some eyes to buy soon I'm appreciating this thread.

What things do you consider when deciding what type of eyes to try first for a particular doll?

I imagine there's a lot of personal preference and experience that goes into that, and as an isolated newcomer I'm interested in hearing about it.

For instance, are there types of eyes you wouldn't bother with at 10 mm or smaller because the difference wouldn't justify the price? Are there some types that are particularly good for particular colours? (For instance, "Always get brown in X because in Y it just looks uniform and muddied.") How do you tell whether to go with round or paperweight shapes, or low-profile: can you make a good guess by looking at the eye socket, or is it trial and experience?

 

Mehi Art on etsy makes amazing custom eyes:

Hidden Treasure von *Lil Spark* auf Flickr

Ersa Flora ( I have lots but these are my favourite):

Space Cadet von *Lil Spark* auf Flickr

Safrindoll:

Kara Melli von *Lil Spark* auf Flickr