Favorite style of eyes

For my personal dolls I prefer realistic/semi real styles in either glass or resin. However I can really appreciate more experimental eyes with like crystals/designs, I'm just more picky when it comes to buying them for my dolls.

 

I love glass eyes. LOVE THEM. But sometimes an acrylic eye is what you need. 99% of my dolls have glass but for that 1%, they have to have acrylic.

Oh, and for style? It depends on the doll. A lot of my dolls are meant to look like, well, dolls so a larger pupil and kind of a doe look is what I'm after.

 

It varies depending on what I think will look good on the doll. More realistic eyes for semi-real dolls, and animetic eyes for the anime dolls. Sometimes anime dolls get non-anime eyes though, hehe....

 

As others have said, depends on the style of the doll for me!

A lot of my dolls lean toward a more anime style these days, so I like eyes that fit that aesthetic for them. I'm picky about anime eyes, but I'm not entirely sure how to describe the exact look I go for ahaha. I just KNOW IT when I see the eyes that are JUST RIGHT for a certain doll!

Currently my two more semi-realistic dolls have fantasy eyes rather than super realistic eyes. They won't be keeping the eyes they have at the moment; they're just placeholders. But when I do get around to picking up the eyes I want for them, they'll still have fantasy eyes. Waiting to figure out their faceups before deciding on which eyes they'll have in the long run.

 

I like eyes with big pupils, especially for fantasy dolls. I also like eyes with some glitter in them x

 

Personally, I'm not too picky with eyes at all I love simple glass eyes with the iris size on the smaller side, absolute *chef's kiss* if they are low dome. I also have a few pairs of cheap acrylic eyes that I'm pretty happy with, despite them not being super shiny and pristine... they still work incredibly well as puppy eyes that make me want to spoil the dolls and buy them everything I didn't really get along with the resin eyes I had, even though I love seeing product photos of them a lot (especially the fancy artistic ones!).

I think, all in all, I'm more concerned about the size ratio and fit in my dolls' eyewells than the detail and material; most of mine have rather small eyes for their size so one can't see too much detail anyway and simple glass catches the light nicely enough. I also have sleeping and dreaming faces in the mix where details are harder to see and expensive eyes would be a bit of a waste for them. I'd certainly be more considerate of the aesthetics and quality if I had dolls that needed bigger eyes, though!

 

When I started in the hobby, finding affordable and realistic good-quality eyes was almost impossible, so I settled for a certain company of resin-made eyes that used to do natural colors, but those were prone to get cloudy or dirty and didn't reflect the light as beautifully as I wanted.
A few years ago, I tried my first pair of realistic glass eyes and I have kept choosing them since for almost all my dolls (though it truly depends on the style of the doll). They are amazingly vivid and look amazing in pictures.

 

My favorite is fantasy eyes done in a realistic way, if that makes sense.

 

When it comes to color I like both natural and unnatural. Pattern-wise I prefer more realistic but due to me also only wanting glass eyes with a low dome and small iris, I've become able to settle for simple no patterned eyes as well. *suddenly realizes she has a couple pairs of eyes with glitter she loves* Oh, right, very fine glitter I'm apparently fine with even though it's not realistic at all.

 

I’ve carefully collected a crew of diverse fantasy characters over the years, so it’s only natural that their eyes reflect that diversity as well. It all depends upon their specific character, and I’ll hunt high and low to find the perfect eyes to draw out that character. Interestingly enough, when it comes to the cute fae types of tiny Fairyland dolls, I’ve found that their acrylic company eyes suit them very well because they have a lot of life in them for something so small. But once the dolls get bigger, I start looking for more special eyes in resin or glass. I’ve gotten nice quality glass eyes from Luts in a plethora of colors. And for resin eyes, I have EDs, Oscar, Swandoll, Mystic, and Mako eyes which are all excellent quality. I’m also a big sucker for anything glittery or bejeweled or with fancy bits in them (because, yeah, fantasy.) One of my favorite pairs is in my angel boy. They came from Swandoll and I got them slightly oversized for a more innocent look. They have tiny crosses in them which is perfect for an angel.

 

I love glass eyes. And prefer them in semi realistic style.

 

Glass eyes, as their sclera stays white over the decades, with irises as realistic as glass allows, without any glitter, crystals or what not.

 

Mostly realistic, with some iris color detail instead of completely one color. I like low dome eyes because they can be positioned in more ways.

 

Glass realistic eyes, low dome and small iris, in any color, even the more fantastical ones. My favorite is a set of violet ones that are just a little too small for my 65cm girl (first time ordering eyes, so of course they were the wrong size), so now I need to buy another doll that they will fit in - that's how that works, right?

 

So far I've basically purchased resin eyes because I like the detail and the customization, but I'd love to know where people are buying realistic glass eyes. The ones I've seen usually are very simple in iris pattern and have irises that are too large to be very realistic.

 

I like all styles. Sometimes real sometimes fantasy. Depending on my mood, doll & accessories

 

Sadol eyes are my favorite and they always have been.
They had these cool "Summer Hawaii" eyes years ago but I wasnt active. but I found "Summer forest" (just as beautiful) later on. The Christmas 2022 "Dont worry" eyes were cute as well, the naming for their special eyes is so...sentimental?

truuuly unique. I will never move past gemstone eyes they're so fulfilling to stare at.

 

I really like the fantasy / realistic eyes. Usually I don't mind what kind of material it is.

 

It very much depends on the doll but I do have a tendency to go for semi-realistic or fantasy.

I also prefer low dome for the same reasons others have mentioned and mainly glass or resin.

Colour wise again it depends on the bjd’s style but I do tend to give them eyes that look slightly unusual for the doll in question. The eyes are where the soul resides so I like them to reflect that. I’ve even been known to use hematite beads as their slightly metallic almost black shade makes for wonderfully other worldly eyes especially with fae folk tinies.
I’m not a fan of overly glittery or motif types but will buy shiny if I feel it enhances or it’s subtle and there to give a slight lift.

Maker wise as I change my mind a lot I stick to lower priced mainly but would love to be confident enough to buy some of the breathtakingly beautiful and realistic eyes you see nowadays made by such incredible artists like Tianba!
I do buy a lot from Candy Kitten though as she’s such a lovely person to work with and makes beautiful eyes.

 

Most of my guys are some flavour of fantasy so fantasy eyes is what I lean towards. I also make eyes so whatever I want for them is easy enough (in theory) to make. But I also have several boys wearing Oscar Eyes, Enchanted Eyes, Metis, Dreaming Tree and other companies. As long as the eye works for the character, I'll use it. My newest boy is wearing a pair I made for fun about 2 years ago that I never thought anyone would actually wear both because of the size (18mm) and style but they're perfect for him. And that's not the only time something like that has happened with eyes I've made.