How do you decide which skintone to pre-order!?

If we're talking fantasy resin colours like green, purple, etc. I usually go with what I don't yet have in my collection or what I have least of. Unless the promo pics are another colour, and i love the doll as it is. I usually go that rout if I'm getting a fullset doll.
It definatly sucks only having promo pics in one resin colour, though.

If it's real resin colour like peach or tan, I usually go off the promo pics, unless its white resin. I despise pure white resin, its the blushing that gives it any life, and I hate blushing as it rubs off, and the blotchyness makes me sad lol. Most of light skin dolls are "normal" or peach or pink.

I hope that helps a little bit, I've never been super worried about missing out on resin colours, only once lol

 

I love fantasy dolls but I don’t have any crazy skin tones yet. XD All of my dolls currently have white and fleshy resin asides from one which is tan. I also struggle when I try to choose a colour I don’t have in my collection so I haven’t ordered any yet. I would love a lilac or sky blue at some point.

I usually order the doll in the promo fullset since I will know what they will look like and from there I can change out hair, eyes, and clothes to my liking.

 

think the only time i struggled with skin tone was with one doll in a purple skin tone. the company face up used really cool colors so i ended up not ordering her during the preorder period.

then several months later she was in stock blank. seeing her without the face up and body blushing, i ordered her right away. (tho ive yet had time to work on her face up)

otherwise i tend to get white resin and add the skin tone coloting while i do the blushing. its so much easier to work on a white canvas than not for me and i can have more variety in skintones.(one day ill be brave enough to dye the resin, but that day has yet to come)

 

I only had that problem with my newest BJD acquisition, as when I first discovered these dolls the resin color options were quite limited, as in most companies back then didn't even offer white (pure-white-looking-resin, not what could pass for human flesh-toned white, or peachy/beigey "normal" resins). Just boring plain old white resin wasn't readily available back in the dark ages, let alone any other colors. Particularly from the companies I purchased dolls from, that's why most of mine are "normal," instead of any other color. I also pick the resin colors based on the characters I'm creating with the doll; if the character is pink, then I want the doll to be pink as well (just as an example, I don't own any pink-resin dolls, yet!).

Most of the characters I've made are fan-art based on Japanese video game or anime characters, so most are okay with normal resin. I do own a few "monster" characters, mostly vampires and one ghoul. I would have wished for all of my vampires to be pale white resin, but that wasn't an option back when I got those dolls, from their respective companies (one of them, I originally wanted to steal its body for my 1st full-resin doll of this kind, so I had to get the body in a normal resin, to even hope hybriding would work -- it didn't!). The last doll I got, is a ghoul character, so I was torn between finally getting a white resin doll for this one character that needed it or going with one of the "normal" resin options. It was really hard deciding, because I love the idea of a paper white ghoul, on the other hand I also see a lot of yellow in that companies white and even the "normal" resin I ended up getting. I just went with what I believe will age more gracefully overtime (I still stay up at night wondering if I should have gone with white. I do own a few other BJD in white resin, but their resin wasn't as white as I would have liked from the beginning, based on my ideal of paper-white plastic. So I think I made the right decision, but I still second guess myself 'till now). DX

*autocorrectsucksandsodoi

 

I'm one of these people who have dolls based on characters, so the skintone was there before the doll and I just pick what fits the mental image I have the most.

In any other cases, I often tend to lean towards more brown skintones or whatever works best for the faceup/concept I have in mind

 

I love the visuals of pale skin and dark hair, so many of my dolls fall into that. I just really like the harsh contrast. But with that said, most companies "normal" is usually also very very pale, so that works in a very similar way. I find tans bautiful in their own right, often easier to photograph but trickier to paint and of course not available from all companies, so I have less of those. Darker skin tones are beautiful too, but harder to get and I haven't yet had any character or doll concept in mind where that have been a priority, so none of those here yet.

As for fantasy tones it depends on the creature that the doll represents. I have a Resinsoul Ming in red that is slowly being modded into an imp and I have a Maracreatures Ramunder in "mull" that is a greyish brown with very cool undertones, almost a hint of violet in some lights. Its a great colour for him, but he is a troll. I don't think I would have chosen that colour for a doll representing a human.

I never really had any trouble deciding, that I can remember. I just pick whatever suits the concept of the doll the best and work with what is available.
If I have a vision and it's strong enough, I don't mind modding, dyeing or doing whatever is neccesary to get there, but the majority of my dolls where chosen because I like them as they are.

 

I always get the skin color shown in the promo images so I know what to expect when the doll arrives. I don't feel comfortable enough changing things so most of the customization is usually the company default. ^^;;

 

Yes, that’s it, it’s more like the skin tone is already decided. The difficult part is to search photos from the different tones on the internet to see what’s the more similar to what I have in mind.
Cause you can’t rely only on the default pics…

 

i tend to search up a lot of the resin colour reviews on different platforms before deciding~ for example, even though a lot of dolls are "white", some might be more pale pink and others will be literally paper white, which makes hybriding so difficult but also I know I tend to prefer warmer lifelike tones so I tend to go with pink/yellow/normal over white

I also just have a preference for darker skintones, though some company's resin colours can vary a lot batch-to-batch. It's really good if you can find some owner photos first and then decide, especially since some company's tan can be so pale it can be mistaken for normal/yellow. that being said, when company's offer very dark skin tones I'm always really tempted...!

If you meant fantasy skin tones, I tend to go want to go with the rarest colours (not too familiar with companies who offer fantasy colours but I like doll chateau's green resin), but also depends on what I want to do and what I can realistically do with the face-up and body blush tools I have. vibrant fantasy colours make me want to do more patterns and designs on bodies- which is why I love fantasy colours- but sometimes I just don't have the materials ready lol

 

My preference is for a pinky normal tone, and I'll usually go with that when given a choice. At least for human sculpts. I do adore a lovely cooler, dusty brown in pictures, so I might be tempted by that one day. I did get one doll in stock where I didn't get to pick the color, and he ended up being light tan (I missed the preorder period, and this is the only one of this doll I've seen come up for sale so I'm still glad I picked him up). This is...not my preference, but it still works for the doll as he's Egyptian so the darker skintone makes sense. My partner commented that (because of the resin color) this BJD looks "like a Barbie" and I agree with him. Khafra just looks more like a plastic "toy" than a resin BJD like my others. I'm hoping once I send him out for body blushing/faceup this will be drastically minimized xD.

I love looking at the fantasy colors - especially a nice light teal/mint! - but feel that I'd only get one for something that was intended to be an elf or orc or something similar. And since I don't usually fall for those sculpts, it's not likely to happen lol.

 

It depends on what I want for the doll, and what's available! A few of mine were in-stock, so my color options were limited - two of them, the color I wanted sold out before I could buy it, leaving me to get one paper white and one pale-skinned doll. I still love them both, even if they weren't the color I'd been gunning for.

I tend to prefer darker skin tones, like my dark tan Impldoll Avery and Black Cherry Dolls Zeri. However, not all companies have those available, and again, in-stock versus preorder. For example, when I got my Huajing Doll Tian Ni, the only two options were "white" and "normal." She's supposed to have albinism but I didn't want to go pure white on her, and their "normal" is pale enough that I swore it'd be a better match for my Seed.Arts Wol head than the body I have her on!

Which, I guess my rule is "like the sculpt enough that the color I get it in matters less than having the sculpt."

(I don't have all that many fantasy color dolls, but those I have stronger opinions about color on. I know the colors I like, I'll stick to them!)

 

this is my lady. I'm looking forward to when i can give her a face up cause i love the shapes on her face.

heck yeah. part of my lack of bravery is more im worried i'll stain my countertop xD

 

Many of my earlier dolls have "normal" or white resin, as darker resin was harder to come by in the older days. Even my first tan dolls were fairly light. Now that companies like Iplehouse and Harucasting are offering browner resins on a semi regular basis, I'm making up for lost time.

As I like variety in my browner resins, I usually aim for tones I haven't gotten prior. Of my Iplehouse dolls, one is Ebony and one is Special Real. While I have two Light Brown dolls, the their dye batches are distinct.

 

I usually choose skintone based on what vibe I want the doll to have. I choose white if I want the character to be a vampire, goth, or albino, and I choose peachy skin if I want them to have a more regular look. I also really want more dark skin resins (anything light tan to dark brown, they're all pretty) because they work well for both regular and edgier looks and are so pretty, but I always have a hard time committing to spend the extra money on them. I would also love to get pure black (not just dark gray) and red resin dolls one day, but those are hard to come by, especially for sculpts I like, and have the same cost problem as the dark skin resins.

 

If I have another doll in a similar/close color, I would choose that resin tone in hopes of being able to swap parts between them. None of my dolls are matching currently and I really regret not choosing colors that didn't match. How nice it would have been to have a set of hands that worked between all of my boys! Uncommon tones like tans and fantasy are next to impossible to match so I avoid those now.

I had tan limited edition holiday event fomo for two of my dolls and got them in unmatchable skin tones and I couldn't have more regrets about it. I've come to dislike both of their bodies and will never be able to match either. I'm SOL because of event hype decision making.

 

i usually go for natural skin tones like NS, WS and tan...especially tan! I love tan dolls os if that's an option thats what i normally go for though i won't lie and say i havent considered fantasy colors. Pink and pastel blue are huge weaknesses of mine aside from tan so i usually go off what i think the doll looks best in.

 

I pick a resin tone based on what character I have in mind, or just what my favorite is of the colors available. I love the variety of tan resin tones available, and over a third of my dolls are some shade of tan. A few are white or grey, one is light blue, and the rest are NS. I'd love to have a doll each in red and in green as well.