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

I have three floating heads based on Final Fantasy VII mostly Sephiroth but I also own one of Kadaj; most of them are DIM MNM floating heads, but I own a FL Chic Line Rou as his Dissidia version. Then I also own floating heads based on (OG) RE4 Leon S. Kennedy, one random DIM MNM customized to look like MGS4/Rising Raiden, and one DIM MNM based on Lelouch Lamperouge. My last BJD purchase (in over a decade), is a Myou mature tiny I am customizing to create Ken Kaneki -- that's going slowly nowhere soon, because I suck at sewing. I can definitely see how it can be hard choosing from all the resin options available now, when you don't have a set character or pre-existing image for a character in your head, before ordering the doll. More so with limited time options. In a way, I feel it was good there weren't that many resin color options back in the olden days of these dolls, because I can be indecisive and probably would have missed on good opportunities or owning certain dolls, if I had as many options for many of them, back then. (:

Here are my fan-art BJD-heads and dolls so far, in case you want to see. Most are unfinished, because I procrastinate and I'm a much older, old-fart now, than when I first began working on most of these. (:

Spoiler: My MNM Fan-art Head Sculpts

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Spoiler: Full Sephiroth Dissidia Vers BJD WIP

Him cosplaying as Psycho Mantis from MGS, I like making cosplaying outfits for my dolls, but I suck at sewing. T__T;;

Spoiler: My Ken Kaneki WIP

Cosplaying as Evil Within Ruvik, I was trying hard, but failed. The mask didn't even made it into any photos, due to failure. I photo-enhanced the image, to keep the awful to a minimum, but it's still there. DX

 

When I first began this hobby way back when, I deliberately made the conscious decision to base my crew around the notions of diversity. So I created an eccentric fantasy world in my imagination (somewhat similar to the artistic designs of Tim Burton’s film “Alice”.) This way, I could indulge my own artistic and creative notions without having to worry about the constraints and limitations of size or race (human, elf, or anthro) or resin color. In this way, I could let my imagination truly run free to create whatever characters might spring to mind. And while the majority of my large crew are normal colors (white, normal, or some shade of tan…by necessity of that being all that was available,) I will definitely and inevitably go for a fantasy color if it’s offered. Absolutely!

 

I go with whichever color feels the best, although I noticed that I preferred more uncommon or unusual colors for weirder or fantasy sculpts. If the sculpt is a more generic type, I may also go for the more unusual color or get it specifically for having a more unusual option.

 

I prefer any darker than NS resin tones. It makes me sad that so many companies only offer their dolls in varying shades of white or “normal” skin, so if tan is offered, I will almost always go with that. And if it’s an artist like Harucasting, I like to go out of my way to make sure I get a shade I don’t already have if I’m buying a new one of his dolls.

 

For me...it just depends on the character I'm shelling. I haven't delved much into fantasy colors (not that I wouldn't like to), but have ordered custom colors for a couple of my Impl girls because the character required it. One could technically be considered fantasy (?), but I was basing her skintone off of Ancient Egyptian art skintones.

A majority of my dolls are some flavor of 'normal'/white resin, with 2 of them dyed a completely different color. My Minifee Mika was dipped in a Rit chocolate brown dye bath, while I have my (WIP) DV Moon in variating shades of blue. My Lumedoll Atik was in this lovely medium brown when I received him (got him secondhand), and it suits him. I ordered my Dollshe King Corey in Caramel Brown because it was what worked best for Mundei (the OC I shelled him as), and it really suits him.

So, I guess—if you're debating on what resin color to go with, maybe imagine what purpose you have specifically for this resin newcomer? Envision them (or Photoshop it) in the colors the company has available, and pick what suits them best. If you want more of them in different resin colors...that's also an option? Just figure out what works best for your vision on this resin being, and go from there

 

It is so hard to choose with Dodollsdreams resin colors I like so many of her resin colors. I usually go for tans, purples, greys, and pinks. However, if I have a plan for the doll's face up I will go with the resin color that I think will look good in that face up or it goes with the concept I am thinking of. I really wanted vintage pink so badly, but chose a different resin color due to my concept forming in my head. That new Vanilla pudding resin color looked really cute too on Marie. I wish I got Micchan in pink.

When I am able to I usually get more than one doll in another color, but I decided to not let myself get carried away this time because I am not that big on collecting smaller size dolls. I ended up getting her doll, but missed out on the Harry Potter Volks dolls because I couldn't get the site to work and made the mistake to buy on the last day possible. Sometimes like the Harry Potter dolls I missed out on I am grateful when they offer only one resin color. It makes it so much easier then there is no back and forth on trying to pick the color I want.


Edit: forgot to mention I really was tempted to get owlie in the brown color resins i can't recall the names, but decided last minute to get the color I knew would be the best for my idea in my head.

 

I am a little ashamed to say most of my dolls are in "normal" peachy tones but for some of them there was only that and maybe white skin available. Of my on topic dolls I do have 1 caramel and 3 white skin though one has mellowed to a nice peachy cream tone (to my eyes at least), and 1 in a purple shade, but all the rest were in whatever company they are from's "normal" skin. I would love to get some tan added to my collection but other than Bobobie and Resinsoul that don't arrive with either horrid seams or seam lines where theirs always come smooth with an even skintone.
A lot of the time I decide by what's available at the time.

 

It's usually about the character that I want to create and what color I think the sculpt looks best in. Kinda like a car, some cars just look really good in a certain color vs others lol

 

I like tans and browns (as opposed to normal/white). I don't have any fantasy colors (and probably won't ever get a fantasy color). So my options end up pretty limited! I look at the company comparison photos and also try to dig up comparison photos on here to make the final decision.

 

For regular skin-tones, I look at owner pictures of the sculpt in every skin tone, and see wich one I like most based on their face ups. For fantasy skin tones, I chose based on my mood or fantasy characters I like. I recently found myself appealed by green skined dolls, even though it's a color I usually hate thanks to the Orion species from Star Trek.

 

It was a hard decision because I knew I didn't like one of the three colors offered, but while dealers usually offer a single photo with all the different resin options as small rectangular/shape... pieces, it is hard to compare the actual color the doll comes in without the editing from the company photo's which generally shifts the tone of the resin enough that it looks different to my untrained eye in different lighting, seeing as I don't have the expensive camera/editing equipment at home.
And the remaining two look like the other one in different photo's while giving a lighter or darker impression in others.
In short, I can't see the difference between the light rose and white skin anymore because sometimes, the white looks really, really paper white and just gives me the feeling of a sickly/unnatural palor while othertimes the rose just is too satuarated and feels cartoonish.
So far, I've had no luck finding photo's of both light rose and white bodies by the same owner under similar lighting conditions and have had no luck discerning the difference.
But like the other people, I think I usually would go for the skin tone in the pictures, that way I have an inkling of what the doll will look like keeping in mind some color shifts because of yellowing/lighting/...

 

when in doubt go tan
but no really, whichever will be the most difficult to track down afterwards is the one I'd go with

 

If the character doesn’t have a defined skin tone I usually choose a tan if available or most natural skin tone.