depends. I seal my faceups with liquitex and another liquid varnish. On dolls that I don't touch, they age perfectly and can stay for as long as needed. On the one doll that I play with a lot though, it can rub off after a few months to a few weeks, so I have to redo it every so often. I don't mind too much, it's a chance to practice my skills, but it can still be a little annoying when I was really happy with something
I haven’t ever redone them yet. I like to keep the company face ups, because I know that I can’t do the eyebrows or eyelashes as delicately as the experts do. I’ve done a faceup once on my first BJD, and while it looks ok (no blocky sharpie brows or spider lashes thankfully, lol), it was just a stressful experience. After that, I decided that I’d rather fork out the money and have a professional faceup artist do it.
I have dolls with their company face-ups as old as from 2007 (my Volks F-16). Being horrific at any doll customization myself coupled with my nostalgia for their original packaging, if you will, leads to my preference of never changing their face-ups, but almost half of my dolls have had their face-ups redone to suit my ideas for them. I aim to change them depending on how badly they need refreshing, but once I'm satisfied, I'll be doing my best to maintain them for...ever!!! Having almost 20 in the collection is also a huge factor, as it's a lot to fuss over especially if I never do their face-ups myself. Another one is how a chunk of my collection is made up of discontinued sculpts--I can't possibly lose my heads shipping them someplace else if they never go someplace, right?!
I have heard from somewhere else that it is recommended to change doll faceup one a year (I am not sure if that is the best way though). It is because the faceup may stain on the head and could be difficult to get rid of if it has been kept for too long. On the other hand, if the faceup is changed too often, the doll head may get damaged because after all a lot of chemicals are involved in the process of removing and doing the faceups.
I adore one of my dolls makeup and I think it was the reason I bought her actually and I have never changed her makeup or even think abıut changind it BUT I add aome little changes to my other dolls makeup like some more blush or a tattoo etc. :3
I've never heard of changing your doll's faceup once a year, nor of faceups staining resin, and I've been in this hobby for a long time. Hunh, interesting. *shrug* I wonder how that thinking came about. The two oldest in my Crew that's had the same faceup are both 2007 Luts/CP Minifee Elf Shiwoo Happy Hour version (sleeping and open eyed heads). They both came with factory faceups, and I've never changed them, nor do I have any plans to do so. I gently wash them with plain water whenever I feel they look dusty, and that's about it. I'm not about to try and remove their faceups to see if they've stained the resin either. I'm not sure that those faceups could be properly replicated. Ryu
