Pros and Cons of skin tones

Generally dolls with darker skin will have more apparent seam lines since if you try to sand it the colour will lighten in the area and be more noticeable than the actual seams. Thats not all that bad though, I really like darker colours on dolls so that overrides my worrys about seams.
I guess also if you are doing your own faceup and are not that experienced, it can be harder on dolls of fantasy and darker colour since your materials will apply differently due to the base tone of the skin. That being said, you can get some of the most awesome looks on dolls who do have different skin tones other then "normal".

 

I don't really know much but I'm afraid of yellowing from the really pale skin tones, but I've also heard of darker skin tones turning green and that's equally terrifying!! Because it seems like seams can at least be sanded away carefully, but the oxidation of resin is something that can't be reversed...

 

White is trickier to photograph well than natural or tan. That said, I adore my one white skin doll (from FairyLand.) I do think she's turned more ivory in the eight months or so I've had her, but it's just made her look better. She was never snow white in the first place - more of a cream color.

I also have a natural skin doll (from DollsTown) who's about nine years old. (I'm her third owner.) Comparing her to dolls on the company's website, I can tell she's yellowed, but it's a very even color change and it doesn't look unnatural at all. She's just more of a peach/ivory tone than pink.

I've seen some older tan dolls who still look great. I think it depends on the company and the resin they use. I can't speak for any of my own, though, since I just got them.

 

Generally-speaking, Normal skin tones will age pretty gracefully. Normal Yellows will get a little darker, while Normal Pinks tend towards peach. White resins typically either take on a creamy, ivory color as they age, or they'll pick up a greenish tone. Some people like the green color, others don't. French resins will yellow or fade faster than the more opaque, regular stuff no matter what color it is. Tans vary depending on the tone and resin mix. Some have gone green, but most just lose some of their red undertones as time passes.

Re: sanding tans... How "safe" that is depends on how the doll was made. If the tan color goes all the way through the resin, sanding the seams isn't difficult. Most tans are only 'surface' tans, though, with paler resin underneath. Sanding the seams on one of those isn't easy. You'll end up with paler areas anywhere you sand.

Looking at my own Brown-resin Nina, who apparently started out with torso seams so awful that Luts themselves tried to sand her, I'd advise against it. It's very obvious where the sanding marks are, so I'm almost certain that their 1/3-scale dolls at least are in the surface-only category.

 

I've always loved "tan" dolls and have five currently, although one's really more of a dark NS. I haven't been in the hobby long but my first doll in Soom's brown tan has turned slightly green on her face and hands, but she got quite a bit of direct sun exposure.

 

My darkest doll is a Jie Doll Michel in chocolate skin, which is a dark brown. He's environmental, semi-translucent resin, and about 3 years old. I haven't noticed any yellowing on him, if he has, it's not bad. No green at all. He also has no visible seams! My dark tan Impldoll Bella that I used to own didn't have seams either. I once owned a dark brown Iplehouse Aaron, he did have seams, but not bad enough to bother me. My tan DikaDoll body has the most horrendous seams I've ever seen on a doll. They do bother me, but I think sanding marks would be worse.


I have dolls in all human shades from white to dark brown, and I think the hardest to deal with is white. They're harder for me to faceup without going too heavy or too light, they wash out easier in pictures, and any amount of yellowing is visible. Right now, I own two white boys (AoD Gu and DZ Mo/Doll Leaves) who are both about 4 years old. It's obvious they've yellowed, but it's a creamy color. It's not BAD, but one is a hybrid and because different companies yellow at different rates, he's not a perfect match. Also, white skin shows dirt so much faster than others. I can scrub both boys spotless, and 10 minutes later, find smudges on them.

 

Is it possible for tan resin and darker resins to have a marbled effect? I read something before about a marbling effect from the darker resins.

Is the yellowing on light skin tones a fast process or does it take years?

 

Tans (or any other shade that required a lot of pigment, really-) can come out looking a little marbled... it's just a result of the way the resin is mixed and colored. It's usually a pretty subtle effect, though, rather than something that's immediately obvious or very pronounced.

As for how long yellowing takes... It depends on a lot of different factors. The strength and source of any light the doll's exposed to, temperature fluctuations (Exposure to heat can yellow resin just like exposure to light-), the type and formulation of the resin it's made from (French resin vs opaque, UV-cut vs non) and rather on not it's coated with something like UV-cut MSC. I've seen dolls that have gone years with very little color shift at all. I've also seen dolls that started to fade within months of their owners receiving them.

 

I was just reading another Thread about skin tones, and there are some good answers here~

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php/643464-How-is-yellowing-on-TAN-resin-like

Hope this helps!

 

It is possible for tan and darker to have marbling. However, the worst marbling in my own collection is on a "normal-skin" doll, so it certainly can happen in any resin-tone.

As Brightfires has pointed out, yellowing happens at different rates for a variety of factors. As was also pointed out in earlier in the thread, red pigments tend to fade out faster. For some resin tones, it means a more ivory tone as they age, or a less pink or rosy quality.

I myself wouldn't sand or remove the seam lines on a tan doll unless they were pretty extreme, but I'm also not terribly troubled by minor seaming.

 

Some of the anthro dolls I've been eyeing only come in a gray skintone. I feel that makes it more difficult to match resin colors with other body parts should I decide to swap them out for something else from another company. The same goes for other fantasy colored or darker skin toned dolls. Color matching can be a more difficult thing to do.

 

Hi There, I really like dolls with darker skin.
I need some advise here.
What do you do to eliminates sanding marks?
I receive my doll and it had some oil on it. At the time, I could not see the sanding mark.
Then I decided to clean it with Winsdor and Newton brush Cleaner, and the sanding marks appeared all over her body.
I wonder if that oil thing was to avoid that and with my great idea of cleaning it I removed it all.
Any advise would be welcome.
Many Thanks

 

I like having some diversity in my collection, so I have various sizes, makers, and colors. One is tan. One is blue! She's my little alien.

 

In my experience, White Skin and Tan Skin have opposite pro/cons; Normal Skin is a medium between the two.

WS: Photographs beautifully, seamlines are softened; sculpted details harder to see

Tan: Tricky to photograph, sculpt detail is easy to see; seamlines are very visible

Other things to consider is that tan tends to cost more as it is harder to cast, and it can't be sanded due to a color difference in the resin. WS also seems to get dirty insanely fast for me.

Initially in the hobby I avoided WS, but having owned several dolls this color now I've grown to really like it. Tan is still my favorite, though!

 

From experience, my WS dolls have the most apparent yellowing. They look more ivory than paper white. I will always choose a normal-pink resin color because they tend to yellow more gracefully than normal-yellow. One of my absolute favorite non-standard resin colors is grey skin, it is a lovely color both in person and in pictures.

 

I love my tan dolls. Out of all of my tans the only one who has very visible seam lines is my Dollshe boy (which I knew about before I bought him). The rest are either non-existent (Granado, Twigling) or faint (Supia, April Story). I haven't had any issues with greening. The only resin colour I have trouble with is white. I do like it but it's tough to photograph. I find yellowing the most obvious with white dolls.

Hm. It might have been plastic polish potentially?

 

Plastic polish... Never heard of that, but that would make sense. Maybe I should try to get some and treat my girl with it. Nice spa for her ...

 

Most of my dolls have NS tone; only my SSDF has normal brown skin and Illusion Spirit has white skin. The white skin one yellowed a bit more than others after a year. But the brown skin normal (Luts) has no change, same to my other NS dolls.