Tan resin experience?

No, great, depends on the company/color, no, yes its hard :/, depends.

Overall - it always depends on the company and the specific color. Iplehouse ebony (a very dark brown) for example DOES look very dark compared to other normal skin colors, while Sooms tawny loks very nice beside NS and even WS. I have two Sooms in their tawny color, and I'd honestly say that its just as hard to find matching clothes/wigs/eyes for them as it is for normal skin dolls, haha.

As for resin match - that is hard, since each and every company mixes their tan colors differently. Even if you get two dolls in tan form the same company, but some time apart, they can look different. From what I could gather from flickr, 5stardolls tan is abit on the orange side, but it seems to vary...
Search: 5stardoll tan | Flickr

The problem with wigs/eye not matching the skin color can also probably be solved with a matching face-up Here's a picure of my tawny Soom Wolf, he's wearing some turquoise masterpiece eyes.
IMG_3878 by Meanae, auf Flickr

 

What are your experiences with tan dolls?
Tan From Company: MSD Riz (Planetdoll Tan), Dollshe Amanda Beauty (Pure Ebony), Dollshe Arsene (Honey Caramel); Impldoll Nicholas (Special Anti-UV Brown)
Dyed Tan: MSD Riz (normal Rit), LLT Roderich/Granado Female Nuevo (iDye Poly), Dollshe Amanda/Limhwa 60.5cm (iDye Poly), DollIOS Jade/Dollshe 28M (iDye Poly)

I have experience with dyed dolls (I recommend a disperse dye like iDye Poly, Rit Dyemore, or ProChem PROdisperse; with dyed dolls, you have to worry about unevenness, and the doll cannot be sanded: It will take off the dye). I also have experience with normal resin tan dolls (Planetdoll and Dollshe). These dolls have less unevenness--although it varies by company: mine have none--but they also cannot be sanded (because the sanded part will become discolored). I have not tried to sand my Planetdoll or Impldoll. Dollshe pure skin tans have tab marks from the gates used for their mould system, but I have noticed this less on Impldoll and Planetdoll tan resin. I also have experience with Dollshe Honey Skin--which can be sanded--and looks virtually the same after it has been sanded.

Is the face up more challenging?

Only my Planetdoll Riz and DollIOS Jade/Dollshe 28M have been faceupped (the others are being modded), and my Jade has been dyed a very light tan, but I don't think they are more challenging (my Amanda might be, though, because she is a very, very deep brown). I think on very dark dolls, adding highlights becomes more necessary to see faceup details.

How well do they photograph?

The only doll I have trouble photographing is my Dollshe Amanda, because she is so dark. My LLT Roderich is dyed in a resist pattern, which I think makes photographing her easier, because she had some lighter parts too. All my other dolls are much lighter tans.

Does the color look too orange or muddy?

None of my dolls look muddy--but I thought my Doll Legend 70cm body (pink skin) and my Dollzone 70cm body (yellow skin), looked very pink and yellow, respectively. I have had less issues with my tans.

Is it more difficult to find eyes and wigs for them? (color - wise)

I don't think it is particularly hard. Most of my tan dolls (Dollshe Amanda, LLT Roderich, Planetdoll Riz, Impldoll Nicholas, DollIOS Jade) have natural hair colors. LLT Roderich and Planetdoll Riz have some white streaks, which, although natural, are not common in hair. Furthermore, unlike most of my conventionally natural-haired dolls, Impldoll Nicholas will have blond hair. My Dollshe Arsene will have grey ombre hair with dark brown tips. I think the only one that isn't immediately aesthetically pleasing is the grey hair, but I had a specific plan with this tan doll to have that hair.

Is it harder to find good resin match?

Resin matching is easier for lighter tans, because they are much more common. I think, in general, it's hard enough that I don't really even try and just dye the entire doll tan instead.

Do they look to dark compared to other dolls?

The only dolls that don't look extremely dark are my Impldoll Nicholas and DollIOS Jade. All the other dolls are very tan.

 

I love tan dolls so hard that I keep painting heads to fit tan bodies lol.

I find them easier to face-up. My most hated skin tone is a paper white doll I used to have. Smudges appear if you so much as look at her funny lol. I went from having my vampire character be paper white to switching her to a gray color skin.

I also find them easier to photograph. It's a lot harder for them to look washed out. My camera has terrible white balance.

I don't think they are more difficult to find eyes and wigs for.

Finding a good resin match is definitely harder since at the very least the amount of dolls you can get in tan is limited. It's why many of my dolls have tan bodies and painted heads and I have one doll dyed to be tanned.

How dark they look compared to over dolls probably depends on the tan.

Luts Realskin Brown is pretty mellow like a really milky tea. Dollzone's old tan (mine is from 2008) is more orangey.

 

I have very few "normal" skin resins here. I've had no notable issues with marbling, just occasional minor seams for the most part, and only one that arrived with some badly sanded spots, but as far as hybridizing them goes I haven't really tried (swapping Iplehouse heads doesn't count). Dark resins do require more light to photograph well, but that's to be expected. As far as hair and eye color go, it really comes down to the effect you're looking for.
Ones I have owned:

Angell Studio - sun-tanned (2015)
Angel of Dream - tan (2008?)
Dollshe - honey mango (2016)
Dollzone - tan (2007?)
Impldoll - real skin (2014)
Iplehouse - peach gold, realskin and light brown (french, non, and glow on latter two)
Limhwa - tan (2013)
LoongSoul - french tan (2012)
Luts - light tan (2013?)
Migidoll - old (Volks sunlight matching) and newest? suntan (end of 2015)
SOOM - bronze, brown tan
Souldoll - sandy brown (2014)
Volks - sunlight
Withdoll - real (UV) (2016)

The only two I really disliked were the LoongSoul and Limhwa tans, which were both quite orange. You can see most of my examples in the following thread, except for the Dollzone tan (which was a nice balanced tone), the Limhwa (who didn't stick around long), and the Withdoll real (which is pinker but otherwise very similar to Iplehouse RS).
https://denofangels.com/threads/new-comparison-photo-volks-iplehouse-soom-and-others.622642/
Hope that helps some!

 

What are your experiences with tan dolls?
I think I've only done faceups on two, but I've had tan dolls from the following companies: soom, limhwa, fairyland, dollshe, migidoll

Is the face up more challenging?
Not really? I think natural faceups are easier (blushing comes out beautifully), but colourful eyeshadow might be more of a challenge.

How well do they photograph?
nicely. Most tan dolls aren't THAT dark (unless you go for iplehouse ebony, or something similar)

Does the color look too orange or muddy?
It depends entirely on the company.

Limhwa photographs orange, but both dolls looked lovely and not orange in person. I think they were from 2009 and 2014?

Migidoll looked kind of ashy/sickly. Really didn't like the shade. It was very light tan. I ordered it in early 2010s. I think they changed it a few times.

Is it more difficult to find eyes and wigs for them? (color - wise)
Not really. But then again I'm pretty boring and tend to stick to natural dark hair colours.

Is it harder to find good resin match?
Yes!! No two company has the same resin colour, and it's most obvious with tan skin!

Do they look too dark compared to other dolls?
No they look beautiful

 

@Sonik

If you choose to dye, use a disperse dye like Rit Dyemore, ProChem PROdisperse, or iDye Poly. Disperse dyes from the same company can be mixed. Make sure the dyebath is near boiling or it won't work.

iDye Poly brown has red undertones. I do not know for the others.

 

What are your experiences with tan dolls? I have had several tan dolls. Most from Dollstown. They have not been difficult at all.
Is the face up more challenging? My DIL as well as a friend who has passed away years ago did most of my tan faces and found them easy to do.
How well do they photograph? Very well esp in natural light.
Does the color look too orange or muddy? No
Is it more difficult to find eyes and wigs for them? (color - wise) No
Is it harder to find good resin match? Always bought full dolls.
Do they look to dark compared to other dolls? Of course they do they are tan or brown or dark skinned compared to my white or normal skin. A term I hate.
My issue with tan dolls isn't the dolls, it's how people feel they are worth less then a doll of same sculpt in a white or in a slightly darker skin then white. Whenever I try to sell a tan skin doll I feel I have to lower the price so much more then the same doll in a more European color. It's heartbreaking as I don't see how they are any less beautiful then their lighter versions. Same goes for the blues or greens I have seen. To me the only thing that devalues any doll is damage to parts, missing parts, or a face up using the wrong materials. Also super bad dye jobs.

 

What are your experiences with tan dolls?
I tend to go for dark tans if I have the option; I have a dark tan Impldoll Avery (my first doll), a dark tan Black Cherry Dolls Zeri, a dark tan off-topic vinyl doll, and I just placed an order for a milky tan Faewoods Dolls Cattleya, actually! I could have sworn I had more, but I think I'm getting mixed up with my fantasy resin-color dolls.

Is the face up more challenging?
Only insofar as like, I am white, so I have to take some extra time to look for references to get an idea of how to do the blushing. I use Citadel Munitorium as my sealant and it works perfectly; I've heard MSC can cause a whitish cast so I avoid it. I think I needed another layer or two to get the colors on my Zeri where I wanted them, versus the couple lighter-resin dolls I've done faceups on, but it certainly wasn't difficult.

How well do they photograph?
They do well! What's challenging is when I have both them and a very pale doll (including the couple white resin ones I have) in the same picture, and my phone's camera doesn't know what to do for balancing between the two. That takes some fiddling but I've gotten plenty of cute pictures with them.

Does the color look too orange or muddy?
Nah, not the companies I've bought from, anyways. Like any resin, the shades will vary from company to company.

Is it more difficult to find eyes and wigs for them? (color - wise)
Color-wise? No, there's plenty of options out there. There's some resin eye artists I like who have a wide variety of colors. The hardest doll I needed to get eyes for was actually my Volks Normal resin DearSD Megu, because apparently it's a pain in the butt to find very dark brown eyes rather than ones that are just black.

If you're looking for textures beyond maybe some ringlets, though... That's been a challenge. There's straight and wavy wigs in every color under the sun, I swear, but my poor curly-haired dolls struggle.

Is it harder to find good resin match?
This one, I haven't tried. I think Impldoll does color matching and Black Cherry Dolls uses Harucasting and their colors, so those might be a touch easier. Lighter tans might also have an easier time, but dark tans? Only so many options out there, unfortunately.

Do they look too dark compared to other dolls?
I don't know how they would. They look like dark-skinned people the way my lighter resin dolls look like light-skinned people. I like diversity in my doll cabinet, personally.

 

I'm still waiting for a body for a tan doll so this is half an answer (I'm hybriding, it's a lot of hope and faith lol). I think with wigs and eyes it's very similar to all other skintones - not everything will look good with certain undertones but some colours will pop beautifully, imo yellow resin is much harder to figure out.
As for faceups, I've realised I absolutely love painting tan resin - it takes so much less work to blush or make it look "alive". From the few crappy shots I've taken, it feels to photograph easier as the light tan face doesn't "wash out" like lighter resins do (opposite problems with very dark tan though). So far I'm really enjoying tan, I'd definitely get more in the future.

 

I only have 1 tan doll at the moment – my Volks F-60 in Sunlight resin – which is a lighter tan.

I don't think the faceup is more challenging, but like @JaxxCapta said, sealants like MSC can leave whitish marks on darker tan shades with repeated spray layers.
My girl has a custom-ordered faceup from Volks and I chose silver eyelashes, eyebrows and a wig to accentuate the tan.

My girl photographs quite well, but I know the Sunlight resin can show up differently depending on how it's photographed, but that's more in terms of how dark it is. I've never seen this colour look orange or muddy, but some tans do have more of an orange tint.

I didn't have difficulty finding eyes for a wig for her, but I can see how tans with strong tints or undertones might require more thinking colour-theory-wise.

I haven't had to find resin matches for her, but being a lighter shade by a popular company, I don't imagine it'd be too difficult, but I can see how darker or unique tan colours might be difficult to match. Also her seams are sanded the same as my Fair skin Volks dolls with no scratching.

I don't think tan dolls look too dark compared to lighter ones, but I can see why a camera might struggle a bit to balance colours if you put them next to each other.

Doll tax:

 

None of my tan girls look orange or muddy but it depends on the color formula and batch. There is not one specific type of tan skin anyway, there are a lot of varieties in life too. It makes resin matches probably as hard as NS matches in my opinion, if the color temperature is off then it will be hard to match the parts, but if you have a lighter tan head within the similar color temperature it may match fine with blushing.
I've found the online swatches for the dolls I ordered to be accurate to what I received (but that depends on how accurate your monitor is) I'm not a photographer but the color always looks nice on my phone cam. And they look great next to my other dolls.
I find it very hard to shop online for brown wigs for my tan girls. The wigs are usually modelled on white skin dolls and due to contrast and I guess photo editing the brown looks much darker than it is, and when I get them in person the wig looks pretty much blonde That has been my only frustration with my tan dolls, I really want dark brown wigs for two of them and so far it's been a huge bust.