The Porsche of Doll Eyes Versus the Volkswagon Variety

I'm strictly urethane and high-quality glass, with detailed and textured irises. I'm very picky about eye quality and colour, would rather wait and splurge on one pair of great eyes, than on several pairs of less ideal ones. The eye is the window to the soul, after all. I have a pair of DropRops and Enchanted Doll, and it blows my mind how much light they're able to capture, and the glow I get from them in photos. DropRops don't really track, but boy, ED eyes track so well it's uncanny. Haven't tried any high-quality glass eyes, but am eagerly waiting for some Zoukei-muras to arrive.

 

I try to buy the best quality eyes I can. I really do think that the quality of eye you put in your doll can make all the difference. I guess it does depend on the look you're going for, but personally, all my bjds are characters, they need to have their own life about them.
I have really good closeup vision (and really horrible distance vision), and I can see the halftone pattern that most acrylic eyes have. And it drives me crazy. It just screams FAKE! Good quality acrylics, however, they can look pretty nice.
Glass... ehh. They just don't do it for me. Most of the time they just look... glassy and dead. If they've got some semi-realistic detail in them, I may change my opinion.
I really don't understand all the whining everybody does about silicone eyes gathering dust... has anybody else ever tried washing them in some soapy water? Yes, I'm serious. It gets rid of that stickiness, and they don't collect half as much dust as they would have before. I think it's probably mold release.
I go with silicone eyes and urethane where possible. Silicone for their rubbery, squishy, real look, and urethanes for their pure wow. I recently bought my first pair of urethane eyes, and once they arrived I was totally sold. The colour, the clarity and the detail just blew me away. The way they capture light is magic. If just wish they were a little more readily available, however they are getting more common.

My philosophy is to buy a pair of really good eyes rather than a whole bunch of cheap ones. The right pair of eyes can really bring a doll to life. I tend to think of bjds as interactive, personalized and customizable sculpture.

 

People may laugh, but I really like my Unoa's default eyes. I like them well enough that I haven't been in a rush to get another pair, yet. Although I do plan on owning different pairs for her.

 

I don't own anything more expensive than SOOM eyes. Urethane eyes are too expensive for me. I'd rather save money and buy another doll... and give them glass eyes, soom eyes, or acrylic eyes!! X3 For me, there's nothing wrong with using cheaper eyes. They work well with my photography so far. Oh, and as far as I know, urethane eyes can change color over time? Because it's made of resin, the same as the doll itself.

 

I've had both glass and acrylic eyes so far and I'm not really planning to go for urethane eyes, just a bit too expensive.
The quality and liveliness of the eyes differs from company to company.

Dollmore acrylics are very pretty and not flat in my opinion. Two of my dolls have them and those are just very pretty ^^ The only thing I might find a negative point is the pupil, it's not very sharp, even a bit blurry depending on the light.
I have glass eyes from both dollmore and dollzone. Those were about the same pricerange. Even though the dollmore D-glass eyes aren't too detailed, they have a nice depth in them and catch the light around nicely.
The dollzone eyes were rather dead in my opinion. I had a red pair and the color was the same all over the iris, while with the dollmore eyes it differs

 

I like glass the best. Urethanes are rather expensive, but it's more of having to wait so long that bothers me.

One of my dolls is wearing an extremely cheap pair of glass eyes [like $2 kind of cheap] that I always get questions about, so I suppose price can't always be an indicator of quality.

 

I'm a silicone gal myself, and reading this thread has actually made me wonder why...and I thiiiiink I know the answer. It's the domes that throw me when it comes to glass/acrylc. It always really bothers me when the eyes don't fit flush into the eyewells. And, even when they do, when high domes are involved, there is always that strange clear, glowing bubble when they are in profile.
I have a few pairs of high quality glass, but again the eyewell/dome issue always bugs me. And...honestly? They seem less real to me. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful, but the glass eyes for all their depth and clarity seem otherworldly to me-too deep and too bright to pass as actual human eyes. They are lovely, though.
Acrylics are...well...acrylics. I don't hate them. I don't love them. They're just...there.
I've yet to try urethane.

 

I do have a pair of apple-green Dollmore acrylic eyes, and they really stand out. The only thing I don't like about them is that teh pupil isn't centered. They're both equally off-center, and it makes is surprisingly difficult to center his gaze: too much iris on any one side and he looks wall-eyed/cross-eyed/unfocussed. Oddly enough, the two eyes don't quite match. It doesn't show up in pictures, but one eye has just the barest hint of blue in it, while the other is pure green. I actually like that the pupil itself isn't very sharp because it looks like his eyes follow you.

 

I'm a Porsche girl. I had urethane Gumdrops on order before my first doll ever arrived and they're definitely my favorite. I now own Gumdrops, Mystics, Droprops, and EverPurple, and I just ordered some from Dollshe, too. I love them all! They catch the light easily and add so much to the expressions of their faces. If I had to pick only one type of eyes to have, I'd choose urethane.

Glass eyes are nice but I've never been very impressed with them. Lately, I've taken a liking to the bright & shiny super-colorful glass eyes that don't have any lines or textures in them. I bought one pair as a sample and I like them as much in person as I did in pictures, so I'll be getting a couple more pairs.

 

In the beginning, I wasn't picky about my eyes at all. Then I went to a doll meet where one doll was wearing gumdrops. WOW - I couldn't take my eyes off the doll. Since then, I'm almost all Gumdrop/Ethereal/Droprops. Occasionally, I will have a doll who looks great in acrylics or glass, but it's the exception rather than the rule for me.

 

I agree with the previous posts - Droprops real eyes have the most amazing look to them. Difficult to get, but the patterns/colors are spectacular.

 

It always amused my how people always say that eyes that capture the most light are the most realistic. Urethanes are gorgeous in an artistic sense, and give a doll an other-worldly beauty, but if you've ever seen someone with eyes that glow and sparkle with super saturated color like urethanes do, then you should be very, very afraid....because they probably weren't human.

That aside, I do find urethanes to be the most beautiful and typically the highest quality eyes, however, I own what is appropriate for the doll. If my doll is realistic, then they definitely don't have urethanes. If they are anime styled, I'll even go for nicer acrylics like bling eyes to get that anime look. The one doll I have with urethanes is meant to look very other-worldly and beautiful in a doll-like sense, so they are appropriate for her.

 

I'm another one who lets the dolls choose which eyes are perfect for them. Sometimes I buy some Cadillac-model urethane or silicone eyes for a certain doll, put them in the doll's head, and go 'meh'.... because that doll needs the Toyota-model acrylics to give him the correct gaze. Other times, it's the other way around. Sometimes two of the same doll will have different eye preferences; one of my Soo Ris will only wear Gumdrops urethanes, but the other will only wear Crystal acrylics. There is a lot of trial and error, so my Bin of Many Eyeballs is huge and wildly diverse.

There's no way of guessing just how they'll look from pictures, either, not even from other owner photos-- not until you get the actual eyes inside the actual doll with his regular hair & home surroundings. I have a decent idea of what general eye type might look perfect in each head, but nothing's ever sure till the eyes are in.

Also, I've never had any dust problems with silicone eyes-- what, does everybody else live with a carpenter & six cats? ^^ For the odd bit of lint, just moisten a sponge-tipped eyeshadow-applicator, and voila. But I've never experienced pervasive dust gathering on anybody's eyes. (Perhaps because my collection is draped during the day.)


My shortlist:

-Gumdrops urethanes have the most perfect striations in the iris, tons of depth, a perfect mid-height dome, and an uncanny 3-D ball pupil that follows you round the room. They tend to come in more solid jewel colors, and they give a doll this ultimately direct gaze I love; their style basically seems to fit the prevailing aesthetics of the sculpts I own. And they always seem to FIT almost everyone, too-- they practically focus themselves. Guys never look spacey while wearing Gumdrops.

-I love Soom silicones, for that crystal-clear wet look with the magical corneas... and for their delicious far-out colors and patterns, as well as their extremely realistic ones. The double-domes do not fit in everybody, for sure, but when they do, I love their self-illumination. Even the single-dome versions look positively liquid.

-For more subtle/low-key or natural colors, blues and greens and hazels, I find I like Eyeco silicone better. Though the iris is more flat, the flecks in their eyes are beyond compare. And they have nice low domes. Eyeco also offer more choices of smaller irises & pupils, good for smaller-eyed mature heads.

-I'm utterly mad for Ginarolo's glass colors (both realistic & primary shades), especially the two-color "rim" eyes, and especially the gorgeously intricate threading in her "Style 400" series. Usually I find the pupil-sizes to run large, & sometimes the domes can be too pointy for small-eyed male dolls. However, when they're on, they're ON. At least 3 of my dolls live permanently in Ginarolos.

-Crystal Acrylics are a beautiful quality plastic, with nice depth & a perfectly clear cornea that doesn't give a 'murky' look like lesser acrylics can. For a doll with sleepy, dreaming, or extra-deep-set eyes, I want a flat eye, so his gaze is less faraway and stoned-looking. (Deep expensive Enchanted Doll eyes utterly fail where Crystals succeed.)


... And I just got my first pair of Dollflowers today (urethane, high dome, flat pupil, but six feet deep and gorgeous) and will test-drive them in my Genji's precious head first thing in the morning!