Which do you prefer plastic,acyrlic, silicone or glass eyes?

I've tried soft glass - very lifelike, but it gathers much more dust than light. And it's a pain to keep in the sockets.

Glass: Souldoll. Well, it must have been the colour - dark brown, almost black - but they completely missed the depth everyone thalks about. They were shiny, all right, but like two buttons.

Acrylics: I have a green pair from Dollmore and I LOVE them. They practically glow in the least of light, have depth, and follow me....yes, the pixels I can see, but just if I look very closely...
One day I will get urethane, I've heard so many great things about them, but until than, I stay with acrylics.

 

Glass glass glass. : ) I tend to like the subtle threading (or lack thereof) in the irises, and the colouration of the pupils tends to be set deeper into the eye, giving a brighter and more realistic sheen when light reflects off the transparent upper layers. They come in so many different shapes and styles. The one deterrant is occasionally getting stem eyes where the back is sharp.

Acrylic eyes are nice, but not enough companies are investing the money to make rich, glowing eyes and instead focus on popping out cheap eyes with poor and uneven threading. Some of them with stems and open backs ended up developing a grey-ish tone to the whites, whether due to transparency and darkness inside the head, or actual degrading of the material.

I loathe silicone eyes; their squishy soft surface attracts dust and hair like crazy, and the pupils tend to trap light, often giving them a cataract-y appearance both in life and photos. They're also difficult to keep in place, as they kept squidging around whatever eye putty I tried to use. I've talked to a few people who tried hot glue with them in desperation and ended up melting the eye. D:

 

There are a lot of acrylic eyes that I like, sure some of them look incredibly flat, but I don't think they all do.

Though I am a little biased as I'm not ready to put down the $$ it costs for a pair of glass ones. Though I'm sure when I eventually do, I will like the glass ones as well. At least those have more of a variety (whereas that's what I don't like about the acrylics).

 

Lately I find that I am using my urethane eyes the most. I love Mystic eyes
If I could afford Zouks I would get a bunch of them too

 

I like glass eyes overall. They are easy to clean and don't get damage too much.

 

Recently I've been getting more serious about what I'm going to get for my first doll like more than one: outfit, wig, eyes (pair), ect. I'm getting a Luts Kid delf An and he already comes with a random pair of acrylic eyes. I'm going to buy him another pair of eyes but I'm not sure which type are the best. Does anyone know which kind of eyes are the best, it can be your personal opinion. Sorry if I'm being such a noob but he's going to be my first doll and I want him to be perfct

 

I've owned acrylics of different types and varying qualities of glass - and I have to say, some eyes just work better for certain dolls. One doll I had arrived with ED eyes - I didn't know it at the time - but I traded them out for blue glass eyes that were of lesser quality that I love more. Two have LG glass eyes, which are of the higher-medium grade, and another has Luts glass - average quality. My most valuable dollhead though, has the cheapest eyes - Souldoll acrylics. I like the look they give him more than glass eyes ^^; So I guess what I'm saying is, it will vary doll to doll, but it's safe to be confident in glass eyes.

 

Thanks for your help. I was worried about acrylics because I've heard a lot of horror stories about the color not turning out the right way.

 

It's funny, but it can go any way with eyes. In general acrylics can be really fake looking, BUT, my all time favorite pair of eyes is a cheap pair of hazel acrylics. I would suggest looking around the board a lot for inspiration. Try the Gallery/request thread for others (not dolls), and the first many threads are all eye color stickies. You should find something there you fall in love with!

 

Thanks for your help. I'll do that.

 

In general I find urethane eyes are far superior to any other sort (personal opinion warning ahoy), and though they're rather expensive compared to other types and take a while to arrive after ordering them, their quality is completely unmatched as far as I'm concerned. Check out the Mystic Eyes and Gumdrops requests threads to see just what these eyes can do for your doll - they really are glorious

 

It depends on personal preference I think. I have SOOM silicons, (lots of) Acrylics and Luts Glass, soon to have Masterpiece too and I switch around to create different effects It might not be so helpful but it might be a question of swapping eyes and seeing which you like best

 

I love the eyes that Safrin sells; the colors are WONDERFUL in person and everyone that has seen my dolls with them has complimented me on how brilliant and lifelike the eyes look.

 

My only beef with acrylics if when you can tell that the iris is something that was printed off. Schwarzaugen acrylics's irises are pearly smooth, though. =D However even if you can see the pixels it's generally only really close up.

Urethane eyes are super cool but cost a lot of money. They have depth and shine and often an interesting grain, though.

Glass eyes photograph quite well but are less neat-looking than urethane when just staring up them up-close.

 

I really love soft glass eyes, like Masterpiece and Eyeco. Depending on the color, they can look incredibly realistic, and are super easy to position.

 

What is best? That depends on individual taste. I've always leaned more towards acrylics, because of the wonderfull detail (Masterpiece and Souldoll are my favorites), but I've found a glass eye brand that I like a lot too (Special Glass) and have seen some other glass and urethane eyes that I'd like to at least try out.

Sometimes you can also end up with eyes that you think are beautiful, you put them in the doll, and they just aren't right. If you have the money to buy a few different pairs, I would suggest expiramenting and seeing which ones look best in your doll. No matter what the material eyes can vary a lot from company to company.

 

This is a really great question and as has been noted, the preference can be really subjective and personal. It can also depend upon the mold - the SD-sized CP dolls look really great in almost any eye - they have wonderful eye molds and shapes! I'm not so sure about the smaller molds, but Luts' acrylic eyes are nice.

I prefer the soom soft glass because of the fit and the way they reflect the light, soom also sells a lovely acrylic. Glass eyes have not really worked out well for me but Karl glass eyes are fantastic.

One thing you might enjoy is browsing through all our eye request threads stickied in the BJD-Request subforum "Everything Else".

 

My personal favorites are the soft glass eyes that Masterpiece & Eyeco make. They have a lot of iris detail so really look natural. Soom eyes are nice but generaly don't have that type of detailing & I haven't found any glass eyes that have anything more than a few striations. For VERY inexpensive acrylics, Artisque can't be beat. They're in the $4 a pair range but are made with all the detailing of Masterpiece.

 

Thanks everyone! I'll be sure to look at the things you mentioned. All of you have been a huge help. All of you get hugs and cookies!!!

 

silicone all the way... squishy squishy! and they catch light really well.