Yellowing: Is it "Natural" or does it constitute "Damage"?

- Do you feel that yellowing is just a natural feature of resin, or does it constitute a damaged doll? Is yellowing a sign of a well-loved doll, or is it a defect that signifies improper care?
I think it really depends.. I've got mixed feelings on yellowing, but I don't assume that if something is yellowed that it was not cared for properly, especially given that the resin can yellow even if the doll's been kept in a box out of the sun forever. I feel like if you love your dolls and take decent care of them and are OK with them being a little yellow, that's up to you.

- When does yellowing cross the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?
I don't know if there's really a clear line, either. It's all personal, and depending on which brand it is.. sometimes the resin yellows into something lovely, other times it looks bad.

- Would you buy a very yellowed doll? If so, would you try to "fix" it? Why or why not?
Depends on the doll but if the doll was pretty, or looked nice yellowed, and something I wanted.. yes, I'd buy it.

 

- Do you feel that yellowing is just a natural feature of resin, or does it constitute a damaged doll? Is yellowing a sign of a well-loved doll, or is it a defect that signifies improper care?
As other people have said, yellowing is part of the nature of the material, and i don't think it is 'damage' per se. I would feel unhappy if a secondhand doll I'd bought was markedly yellowed and it hadn't been addressed by the seller prior to sale, though...although, I can't see any on my Pipos Baha, and he's more than a year old now - I suppose I should check against his (unused) 'hoomin' feets and hands to see!

- When does yellowing cross the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?
I suppose this is in the eye of the beholder. I've seen some photos of 'beauty greening' that are quite distressing, but on the other hand, with the right sort of faceup, I imagine it could be used to a very pleasing effect. Maybe we should think of it as 'patina' instead of 'yellowing'?
Blotchy and uneven yellowing is definitely a minus, though I wonder if this, too could be used as a creative effect? A kind of Pied Beauty-thang...or a 'beach bunny' concept - complete with 'tan lines'.

- Would you buy a very yellowed doll? If so, would you try to "fix" it? Why or why not?
As seen above, I have lots of ideas to 'work with' on a yellowed doll (there's more driftin' about in the ol' bubble machine, too!), so if it was a mold that had caught my heart and the price was appealing - for sure!

I think attempting to 'fix' or reverse yellowing is possibly a bad idea - I agree with previous posters who have noted that 'aged' antiques that have not been tampered-with are higher in value, in both aesthetic and $$$. To do so would involve some form of bleaching, and (as anyone who has ever 'gone blond' knows) that is never a kindly process, even when done with the utmost care.

I sometimes wonder why you never see dolls cast in a resin that is yellow to start with? Why not head the process off at the pass, by making it an 'as intended' non-issue? Sure, one type of yellow looks like jaundice, but there are also many beautiful things that are yellow: daffodils, sunlight, lemondrops, butter, gold...etc. (and yes - tigers!) In working with colour palettes, hues of yellow are often the note that makes a combination sparkle.

I wonder what colour a yellow doll would, uh...yellow?

 

I recently adopted a French Resin narae from the Market Place.. and to be honest, I couldn't tell you what her original skintone was. If she's yellowed, it's all over. She's from 2005, so I have a hard time believing that a resin that's notorious for its yellowing would not have yellowed at least a little bit in four years.

But I honestly don't know if she was originally a Snow White that has matured into a lovely creamy shade, or a Pinky White that has done very little yellowing at all. My other dolls are Natural Skin (with the exception of one Chocopuki), so I don't even have something to relatively compare to... and I'm thinking that with French Resin, a comparison with a more normal resin would be innacurate at best anyway...

 

Yellowing is completely natural, it happens... though there are some dolls that when you see how the yellowing is disperesed it is obvious it was poorly taken care of.

My first comission for a friend was for a doll she had purchased used. One side of the doll was a distinct yellower color than the other and only part of the leg was yellowed. We were able to deduce that the uneveness of yellowing would have been the doll wearing shorts and was sitting in a window .... One side worse than the other and only around what looked like clothing had not been covering him.

I also know a girl who I thought was crazy becuase she loved her doll so much she hiked up a mountain with him ridding practically piggy back.... The doll was not a year old and the yellowing damage looked like any of my given dolls would after 8-10 years. She loved him so much it didn't bother her and she got a lot of flack for it but she was lucky that a few oxi baths put him almost back to his original color. Most would see such an incident as reckless doll care.

I think the time when yellowing becomes an extreme problem is when a seller does not mention that it has happened. I know I looked at a doll recently who's body was older than the head and the person said and had pictures the body was substantially a different color and had yellowed, but my problem was that they were selling for the same price I could buy new for an unlimited doll.... that's where I draw my line. If your doll has substantial yellowing, like really really apparent and is less than 5 years old and not a limited I do not see how you can expect to get full price of a new one even if the price did depreciate (like a lot of the korean companies marking their dolls down) since you purchased it.

I don't have qualms about buying limiteds they may have some yellowing damage. I mean if it's like one of my dream dolls that I've been desperate for for years, I can always find a way to fix it and be happy with it.

Though judging on age and resin say if you're familiar with a particular companies resin and how it ages, how yellow it gets after a year with minimu lighting and stuff like that, you can usually tell when someone has done something care wise that has caused the doll to become far more yellow than it should be for its age.

 

Yellowing mostly bothers me for aesthetic and 'upgrading' reason. My best example is my old MNF Chiwoo that i got from LUTS when they were still selling them. So i have the "B-line" body now according to Fairyland. And I'd love to upgrade to the A-line body, but i worry that my Chiwoo's head won't really match the new resin all that well.

Second example is my Gomidoll SS Iru. This head was my dream doll for the longest time and i finally was able to find him on the marketplace. And even though the Dollmore body the head is on right now is great and works and doesn't photograph badly, I hate the fact that IRL I can look at him sometimes and see a distinct color difference from his head to his body.

Yellowing is mostly just an annoyance for me is all.

 

I think if you plan on keeping the doll forever it's "natural" but when you want to sell a doll it automatically turns into "damage".

 

- Do you feel that yellowing is just a natural feature of resin, or does it constitute a damaged doll? Is yellowing a sign of a well-loved doll, or is it a defect that signifies improper care?

For me it all depends on the extent of yellowing and the time span. I have a two year old French resin doll and her resin colour has turned into a honey tone, but she was of a yellowish resin colour to begin with. I don't mind. It's a nice colour and the resin colour is even all over the body. This is a natural feature of resin.
I've seen the same type of doll in the market place that had distinctive "tan lines". (Sales pictures gave a good view of the naked body.) It was obvious this doll had been in sunlight with clothes only partially covering the body parts. I think this is damage done through improper care.
This does not have to be bad. My dolls have nicks and scratches too, because I play with them. I could have avoided this kind of damage by not playing with my dolls, but I don't want that. A well loved doll you'd rather have with you in the living room than in a dark box is prone to yellowing.
This is not the same as a doll that yellowed more on one side, because it was consciously left in the window sill for months. That's exposing your doll to UV light and not caring.

- When does yellowing cross the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?

What I find unacceptable is when a doll yellows within days or even hours. There have been cases known of people taking their dolls outside for an afternoon to do a photo shoot or go to a meeting and afterwards the exposed resin parts were discoloured noticeably. This is the result of unstable pigments and can be considered a faulty product from the doll company.
Most people know resin yellows, but I think a lot of us would like to enjoy the resin colour we chose for our dolls and not end up with a surprise package.

But dolls yellow. I have a BW El and he used to be paper white and now he’s creamy yellow. I recently got him new hands and those hands are paper white. The match is horrible, but I’m waiting for those to yellow too. I don’t really mind.
I’m going to replace his paper white wig with an ivory coloured one, so the resin looks less yellow, but I don’t mind he’s yellowed. I could have kept him in a dark box or closet when I don't play with him as I do with some of my other dolls (the French resin one), but I like having this doll around in the living room so as a result he’s yellowed more than my dolls that are kept in the dark.
It’s what MyFunnyFriend said. To me this doll is not damaged, but "aged" and "loved". If I would put it up for sale (I don’t plan on doing that), buyers would look at it as "damaged" and are not likely to pay full price for it. Especially when you can easily buy a brand new El at Luts.

- Would you buy a very yellowed doll? If so, would you try to "fix" it? Why or why not?

I wouldn't mind buying a visibly "pre-loved" doll when the yellowing is even over the whole body (I don't like those tan lines), but I would mind paying retail price when I can get a brand new one from a doll company for the same amount of money.
I make a lot of hybrids and sometimes a yellowed body will match better and sometimes no yellowing is preferred. It really depends on what I'm looking for.

Once I tried to fix a yellowed doll I bought, but it didn't help much. If I consciously buy a yellowed doll, I'd clean it and see if that helps, but I'd probably just say that the yellowing adds character to the doll.

 

- Do you feel that yellowing is just a natural feature of resin, or does it constitute a damaged doll? Is yellowing a sign of a well-loved doll, or is it a defect that signifies improper care? I would expect some yellowing on a doll that was a few years old. And perhaps one that has been in a very hot or humid country. Uneven yellowing I might agree could constitute improper care, but... well, case-by-case basis, I think. Sometimes I don't think it's the owner's fault at all, as in some of the documented cases of unstable resin doing unusual things!


- When does yellowing cross the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable"? As Muisje mentions, when a company's resin is so unstable that the doll does something completely unexpected when exposed sunlight for a short period of time... I think this is unacceptable. That case of the tan Dollkot Kiss, for instance, with its extreme reaction to sunlight must have been really upsetting


- Would you buy a very yellowed doll? If so, would you try to "fix" it? Why or why not? If I wanted a particular, hard-to-find, old doll, then I'd probably have to suck up the fact that it would be yellowed already ^^ I think sometimes yellowing can just be dirt... if so, then that's great news, as it can probably be cleaned right off! If it has truly yellowed beyond just getting dirty, I mean... I'd give it a scrub with a magic sponge and rubbing alcohol, but if that didn't work... I don't think I'd do an all-over-sanding. I'd just accept that it was yellowed and that was that! I also would think twice about buying a sanded-due-to-yellowing doll. I've seen a couple in the market-place that have had this done to them, and it puts me off... I would be worried the features, for instance, had been distorted slightly... I also heard that sanded dolls yellow back again even faster. Though I don't know if this is true...(?)

 

- Do you feel that yellowing is just a natural feature of resin, or does it constitute a damaged doll? Is yellowing a sign of a well-loved doll, or is it a defect that signifies improper care?

I really don't see how even when selling you can call it damage since it's a natural progression of age on resin. Of course you should mention it and presumably if the problem's severe enough, it'll show in the photo's anyway, but something that happens even to dolls kept boxed in a cupboard hardly signifies improper care....and anyway, I fall into the category of "it's your doll, do what you want with it" thinking, so people are free to yellow it up as much as they like as long as they take their use of the doll into consideration when pricing to sell.

- When does yellowing cross the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?

I've yet to see an unacceptably yellow doll (and I've seen some banana flavoured midgets in my modding time). For me, if I wanted it enough, I really wouldn't care what colour it was. Yes it's nice when they tint evenly, but owners can't always prevent them going badly, you only have to look at the Bambicrony coloured elves that went 18 shades of wrong after mere minutes in daylight to see that. Of course it would be nice if the companies found a way to fix the instabilities, but it's inherently an unstable substance to tint, so there will probably always be problems of this nature.

- Would you buy a very yellowed doll? If so, would you try to "fix" it? Why or why not?

Can and have! More than once! In fact, once I got a yellow doll deliberately because I LIKED the tone it had gone and went as far as purposefully yellowing hands to MATCH it. I've also sanded off yellowing, blushed it over, dyed it over and on one occasion tattooed over a yellowed patch, because I really don't see it as a major issue and if it means people like me, who just aren't bothered by the inevitable colour changes resin goes through get VASTLY cheaper dolls as a result of the issue, then go us

 

i dont worry about yellowing...its like collecting old stamps and coins...they yellowed and change over time...but by then i may be dead....im only worried about preserving them for future generation...but its no longer my concern.for now i enjoy their beauty...for myself and i buy and enjoy what i want.

 

Is there anyway that yellowing can be avoided altogether? You would have to get a new face-up in order to correct yellowing on a doll wouldn't you? If yellowing is unavoidable then how long can I expect my dolls to stay their original colouring? Does anyone know what colour resin is more likely to yellow. I know there are problems with french resin but what companies have doll that yellow quickly? Sorry if I am asking too many questions.

 

Yellowing is simply a natural part of the life cycle of resin, it occurs from oxidation and UV exposure, yellowed dolls simply are older and should not be considered any less beautiful or valuable for showing their age.

 

- Do you feel that yellowing is just a natural feature of resin, or does it constitute a damaged doll? Is yellowing a sign of a well-loved doll, or is it a defect that signifies improper care?

I feel that yellowing is natural, it is just a part of these dolls and who they are. The only time I ever have an issue with yellowing is when it is uneven, or actually makes the doll unattractive, as in the case of the Dolkot kiss who went green on exposure to sunlight

- When does yellowing cross the line between "acceptable" and "unacceptable"?

I find no issue with it as long as it is even, when there are distinct lines or differences I have issues, such as a yellowed head that is now a different colour to the body, or hands, or if you can see "tan lines"

- Would you buy a very yellowed doll? If so, would you try to "fix" it? Why or why not?

I have sanded and bleached yellowed dolls before, this was because of personal preference, whiteskin dolls who looked dirty due to yellowing. The characters were supposed to be white, so I sanded them all fresh and pale again. Would I buy a very yellowed one? yes, I would, and I would likely try to fix it if it made the doll uneven or less attractive, but I may well not if it suits the doll.

 

It depends on the doll. All dolls will yellow to some extent over time--it's what resin does as it ages. Now having said that, unless there has been a lot of sun exposure, it's not very noticeable on NS dolls. BW and French resin are more susceptible, and tan skin tones can sometimes react badly with sunlight (though not all have this issue). If you don't display your doll in sunlight and don't expose them to extreme heat, then you'll slow the yellowing process.

I have dolls that are three and four years old. My oldest (4 yrs) has a very pale skin tone (AR Crystal Rose--it's rosier than BW, but much paler than NS). His color has changed a little, but it's not drastic and IMO doesn't detract from his beauty. With the exception of my French resin boy, my other NS dolls have not discolored in a particularly noticeable way--I'm sure they are different than when they were new (just because it's been long enough that I would expect to see a change), but without something to compare them too, they don't stand out as being yellowed.

If you want to try and treat a yellowed doll, then yes, you will probably need to remove the faceup to treat the head. My advice is to take basic precautions with your dolls (namely don't display them in sunlight and keep them away from cigarette smoke), but don't panic about it, either. Enjoy your dolls--yellowing is often not nearly as bad as it sounds.

 

i bought my dod sha when he was already three years old. i was informed that he was a bit yellowed but the seller assured me that he's yellowed quite beautifully. it's even and y'know it's not really yellow. more of a really light peach hint. i think the final selling price w/ shipping was somewhere around $400 but i woulda paid more. i love him to pieces!!!

 

I don't think yellowing is necessarily bad. If you've had the doll for such a long time, it's inevitable and you just have to work with it. But if the doll yellows after just a month, I'd consider it "damaged."

 

I think yellowing is a sign of love, as many have said already. If I noticed my doll getting yellowed then I would probably chide myself for doing something (though I would have no clue what) wrong, but I would still love her. I'm an avid fan of stuffed animals, too and I've kept all of my childhood toys: most of them are ripped, stained, dirty, and their fur is clumpy from snuggling. I consider the situation to be the same with dolls, no matter their expense: if they've been loved, that's great.

I would buy a yellowed doll if I absolutely loved them, but I don't have the technical expertise to fix them up or anything, so I would really have to absolutely love them. And I agree with what many others have said; yellowing is a bit like a sign of character like the doll has lived a long, proud life and is still standing tall.

 

I think i'd really only mind if it was noticably yellow toned skin. I prefer dolls to be pretty pale... but i prefer yellow skin to pink. How long does it take for a doll to get yellow after being in your room every day anyway?

 

I see it as a badge of honor for my Dollzone minis. Xavier was one of the first, his head plate says "I'm Here", and he's got around in his short life. This says he's here for the long haul and I wouldn't care if he turned purple. Then I could tell people he's just holding his breath :P