Customizing! Doll Freckles, Lips, Eyelids

I'm really excited! I found a Samantha doll at a garage sale yesterday for $10. She is PM and has great hair but the rest of her is a disaster. TONS of nail polish on the vinyl, light stains on the body. Luckily no chew marks, and the only lose limb is a leg. I can fix the leg and get the stains out of the body, but I had to remove her face make-up (cheeks and lips) in order to get off all the nail polish which was all over her face/lips. I now need to repaint the eyelids, lips, and cheeks. If I am going to do so much repainting and restoring work on her, I'd really like to customize her. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but so far, I hadn't found a doll cheap enough that was also in bad enough shape to justify customizing.

I am wondering if anyone has any tips on what paint brands/colors to use for lids, lips, and cheeks? I'd also like to know if anyone has any tips on adding freckles they would care to share?

Thanks guys!

Jamie [img]graemlins/rose.gif[/img]

I am sure other's will have some better tips for you, but maybe some of this will be useful..

IMO, It is difficult to make actual paint look right as blush, try regular powder or cream blush without sparkles, lipstick or better yet, a lip liner pencil. Color the cheeks, then buff it in with a clean cotton ball. Apply color until you are happy with the amount of blush. Clean with the cotton ball each time until no color comes away.It make take a while, but it is almost fool proof and has a lovely effect.

For the other painting, I would use acrylics. On the lips, be careful not to go too pink. When I paint lips, I always mix the paint with a little water and a little textile medium, it seems to make the paint more durable and less likely to bleed into the vinyl. Using the paint as thin as you can get it will give the lips a more natural look. If the lips are too shiny when you are done, you can lightly "sand" them with plain white paper to make them a little more matte. A magic eraser works well for this too.

For eyelids, a few thin coats is better than a thick coat. Use a paint such as Liquitex that is high pigment, and you will get better coverage in few coats. Again, I would add a but of textile medium.

For freckles, try not to go too dark. I have found that if you really NOTICE the freckles, they may be too dark. You want to see them, but not really have them STAND OUT at you. I like to use a toothpick.If you go slowly, it is very easy to wipe away and freckle you do not like and try again. Thin your paint with water and again, add textile medium if you like. Once the freckles are dry, you can buff them lightly with clean white paper to make them blend in and look very natural.

This is just how I like to do things, I am sure there are plenty of other, better ways. I know we would love to see what you come up with! Have fun!

I?ve used some crushed oil-free pastels as blush on my Felicity?s cheeks and it?s a great natural look.

I made sure they are oil-free because I got the tip with the pastels from other doll customizers along with the warning that anything that contains oils may react with the vinyl.

So I?d be careful using human cosmetics on vinyl dolls, too, even though I haven?t heard anything about problems with human cosmetics on AG dolls specifically.