Was looking at the likes on my doa page when I realised someone liked this post I made in "What is the meaning behind your DOA username" discussion thread.

My reply back in Jun19, 2015:

I used 1675alf back when I was on livejournal for other stuff. Doa was probably when I started using cian as a username. Cian was the name of the doll sculpt I wanted then (Luts cian, haha. He doesn't fit my aesthetics now though, which is somewhat sad) and also the hero of a novel I was reading at the time I signed up. So I thought, why not? I go by cian, or cian1675 if cian isn't available. Unfortunately this name gets mispronouced a lot. >_< The common mispronunciation is see-urn, which sounds like "sian" which means bored in Singlish (the slang we use in Singapore), so that's a bit unfortunate. Haha.

I totally don't use my lj anymore. Think I really only signed up because sd_sg, a Singapore BJD livejournal group was the place to go for BJD stuff in Singapore back then? (Along with SGcafe which has also died down, at least for doll stuff).

And I forgot how Luts Cian was my dream sculpt back then. Hahahaha. Well I mean, I do have a Luts Bliss and they have somewhat similar aesthetics but it's still different. I also forgot about the hero of the novel I was reading (I really don't remember what it is I read at that time. Must have been like 7-8 years ago).

As for the pronunciation of Cian... it's Key-urn. Everyone mispronounces it, tbh. But I don't actually use the name in any real life capacity; people just call me by my actual name if I do meet them in person. Or if it's just a meet to sell/buy things kind of meetup, no names are actually spoken during the exchange, so there's that. But yeah, the username keeps getting mispronounced. And at this point I'm cian on so many platforms that I don't even think about WHY I use the name as much as I just do it. Lol. I don't actually want to be called cian outside...my brother's sniggers when he tried calling me cian aside, it's just... not my name? Haha. It's really just a username that stuck because of how much I used it, but it's just that.

This is pretty random, I guess, but I just felt like writing about it. I realise my blogger account is also under cian, which must mean that I actually started using this name since I was like 14? That's 9 years already, wow...

Also I have an issue with thinking up new usernames so even my kpop tumblr blog is cian related (it's stillcian1675.tumblr.com lol). And my ao3 and AFF accounts are cian1675 too. I think if anyone googles cian1675, all my accounts will come up. The weirdest part about all this is that all my accounts are for different things - personal stuff, doll stuff, kpop stuff... but they're all under the same username because I never thought I would/should separate them? Hmm... I'm in too deep to go changing now (Okay, I'm lazy), but yeah.

Anyway, this has been a username version of rambling on "What's in a name?" (I don't remember the rest of the poem except "Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet". Not even sure if the quote is exact but I'm too lazy to google.)

I think I won't be doing faceup commissions for a while after I finish up the ones I already took. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm busy with school and my faceup skill levels aren't good enough for me to charge more, but at the same time I feel like what I'm currently charging isn't enough for the amount of time I spend doing it. Unfortunately, the last commission I have right now, I'm still waiting for the customer to tell me what they want on the faceup... communication is less than satisfactory but I think I just have to hope it goes on eventually, if slowly. To be honest, I just kind of want to finish up that commission so I won't have that on my mind anymore, and then I can temporarily close my faceup services.

My faceup skills have improved a bit while doing commissions, but I still spend more time than I would like doing each faceup. I'm more careful with commissions than I am with my own dolls' faceup, and that translates to drawing lines slower, leaving more time between layers so I know I'm happy with each layer before I move on to the next. I think it'll be nice to go back to just doing faceups without that kind of pressure. My own Unoa Lilin default is still like lying there in my drawer. I did lines already, and I can count the faceup as done if I just seal it and gloss, but I feel like I want to do more when I have time and/or inspiration so I haven't sealed that faceplate yet.

Not really in a doll playing mood recently. I still think they're all cute but I guess I just don't have the energy to pick them up and play for the moment. School and thesis sucks. It's the holidays right now but I'm supposed to still be working on my thesis. :/

Unoa Chibi Roron box opening

I actually got the Unoa Chibi Roron on Thursday late afternoon, when I was going out, so I could only open her at night. I didn't have time to edit the photos and resize them until just now, but here's the box opening for the Unoa Chibi Roron I bought off Mandarake :)

First of all, she arrived really quickly, I used EMS, but I'm still surprised by how fast it is. She pretty much came to me 5 days after I paid (4 days for shipping), and the only thing weird about the shipping was how Speedpost (the Singapore website) didn't update the tracking, so the parcel was recorded as "processing" when she was already on her way to my house. But anyway, that's a small error, and I did get her before I went out, so that's all good.

This is the box she came in, which is a Mandarake shipping box. Mandarake always ships their stuff in their shipping boxes, I think they have different sizes for lots of different things, because I got different boxes for the wigs and faceplate I've bought from them last time.


Flipped the box over to open from the other side so I won't have to peel the EMS plastic off, since it's always really sticky. So you can see this is actually the bottom of the Unoa box, because I did open the outer box from the bottom. There's a bunch of bubblewrap and paper to cushion the box, nothing fancy but well packed.


And once I took out the box, the Unoa box itself had a layer of bubblewrap.


They even have this plastic thing to hold the box so it won't open, which is nice.


Then the main part, the doll! I wasn't completely sure what I would get exactly, because even though Mandarake takes photos of everything that would go in the item, the photos are kind of small, so I was waiting until box opening to know what I got exactly. There's the Unoa Roron with faceup (slightly chipped on one eyebrow), and she's wearing some green glass eyes. There's also a blank Roron default face. So you know the default Roron comes with 3 types of teeth/mouth parts. I got all three (in that little package on the right), but it basically means I only have the fullset of teeth for one of the Rorons, and the Roron with the faceup only has one set (which she's already wearing inside). Basically,. I have 4 teeth parts to share between 2 Rorons, when I think usually I should have 6, but anyway I don't know why I have two default Rorons faceplates to begin with so...

Ah yeah, there were also Glastic 12mm eyes (default Unoa ones) and a furwig (also default Unoa ones I presume), the eye mechanism, and a little solid rod of resin that's supposed to be a tester for faceup and solvents. There's also the certificate/instructions, and some wires (probaby for restringing?)

I didn't really look at all the items super closely to be honest, because I was already kind of overwhelmed since there's more little items than I expected, lol.

Anyway, a closer photo of the doll. She has body blushing, and I think she also has MSC sprayed all over the body, which is chipping at the joints. I don't know if I'll remove it but for now I'm definitely just going to leave it because I don't have the time to clean her up properly. The body blushing isn't fantastic, but it isn't super bad either, so it'll be okay until I have time to go clean her body up.


And since I actually bought this Roron for the body, and not the doll, I took out the two Unoa faceplates I already have (they're the ones with eyes in the photo below). The Rorons are on the top, and the ones I already own are below. Mandarake wasn't sure what skintone the Roron is, and to be honest, I don't know either. Both my Unoa Lilin default and Unoa Lilin Roar are supposed to be fresh skin, but they are slightly different shades. They kind of match the body, and they also kind of match the two Rorons, but since the kind people on UnoaFreaks already told me that Fresh and Normal skin are pretty similar... I don't really know what skintone the Roron and the body are. But anyway, they all match, mostly, so it's not an issue. (Also, I did sand the Roar faceplate to get rid of the shininess, so that might affect colour as well).

Ah, and I just realize you can see the shiny rubs of the MSC on the hip/thigh joint in the photo above. Yeah, the MSC is chipping in her joints. But ah well. It's not very obvious.

Then I tried the faceplates onto the body. I didn't really take a lot of photos because I got distracted, but here's a photo of the Lilin default, with the Unoa wig:


And one of the Roar face, with her proper wig and eyes. I don't know what to name her yet, but this little girl is the official owner of the chibi body. :) She's really cute. I haven't really decided on what I want to do for her faceup, and I'm thinking I might just wing it as I go... we'll see. If the weather is okay, I might spray MSC on her tomorrow, since I have to do a commissioned faceup as well.


Also I don't have photos, but the Chibi body is chubbier than the Unoa 1.5 body. Chubbier fingers and chubbier calves. It's so cute. :D :D

And oh yeah, the Lilin default will probably be a body snatcher until I decide what to do with it, so she (he?) is still a floating faceplate. The 2 Rorons I'm probably going to sell, once I take proper photos in natural lighting. They're not as cute as the Lilins I already have, which is lucky, because I don't think I can take having so many faceplates around. I also need to take photos of the green glass eyes to sell. I don't even know what size they are though. Anyway, sorry if I don't sound too enthusiastic, I'm typing this at 2am, and I'm sleepy. Plus, the actual logistics of selling the extras and getting the faceplates I do want faceupped is a to-do on the back of my mind, so it dampens my excitement about the new doll, lol. Either way, I'm going to go and sleep now. Goodnight!

Dawn to dusk or dusk to dawn, depending on whether you see the photos from top to bottom or bottom to top. Anyway, Dennis has his body back, after lending it to Freddie for months... I dressed him in something different, and made him 2 necklaces and a bracelet that you can't see because his sleeves are too long. SD13 dolls wearing SD17 tops are my current aesthetics for their dressing, lol. But anyway I just realized you can't see those either. I should have taken more full body photos instead. Ah well.

And speaking of Freddie, I did an OC tag on instagram for Freddie, which I realize I never posted here, so here it is:



I don't think I write about my characters much nowadays. Half of it is because I find some of their stories a bit ...juvenile, like it's pretty obvious I wrote it when I was a teen, and I've not gotten around to reworking it. The other reason is just that I'm lazy, and I spend my free time playing with dolls without caring about their characters (pretty pretty things) or writing fanfic for other stuff so... But they do have some character/characteristics that's related to their stories, so this is Freddie's. She's actually a cute little girl on the inside, lol. Nah, not totally, but she has her girly points. And she's also in a poly relationship with Caillen and Zeke. Those two had a bunch of issues before, with Caillen taking a long time to come to terms with the fact that he's not straight, but yeah, they grew up, matured, got over that. I'm not making it sound very interesting, I think, but I don't know, I always feel a bit lame typing their stories. Which is weird, considering I do write fanfics, and I did write a poly fic once. But well. My OCs are my babies which I don't want to show the world, ahhahaa (or something like that). Ignore my rambling. Just scroll back and enjoy the pretty pictures of Dennis, yeah?

Wee, the Unoa Roron is available. I just paid for her, and all I have to do is wait. :) The faceplates will finally have a body. Crossing my fingers that she'll match with the faceplates. (i.e. hopefully she's fresh skin, instead of normal skin, even though normal skin won't be too far off but you know, the closer the match the better). If the photo is accurate, I should be getting 2 Roron default faceplates, one with the default faceup, one blank. The faceupped one is definitely going to be sold, and if there is really the blank one as well, she will either be sold or become an extra faceplate for the Roar face. I still haven't decided if the Lilin default fp will be a different character, but at least they can all share bodies.

Also, side note for myself when I order from Mandarake next time. If you use paypal and there isn't enough paypal balance in your account for your purchase, they'll just charge the whole sum to your linked debit/credit card, instead of splitting the payment (i.e. charge what they can to the balance, and charge the remainder to your debit/credit card). Kind of different from when I ordered from other places like ninestyle, but it works out since I didn't really want to touch my paypal balance anyway.

An update. I went ahead and put the Unoa Chibi Roron to my cart on Mandarake. Now it's time to wait to see if she's still available. One thing is, I'm not too sure if she's fresh or normal skin, because the staff don't know either, but I'm hoping she'll work for a body for the faceplates. Hope everything goes well... It's been so long since I made a large-ish purchase for doll stuff and ughhh, I feel so nervous. :/

Just wanted to edit something. And I went for the heavy edited effect, cos why not? They look so moody here haha. Also I did some new thing with my watermark, not sure if I like it this way? But whatever, we'll see.

On a side note, I don't know if I should get the Unoa faceplates a body before Freddie and/or which body should I get for them. Definitely a Unoa Chibi body for at least one of them, I suppose... But should I? Should I? There's a deal that seems pretty decently price right now but ughh, I so didn't plan on buying anything and I'm not sure if I should. I am super stingy with my money spent on dolls lately, because of other expenses :/ Sighhhh. I feel like I should sleep on it, but I think the deal will be gone tomorrow when I wake up, lol. Though I mean, that's a decision too, I guess.