Joe looking good with purple hair. I made the choker necklace thing to go with the outfit. Or more like I dressed him in an outfit that allowed him to wear a choker so I have an excuse to make a similar choker to what Zico had been wearing. XD The messy/wavy hair look is nice though a bit odd to see in a furwig and isn't what I usually style furwigs as, but I wanted to imitate a hairstyle JB had in a photoshoot. The kpop idol thing is taking over my aesthetics lol.

Also, I surprisingly still really like Joe's faceup? And I'm worried that if I ever try to change it I'll not be able to make the grumpy Esthy/Distant Memory Peroth sculpt not too frowny again. Joe really doesn't have the neatest of lines (his eyeliner especially is a bit wobbly), but well. Let's keep this until I get really convinced that it needs to change. Also Joe's the only doll I have who has zero gloss anywhere on his faceup. Just a random fact I feel like pointing out.

(Also, sorry if the first photo is a different size, I don't know why photobucket keeps making it weirdly sized D: )

Redid Caillen's faceup, and now it's much much darker than it was before. I'm not super used to it yet, but it's a nice/interesting change. I've been watching way too much kpop videos and the male idol makeup has wiggled its way into my subconscious when doing this faceup. I also did a commission on a tan Soom R. Hyperon in the same period and luckily I was able to keep my kpop looks off of him lol.







Because I did these 2 faceups almost at the same time, it was pretty interesting to note how differently I work with my own dolls and a customer's. I was way more careful and neat with the commission than my own dolls. I might have made my brushes blunt from how I kinda just poked/slapped/dabbed the pastels on. I should probably get a new one :/ Lol. But yea, doing my own doll's faceup is more fun cos I can try new things. The red accents, the (not very even/symmetrical) eyelid crease and general colour scheme/blush placement on Caillen's faceup were new learning points for me lol. Oh, and a gradient lip that is more graduated than the previous ones I did.

And a photo of Caillen with the new faceup.



He gives me much feels with this look, though I'm not sure if it's cos of the new darker look, the general dude with makeup feel (yes I am still obsessing over kpop right now lol), or the smirk he has. It's kinda funny but I think his faceup is more intense than Sion's one, and Sion is supposed to be the emo kid. No, not really, but Sion is supposed to still have a darkish faceup although I did lightened my hand on his current rendition compared to his previous one (since he's a bit more grown up now).

Also, I updated Caillen's photo in the profile page and damn, so many of them need new photos D: Ughhhhhhh. And some of them could do with a fresher faceup. Oh man.

Haven't posted any doll photos on dA, tumblr or here because my dslr is in school, and most of my dolls are at home. The thing is, I did take some photos here and there in school but I didn't save them to the computer (lol). And I've been taking photos of the dolls at home with my phone and uploading on instagram, but it's usually a quick photo so it's very different from a usual doll photoshoot. Feels really long since I did that properly...

Also, I always get a customising itch but don't end up doing anything because:
1. The dolls I want to customise I don't have (i.e. I have to buy, and I don't want to spend that money when I am saving for doll bodies)
2. the dolls at home that I can do faceups/whatnot on are not that many
3. I am lazy and I find excuses (lol)

That said though, I do intend to redo Caillen's faceup once I get time, and maybe Kristolf''s at the same time. Sometime last month, I painted over Kris's old/current faceup, because I wanted to see how it'll do if I darkened his lines in the next faceup. And then I realise a way to get more faceup practice is to always paint over the faceup I will be removing. Since the main reason why I don't like doing faceups is because of the trouble to spray MSC (outdoors etc) and the time and effort to remove faceups. So by painting over the old faceup, I don't need to do either, and I can get like 0.75 of a faceup practice. Ish.

Probably the only doll afterwards who still has a pretty old faceup would be Joe. The rest have been recently repainted, other than the ones who have faceup from other artists.

Got a youtube comment today, which was a pretty nice comment complimenting the doll in the video and which I wouldn't hesitate to reply to, if not for the fact that they mentioned they were waiting for a factory blythe to customise. And man, I do want to reply to the rest of the comment, but I'm not too sure what I am supposed to say about the factory blythe when I'm not supportive of any un-legit dolls. I could just not mention the factory blythe in my comment, but I'm not sure if avoiding it in that way is inappropriate and also indirectly allowing people to assume I am alright with factory dolls.

As I said in an earlier post, I am against factory blythes and recast for myself, and I do not wish to see my doll friends have them, but I do know that that is not within my control, so I try to avoid people who do have such dolls. But when it is a comment on my youtube video, I feel like I should (and I do generally want to) reply to comments, but the factory blythe bit throws me off. I could of course just not reply to the comment but I'm not sure that's the best course of action... Sigh. I am not going to say mean things about factory blythes to the person, of course, but what should I say while making it clear what my position is? (I know some people probably wouldn't care, but I find it quite important to make clear my stance?) :/

As usual, school means somewhat of a hiatus. But I kinda miss the twins, so I dug around for the photos I took shortly after doing their faceups, and edited one. Wanted to do something moody and blue, kinda cool (haha, pun on the colour tone as well!) editing.



Sion has since had his lip ring and earrings glued on, but I don't have newer photos. He is kinda in the same outfit anyway, so it's good enough.

Other updates: I went to the SG Doll Carnival last Saturday, and it was a pretty good day. I didn't take any photos because I didn't bring my camera. Dolls and camera and trying to buy items...that's too much to juggle for me, based on my past experiences, so I went ahead with just the dolls and buying spree, lol. In the end I mostly bought clothes from Applebin for Pebbles, Tiyana and Elly. All the girls save for Freddie, haha. And the nameless Unoa Roar got a wig. Seriously that girl has alot of things, for being just a faceplate - blank and bodiless nonetheless!

I'm also trying to save up for a body for Freddie. I'm mostly certain on the Impldoll female Star body with the small chest, and I'm just wondering if Real skin is the closest skin tone to Volks NS. (I know there's resin matching available but I'm not really ready to send her headcap off for it. I can probably blush her head to match or live with the difference.) Yeah, so saving. And also on the side trying to figure out if I can save for a Unoa chibi body as well. The reason why I'm sort of saving up for both at the same time is because I'm planning to get the Impldoll body from taobao, so I'm saving up in SGD (to convert to RMB when I buy), and the Unoa body I'm planning to get from Unoalchemy so I'm saving up in USD with what I get in my Paypal (from either Etsy or secondhand sales). I'm reluctant to convert the USD in my paypal to SGD in my bank account before using that to pay for the Impldoll body because I'll lose some money for each conversion. That is however, quite tempting because I am about 2/3 to the amount for the Impldoll, while if it's for the Unoa body, it's only about 2/5. Sighhh. Well, I just gotta keep saving up slowly I guess.

This isn't fully thought out, but I was thinking about fake/recast dolls, and how the Blythe community has a different take (in general) on fakes compared to the BJD community.

For BJDs, I am anti-recast, and I thought that when I wanted to get into Blythes, I should maintain that stance. Because after all, why would this stance change from hobby to hobby? That would be hypocritical. So for a while, I considered Blythes, but kept away from buying them because I didn't want to get into another hobby when I considered the TakaraTomy ones expensive, and I would rather spend on my BJDs anyway. I researched a bunch on Factory dolls and Taobao Blythes (coined TBLs though that's not an official term), and realised they're the BJD equivalent of recasts. Well, not exactly the same, since factory Blythes are supposed rejected/discarded parts from real Blythes, but for them to have such a consistent supply of Factory Blythes makes me question if they are indeed rejected parts. When in doubt, I don't buy, so I've just been steering clear of anything other than official Takara Blythes.

I had discussed this with my boyfriend when I first found out about factory Blythes and TBLs, and was lucky that when he got me a present, he bought an official Blythe, knowing my stance on fake dolls. In a sense, I think if he didn't buy my a Blythe, I wouldn't have gotten myself one first. (Although right now I do think it'll be fun to buy some more Blythes, I want to get my BJDs their bodies and stuff first, so no new Blythes, just clothes for my current one).

Also, I have been a bit wary/uncomfortable with following Blythe owners and artists. Because they're not as firmly against recast/fakes as a whole, and because some customisers prefer buying factory Blythes to customise, it's hard to tell which dolls are real, and which are fake. And I don't know. I'm not going to harass anyone, or even, really, tell them that their dolls are fake if they are not aware of it. I just don't see myself having enough tact for it to come across as being concerned/to inform them, and I think it will not be terribly polite. I've mostly just been ignoring the fake ones I do come across. But, I feel like that's also not the right thing to do? Like, it makes me uncomfortable. I don't know. I'm not sure what the answer is for this, if there is one, but ugh, fakes are annoying me in the hobby. And yet, I don't think it's right either, to just be pointing it out to their owners. And like what about those people who are anti-recast but okay with fake blythes? Should I still follow them? I feel torn about this.

I mean with doll friends in real life, when they do bring up fakes, I would just say it's not worth it to buy them (most of the time the intention is to practice), because there's plenty of good alternatives. Want to practice modding or faceups? There's practice heads from Doll Family. And right now Unoa faceplates on the second hand market are being sold for around 30-50USD, which is a pretty good price. If you find yellowed/damaged ones, it's even cheaper. So, really, there's no need to get recasts or fake blythes to practice...? And most of the time they just mention it in passing, so I don't really have to worry about them getting fakes. But with online communities, I don't know what's the boundary and if I should just close the page and mind my own business. (Which I know is not entirely right either.)

Urethane eyes comparison

Just a video showing some of the different types and brands of urethane eyes, especially the sparkly crystal kind that are really popular lately. I have Oscardoll, Sproutydoll and Makoeyes (Mako is mostly just a side comparison though).

On that note, I really like how Cypher looks with his new Sproutydoll eyes, they're really really shiny, and the colour is just gorgeous :D The little roar face rocks her glitter teal/turquoise eyes too, but she needs a name, and a body, lol.