Dollieh Sanctuary

Let's face it, I'm an experimenter by nature. I think the real key to using /anything/ on a doll is to have a good understanding of what it's going to do and how... what can go right and what can go wrong. I see a lot of things I sometimes use on dolls get a lot of "OMG DON'T" from some, but I think the key is caution and knowing how much risk you're willing to take. The two biggest ones?

Acetone (which I have used, but only once as it's honestly not that useful). Acetone affects the plasticizers in vinyl. While it might be useable to remove some doll makeup providing you use it quickly and then be sure to rinse VERY thoroughly, I really don't find it worth the bother. I've never damaged a head with it, but since it usually just smudges modern factory faceups around (meaning a lot more time before you can rinse, which affects the safety) I don't have much use for it either. (I remove factory faceups with a dremel and a light touch... rubs em right off! )

Acetone, though, does have one interesting trick due to the plasticizer leeching that I may want to try on a spare junk barbie knockoff head someday: it also makes the vinyl shrink. If you completely submerge a vinyl head in acetone, it will first swell up, and then shrink down. I learned of this because of people using it to decrease the head size on the badly proportioned 12" Star Wars figures. I've also seen partial resizing done this way by just soaking the bottom half of the head in order to shrink a neck hole slightly (with the side effect of a bit of a pointier chin). However, it's very very likely to remove all traces of faceup. Also, due to the loss of plasticizer, the head is likely to be a bit harder and a bit more brittle, proportionate to the degree it was soaked. Some heads reportedly can split during the shrinking process, and I have a feeling you wouldn't want to try to reroot a shrunken head... But someday I might try this on a junk knock-off Barbie just to study it firsthand.

However, one thing I'm more curious about and might try as far as acetone is, because it removes plasticizers, I want to see what it does for old plastics that have started to ooze their plasticizers. You might know what I mean. Old stuff that becomes sticky and there's really no known treatment for it. While, thankfully, I have no dolls like that, I do have an old pair of Cabbage Patch Kid shoes that are horribly tacky. I can't put them on the dolls like that, and can't really do anything with them other than leave them in a baggie or toss them... so they seem perfect experiment fodder. Worst case, they get brittle and break and have to be tossed anyway. Medium case they still get sticky afterwards, only they now can't be put on a baby Cabbie due to sticky instead of not being put on an older Kid. Best case, they wind up baby Cabbie shoes and no longer ooze... at least for a good while. As I said above, with the 'don't' stuff, it's all about the risk you're willing to take - and if something's looking like a candidate for the garbage bin anyway, there's not really anything to lose (plus, I just hate to throw things away until I've tried EVERYTHING. XD )

Another thing I've recently seen arguments against is 10% benzoyl peroxide acne creams. Unlike the acetone, this one I DO keep on hand and use. Without it, I'd have likely never removed all the gelpen from Ivy's face, not to mention treated her Cabbage Pox.

The key with it, is to remember that it is a bleach, and that it is just as possible to bleach the vinyl as it is to bleach the stain you're trying to remove. The key to success is which one's going to be more susceptible, and that can vary wildly between different manufacturers and even different batches of vinyl. Any time I use it, I first make sure to test an inconspicuous spot (like on the edge inside a head) for 24 hours to make sure the vinyl batch isn't one that will have some weird extreme reaction. Then, after applying to the stain, I wipe if off at least every 24 hours and check. If I see even the slightest hint of unwanted changes to the vinyl, I stop applying it. Usually, what I see is the stain being just a hair lighter... Getting the stains off Ivy took a bit over a week of daily applications this way, and I halted with a couple of her Cabbage Pox still faintly visible (if you know where to look) because I noticed a very faint lightening in the vinyl around the pox spots.

A bad reaction to acne cream or really any other bleach is likely to yellow a doll or even turn them orange. Apparently, the pink tones in the dyes used in vinyls are more sensitive to bleach than the yellows/oranges. This is also why some vinyl dolls will turn yellow in the sun - they're bleached by it and the pink tones went first.

So, are there any things you use on your dolls with reasonable success that tend to make others flail when they hear you do it? What tricks or precautions do you use to avoid the disasters?

The big difference between acne cream and Twin Pines Remove-Zits is that acne cream was formulated to work on human skin, whereas Remove-Zit was formulated (by a real chemical engineer) to work on vinyl.

Another big difference between acne cream and Twin Pines products is the former is about $3 for a tube that will last me years, and I can wriggle it into just about any other shopping order... while the Twin Pines stuff is $16 ($20 or more once you count in the shipping since it's only available from one place and I can't squeeze it onto an Amazon order). And has a shelf life of 12 months. $20 is nearly half my monthly income, and I can't justify spending that on something that I'd end up throwing most of it out (I've used the zit cream maybe 3 times in the year since I bought it, still have almost a full tube, and it's still good). I won't be getting any Twin Pines products any time soon, and I know I'm not the only person here on a tight budget.

One way I discovered to loosen a Monster face was to stick the head in a bowl of water then heat it in the microwave. A lot of the face paint then comes off with the slightest touch.

DollyKim wrote:One way I discovered to loosen a Monster face was to stick the head in a bowl of water then heat it in the microwave. A lot of the face paint then comes off with the slightest touch.

Ooo. I'll have to try that next time I have a factory faceup I want completely gone and it's going slow with the dremel. (I can just imagine telling the Evil Overlord "Leave the microwave plugged up a sec, I need to cook a head")

The dremel and a fine tip, tho, are great if you only want to remove individual eyelashes or such. That's how I got the lower part of Meritamen's eye makeup off before just painting over the rest.

WhiteDove01s wrote:Another big difference between acne cream and Twin Pines products is the former is about $3 for a tube that will last me years, and I can wriggle it into just about any other shopping order... while the Twin Pines stuff is $16

And worth every penny. It's worked every time and I've never once had to worry about what ill effects it might produce.

And has a shelf life of 12 months. $20 is nearly half my monthly income, and I can't justify spending that on something that I'd end up throwing most of it out

Full potency for 12 months. It still works after that, it just takes longer. I've used it as much as 18 months beyond its shelf life date and it still worked.

(I've used the zit cream maybe 3 times in the year since I bought it, still have almost a full tube, and it's still good).

Your acme meds have probably gone past their prime as well. Check the tube/box for a "use by" date. It might be time to throw out your acme meds.

I won't be getting any Twin Pines products any time soon, and I know I'm not the only person here on a tight budget.

I'm sure you're well aware this can be an expensive hobby. For those who have paid a premium price for a rare/expensive vinyl doll, spend the extra $20 to clean them properly with the right product when needed. If you're just cleaning/repainting garage sale action figures, then keep using your acme meds. There are plenty of other dubious cleaning materials and methods out there you can try too. Just don't report them as reliable alternatives. Someone might mistakenly use them on an expensive irreplaceable doll.

Personally I use acne cream on my DDs and I've never had any discoloration in NS dolls. However you can't use it on WS because it will yellow it, so I'm very careful not to stain my WS girl. I've never used Remove Zit, not because I think it's too expensive, but because I've heard that it can cause swelling and texture change, which usually goes away but is sometimes permanent if you get a bad batch. So it's more like I'm too scared to use it.

Jezrah: I have never had Remove Zit damage a single doll's vinyl - though I did accidentally get it on the harder plastic kneecaps of a 50cm and discover it will melt that

On the other hand, I will never use acne cream on my dolls. I'd rather wait until I can afford the Remove Zit because, as has been mentioned by K2, it was designed, by a chemical engineer specifically for dolls - vinyl dolls. He created it because his wife was a collector and couldn't find anything else that worked. If I'm going to be spending hundreds of dollars on a doll then taking the less expensive route to clean it seems crazy to me. Maybe Acne cream won't stain the doll today, or tomorrow, but long term it will and the cost to replace parts on an obitsu or DD is far higher than a jar of Remove Zit.

I think that different types of vinyl will react differently though. I know I've heard of acne cream discoloring a Barbie for example, but Barbie vinyl and DD vinyl are quite different. Again I'm not avoiding Remove Zit because of cost, $20 is nothing compared to the cost of my dolls. But when I came into the hobby I read a thread on the DD forum that scared me off the stuff even though it's made for vinyl.

http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=821

And I have dolls that I used acne cream on over 3 years ago and still no damage. It won't hurt the ABS plastic joints either. I'm not saying that acne cream is definitely the way to go for every person or for every doll, I'm just saying that it's what I've used on NS DDs and I've had no problems.

K2! wrote:I've never once had to worry about what ill effects it might produce.

And the funny thing is, I WOULD. Among other things it's not water soluble (requiring another Twin Pines product to rinse off, which I find suspicious.) and I try NEVER to put anything that can't be quickly rinsed off on my dolls. Period. We all have our lines we won't cross.

K2! wrote:Check the tube/box for a "use by" date. It might be time to throw out your acme meds.

Late 2017. And I've had it roughly a year and a half already. Also, unless that's some kind of Wily Coyote joke/diss, it's spelled 'acne'.

K2! wrote:I'm sure you're well aware this can be an expensive hobby. For those who have paid a premium price for a rare/expensive vinyl doll, spend the extra $20 to clean them properly with the right product when needed. If you're just cleaning/repainting garage sale action figures, then keep using your acme meds. There are plenty of other dubious cleaning materials and methods out there you can try too. Just don't report them as reliable alternatives. Someone might mistakenly use them on an expensive irreplaceable doll.

See, we have a disagreement on what is dubious. I have some heavy suspicions about the safety of the Twin Pines products even if I COULD afford them. They don't tell you what exactly is in it, it isn't water soluble so it can't be quickly removed from a doll if there's a sign of trouble, and it is not some holy grail of 100% safe and effective - there are a lot of reports just in a quick google search of it causing bleached-out areas or even bubbling and permanent swelling of the vinyl. It's not possible to make anything 100% where vinyl is concerned because the composition of the dyes and the plasticisers can vary from batch to batch.

Any chemical used on your dolls is going to run some kind of risk of a reaction (otherwise you might as well just put water on 'em). I make my choices about the risks that I, personally, am willing to take for my dolls. Twin Pines products are not a risk I am willing to take.

I will not apologize for the fact that, apparently, my poor self and my cheap 'garage sale' dolls are not up to some standards for this hobby, as for me it is about the enjoyment I get from the dolls and not what I paid for them. However, I do acknowledge that there are people on this board who have some very expensive dolls, and so I have made a little warning for my sig. I was going do do one showing my dolls, but it seems this is more necessary.

Jezrah wrote:Personally I use acne cream on my DDs and I've never had any discoloration in NS dolls. However you can't use it on WS because it will yellow it, so I'm very careful not to stain my WS girl.

That's interesting (tho not a surprise, since it's affecting the dyes and those are different dye lot/colors). It's going to take me a good while to save for them, but I plan to get more 1/6 obitsus in a year or two. I may make sure to get one in white and look for a scrap of flashing I can safely trim or see if I can squeeze an extra white head into budget so I can run a test of this for my blog and see if the obitsu NS and WS behaves similarly. I expect it will, but you know what they say about 'in theory'.

Jezrah wrote:I've never used Remove Zit, not because I think it's too expensive, but because I've heard that it can cause swelling and texture change, which usually goes away but is sometimes permanent if you get a bad batch. So it's more like I'm too scared to use it.

I've seen that too, as well as one nasty report of blistering. Plus, I can't find any info about what's actually IN it, and it's not water soluble - you have to buy another Twin Pines product to get it off the doll. Definitely NOT for me.

Greyhaunt wrote: I'd rather wait until I can afford the Remove Zit because, as has been mentioned by K2, it was designed, by a chemical engineer specifically for dolls - vinyl dolls. He created it because his wife was a collector and couldn't find anything else that worked. If I'm going to be spending hundreds of dollars on a doll then taking the less expensive route to clean it seems crazy to me. Maybe Acne cream won't stain the doll today, or tomorrow, but long term it will and the cost to replace parts on an obitsu or DD is far higher than a jar of Remove Zit.

It is not 100% safe and effective. It is not possible to be because of the differences in batches of vinyl. Maybe it won't blister or warp a doll today or tomorrow, but it still could. It has happened. Personally, with some of the horror stories out there, I'd want to know where this guy got his degree, and if he secretly resented the time his wife spent on those dolls. I consider Remove-Zit on the same risk level as acetone. Congrats on always managing to use it safely, but that doesn't mean it'll work out for everyone. Nothing does.

That said, replacing my dolls' whole bodies would cost less than a jar of Remove-Zit, especially after factoring in that you have to buy another product to safely rinse it off. For the sake of those with expensive dolls, I have added a warning to my sig.

Jezrah wrote:I think that different types of vinyl will react differently though.

They will. The dyes and plasticisers used are not standardized and can very from one factory to another, or even one batch to the next if a change has been made. That's why it's impossible to have something (other than maybe water) that's going to be 100% safe on every batch of vinyl out there. No matter WHAT you're putting on your doll, ALWAYS test in an inconspicuous place first.

Jezrah wrote:I know I've heard of acne cream discoloring a Barbie for example, but Barbie vinyl and DD vinyl are quite different.

I actually once heavily coated half a spare Barbie head's face in acne cream and /tried/ to discolor it as a test before I ever used it on any of my dolls. It proved surprisingly resistant, but that was THAT head and THAT batch of vinyl. And, as I've said, every batch is different.

And people should be able to make their own choices about what they're willing to risk for their dolls.