Dollieh Sanctuary

So, while browsing Flickr, I noticed some people opted to go up or down eye sizes for the resin kids. I've got a specific look in mind for a Bluefairy Olive, and had been wondering whether to drop her eyes down to 14mm, like I had been planning for my Shushu girls.

And to the rest of you - what sizes do you go with? Do you stick with the company's recommended size or fiddle around?

I use recommended size for my girl, but I have a friend, who uses always a size smaller eyes the get "more natural look". It works fine, and looks good.

Has anyone used size larger eyes? Do they fit?

I have 18mm in a Dollzone 45cm, 16 are recommended. They fit but if the eye holes had been beveled they would sit more snuggly in the sockets. The irises look big and his eyes look a bit darker than they could be. I'll look for pics but it's the black haired boy in my avatar. His wife has 16mm.

Usually you can go up or down a size without much trouble but don't go beyond that. Too small fall out, too big won't fit in.

I usually follow the company recommendations, but not always listed as same size eyes are really same sizes. There are some variations from different brands and different materials (glass, acrylics, etc) and you can also order custom eyes from some Etsy shop, that obviously doesn't perfectly fit the company standard. My Dahlia came with 14 mm Dollmore glass eyes, that I have changed for a custom Candykitten's resin pair, also 14 mm: they fit greatly, but they are slightly smaller than the Dollmore pair and I had to be careful when placing them, in order to not show gaps.

All 3 big dolls wear downsize eyes. Its makes Megu-Chun(14mm instead of 16mm) look livelier while it gave Jack(10mm insteas of 12mm) that squinty effect.

As for VRyu(10mm instead of 12mm) who has half open eyes, its not much of a choice since I can't see his eyes properly otherwise. Although in his case I would like to get some Safrin eyes to see if it could catch more light.

I start with the recommended eye size, and then try up or down a size depending on how they look. I've also got a few pairs of eyes from Kanis Augen who let you specify if you want normal, small or large irises and pupils (on some of their eyes at least.) - I'm sure I've seen other places that do this too.

I also mostly use white blutack as eye putty as it doesn't stand out as much if there's a bit of a gap!

I generally go one size down, but with a couple of my dolls I've actually had to go two sizes down to get the look I want.

It depends on the doll and what my preferences are. Akane came with 16mm, and they were switched with 14mm. I got Khar 18mm which are smaller than his default eyes.

On the other hand, Torie's are the recommended size, but I wanted a more young and cute look for him. I also used the recommended size for my 1/6 Haruka head when I had her.

My BJDs all wear the size recommended by the companies, but in some cases (especially Lati) I think going down one size might look just as good, if not better. It also depends on the eye brand somewhat. I have lots of 16mm eyes for my Soom Little Gems, and even though they're all supposed to be 16mm, some definitely are larger than others. The original Soom ones fit perfectly of course, as do the Enchanted Doll ones I have, but some of the glass eyes I got off Ebay are bigger. Not quite 18mm big, but bigger than 16mm should be.
And like others have said before, it also depends a lot on the kind of look you're going for. Larger eyes will make your dolls look cuter/more anime-style, while smaller ones will make them look more adult.

Thanks for all the replies everyone! It would depend on the sculpt and the kind of eyes, wouldn't it? I wonder if there's much difference in silicone or urethane eyes when compared to glass or acrylic?

I was looking at Bluefairy's BFE eyes. Since Olive has a doe-eyed look to her, I was a bit worried that dropping the size to 14mm would look off.