#faceup process

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From Arrival to Customized

My last doll arrival of 2025 was a Magic Mirror Fafnir in raspberry from Marta’s in stock sale from September/October 2025. I originally wanted the purple Fafnir, but she sold out from under my nose. So I got the raspberry one who is literally vibrant pink in person.

This is her from her day of arrival on December 24th, 2025. A true Christmas dollieh! I didn’t do a proper box opening, but she arrived with the artist’s Faceup and a free wig and eyes. I really love the sculpting on her body, it’s almost a crime to cover up!

First thing I did was swap her wig and eyes, as I had some spare ones that fit her. The dress is from a friend and fit her decently.

Naturally since I’m a Faceup artist, I bond the best with my dolls through painting them, so…

In the punishment jar she went for a swim. Luckily it wasn’t hard to remove her Faceup!

Here she is all clean! It’s a little sad that she doesn’t have her fangs, as Fafnir normally has sculpted fangs in her lip corners. But no matter, as the artist sold her to me at a small discount.

The next step after sealing was to do the blushing for her. I chose to use a bright red for her “blush” areas, and pinks, purples, and blues for contouring..

Then I did the eye-part detailing, meaning eyebrows, eyelashes and eyeliner. The eyebrows took on a life of their own. I also knew I wanted a fantasy Faceup for her, I just wasn’t sure what, so I came up with a few options.

I went with option 1 in the end! I also coated her ears in duo chrome shimmer pigments, which are impossible to truly appreciate in photos.

So naturally, I took a video of her finished Faceup! Just look at that shimmer and shine!

It’s always fun for me to compare faceups on the same sculpt, even better if on the same doll! So here’s her two Faceups compared.

And here she’s all together! I commissioned a dress for her from a friend, and it fits her great. The colors match her wig perfectly too.

I’m glad I got her, and her bright pink color has grown on me. The purple one is for sale secondhand, but I’m on a strict no-doll buying diet and I don’t need this sculpt twice.

[izasfaceups]

Restoration through Blushing

I just wanted to go a little more into detail about how I reblushed the last two heads I posted, as both are heavily faded and a little greened due to prolonged light exposure. The bigger head is a Soom Thera in bronze from 2015, and the smaller head is a Luts HDF Madeleine in real skin brown from 2016.

This is just how faded they are under their faceups. You can easily tell it’s from sun exposure due to the uneven nature and the fact that the head in the right has built in eyebrows now as the paint from the last Faceup protected the resin color from the light.

First step for me was to blush them with pastels to make the base colors even again. I used different browns and reds to counter the greening. It took about two layers to get them to where I’m happy with their colors.

Next step was my usual, adding the blushing, contouring, and deepening the colors. Pastel colors I used were reds, purples, blues, and some peach tones. I rarely use straight up browns for lighter tans, because I find it often looks unnatural. You’ll also notice that I added the eyebrow base blushing so I know where to paint those.

In the next step I added the eye detailing (brows, lashes, and liner) and a small dusting of shimmer for the two. They are lo at done at this point, only missing their white freckles and then the finishing steps!

Here they are with their white freckles sealed in and they are glossed. I normally do freckles first, before I even blush, because it softens them more. But for white freckles I gotta do them just about last so they don’t discolor when I blush.

Here are the two faceups finished! Not a bad restoration if I may say so!

Thank you for looking!