New Fashion, New Attitude

Swappin' Styles Artsy after recent repaint

The last time readers saw Swappin' Styles Artsy, she had undergone a repaint to enclose her former toothy grin.  Additional minor facial enhancement was done as well.  She had been dressed in a $3 Mattel Barbie purple and yellow print, one-shoulder dress, as shown above.

Artsy is now redressed in a handmade tan dress, belted at the waist, which is topped off with an animal-print jacket.  Gold lamé shoulder bag, sunglasses, pet, and shoes are from Barbie Basics Look No 02, Collection 001 accessory pack.  Now all she needs are upgraded earrings and bracelet to complete her new look and new attitude.

Artsy asks, "How do I look?"



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These Lips Are Not as Augmented

Dynamite Girls Dayle with her former parted lips reminded me of Basketball Wives Malaysia.

Here she lies allowing her new mouth to dry after an application of a mixture of white, pink, toffee, and burnt sienna acrylic paints.

No longer in jeopardy of being sold, with lips that are closed and not as full as my previous repaint, Dayle strikes a final pose.

Thanks again Jorge Ramiro and Sheilla B Silver for the inspiration. 

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Oh No... Not Another Repaint!

Yes, but my husband did this one... well most of it.  After his critical review of my first repaint, I  challenged him to do better. 

Using Mattel's original Artsy Fashionista (a thrift store find a few months ago, that by the way has one of the most perfect articulated doll bodies), he removed all manufactured facial paint.  A combination of brush-tip markers (we do love our markers) and paint were used for her new eyebrows, eyes, hint of eyelashes, and nostril shading.  Initially he used a dark brown marker for her lip color that I did not like and had him remove immediately.  I repainted her teeth with white fingernail polish and used  iced copper fingernail polish for her lip color.  This was sealed with clear fingernail polish.  The inner lips were then outlined with my trusty brown ultra fine-tipped Sharpie to add definition and to lessen her toothy smile.  All applications of paint/markers were allowed to dry before the final sealing was done.

I did not like her initially, but after "I" defined her eye color and repainted her lips, I have warmed up to her nicely.  She is definitely a one of  kind and needed to be redressed in something that matched her new face.  That pink Fashionista dress wasn't working well for her.

Artsy Fashionista before and after my husband's repaint with my added touches.

For Jorge, a close-up of Artsy (now named Reghan by my husband). This photo was taken before Reghan was redressed.  Click the above image  or the one below to enlarge.

Repainted Artsy wears Mixis Piao Liang Girl fashion*.  Shoes are from the Barbie Basics Look No. 02 Collection 001.5.  I pierced her ears and added gold studs. 

*The pants are adjusted to fit Artsy's smaller-than-Mixis's waistline using double-sided tape at the back closure.

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How Do You Like Me Now?

I toned down Nikki's makeup in an effort to eliminate the former street "walkerish" look as a result of the initial facial makeover I gave her.

Where I went wrong:  I did not remove all existing manufactured coloring because  I wanted to use theirs as a guide.  Big mistake.  Because of their blue eye shadow on her upper eyelids and around the corners of her eyes, I was forced to heavily shade these areas with a darker color. Instead of removing her original lip color, I covered it with acrylic paint, which was too bright, and accentuated the former doll of the evening look.

What I did to minimize my errors:  The added shading on the lower lids is now masked with concealer (yes, some of my concealer).  I probably could have removed it with alcohol, but I didn't want to chance a smeared mess.  Black and brown Sharpie pens were used to recolor her irises and pupils.  A dot of white acrylic paint adds an illusion of reflected light.  I did not disturb the upper eye shading or her new eyebrows.  Finally I repainted her molded teeth with white acrylic paint and used shimmery topaz  fingernail polish for her lip color.  Her teeth and lip color were sealed with clear fingernail polish.

The following collage illustrates the stages of her transformation.


She's not perfect, but I think she looks much better now.  What do you think?

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My First Repaint

First off, let me make this perfectly clear: I am not posting these before and after images of Fashionista Nikki because I am proud of the end result. I am just sharing my first and probably last attempt at doll repainting where facial features are concerned. Painting is not one of my strong points, but I have longed to test the waters of repainting a doll's eyes.  Finally, I did it.

Nikki's original brown eye color was fine, but the blue eyeshadow above and below her eyes was not very appealing to me. Pink lips on dark skinned dolls is also one of my pet peeves. Because her Fashionista body may ultimately be used on another doll, I didn't mind taking a chance on damaging the head with my inexperience at painting using paints and improvising with my trusty brown ultra thin Sharpie marker. (My hand can better control a marker than a paint brush.)

Here's how she looked before.

Nikki now

Above are side-by-side comparison images. Pretty scary, huh? Scary enough for me to move back into my lane of "doll collector/historian" and put the paint brushes and acrylic paints down. 

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