Robyn from Barbie Life in the City

Robyn from Barbie Life in the City before lip repainting

I decided to give Robyn a closed smile. I also changed the pink stud earrings I gave her previously to yellow. 

Initially, I painted over the existing paint and entire mouth area to remove the teeth using a mixture of dark red acrylic paints.

The red look was just okay but it still seemed a bit off to me.

I thought if I lightened the color that would help, but it did not as illustrated here.

So, I darkened the lip color with a mixture of brown and red acrylics and sealed it with varnish.

After a few days passed, I looked at Robyn and was still not satisfied. I realized it was not the color I had chosen. It was the shape and width of her lips that was throwing everything off. 

So, I removed the paint with 100% acetone to start with a fresh palette.

In addition to removing the teeth, my goal, after starting over, was to achieve a more realistic lip size. To do this, I would not paint the full sculpted width of the lips. 

Even though pink lips on dolls with deep complexions is one of my pet peeves , I used what I had on hand to re-paint Robyn's lips.

I was about to choose a color from a box of oil pastels when I instead used a mauve-pink metallic marker. I had purchased the marker earlier in the week to use for its intended purpose, to write. 

The mauve-pink marker worked well until I filled in the center of the mouth with a gold marker. I didn't like the gold highlight. (I didn't capture that effect in a photograph.)

I used an almost dried-out brown Sharpie to cover the gold area and that is where I stopped. 

These are the markers I used to achieve Robyn's new lip color.

Robyn is shown in a before and after photograph.

I like Robyn's toothless smile and the decreased mouth width.

Ollie's_Dollies on Instagram felt the same way about her Robyn's toothy grin. Right arrow through to the third picture to see the color Ollie's_Dollies achieved.

  

By the way, because I am not a doll paraphernalia collector, I sold Robyn's kiosk. I am happy to have one less thing to clutter the doll room that is not a doll. 

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Barbie Fashionista 93 Revamped!

Barbie Fashionista 93's original body and the articulated brown neo-Blythe body illustrate the complexion match and the inch and a half height difference between the two.

Since I had nothing to lose except height, high-heel feet, foot size, and a frozen body with one perpetually bent elbow, I decided to rebody Fashionista 93 (first seen here) using the articulated brown neo-Blythe body shown above.

In this photo, taken after the head removal, the disgusting pink lip color is vividly apparent.  It looks as though the doll has taken a huge swig of Pepto-Bismol.

After gingerly removing the doll's head from the body, it was easily placed onto the articulated one.  The next image illustrates how feisty 93 became after her mobility increased.

"I know... you wish you could move like this, don't you?"

After rebodying 93 (hopefully, I will think of a name for her before this post ends), and seeing how the lavender lacy dress swallows her, "we" knew what was in store for her next -- new clothes and shoes to fit.  She is seen next in the lavender dress and in the first of the several Sparkle Girlz fashions she tried on with a pair of red neo-Blythe shoes.

The original lacy dress is too big for 93's new articulated body.  The Sparkle Girlz one-piece denim romper with floral bodice fits better.  With hands on her "imagination*," she wears this with a pair of flat Mary-Jane-style red shoes.  *Back in the day, when a young girl would put her hands on  her hips, adults or anyone older might admonish, "Girl, get your hands off your imagination."

Lip Color Change

After rebodying and finding suitable clothing and shoes for 93 to wear, the next upgrade was a new lip color.  Enough of that awful pink already!  While doing her lip color change, Ryan (Rainbow Fashionista 90) enjoyed a lip change as well.

After the lip color removal, both looked even better with nude lips.  I was tempted to skip repainting but decided I needed to know how they would look with a more appropriate color.  ("I can always remove it," I thought.)

I used a Q-tip moistened with fingernail polish remover to remove both dolls' original lip color, which gave them the lovely nude lips shown above.

Next, a mixture of maroon and true burgundy acrylic paint was used to darken their lips.  Ninety-three's ears were also pierced with yellow quilting pins which now serve as stud earrings.  Why yellow?  I did not have red and the yellow brings out the yellow in the bodice of her romper.

Ninety-three's new lip color and yellow ear studs are better seen in this close-up photo and this is when my opinion of her changed.  She really is a cute doll!

Before and After Lip Color

What a difference a change to a more appropriate color makes.

For both dolls, I left the lip color a matte finish without sealing with varnish.

More Redressing for 93

Since her earrings were yellow, I selected fashions that would coordinate with that color.  The first selection was CeeCee's yellow and black check shirt dress.  This dress had an okay fit, but 93 needed to try others before making a final decision on what to wear. 

This gray bodysuit with a painted-on red tie and plaid skirt paired well with her flat red shoes.

Next, she tried on this cold shoulder floral blouse and a pair of denim shorts.  Because the top almost covers the shorts, "we" decided against this fashion.

Of the three, "we" chose the gray bodysuit and plaid skirt.  Ninety-three is now wearing this ensemble with a pair of red Mary-Jane-style neo-Blythe heels.

The red high heels add length to her small feet and provide a more mature look.

After discovering that the light stripes in the plaid skirt are not yellow, but are white, I painted 93's earrings with red acrylic paint.

To keep them in a steady position while painting, the pointed ends of the quilting pins were stuck into a wedge makeup sponge.  The paint was allowed to dry before re-piercing 93's ears with the pins.

Yes, the red studs look better with the chosen fashion.  Now, should she wear her only original accessory, the Malcolm X-style horn-rim sunglasses or not?

The answer to the question in the above caption is, "No.  She should not wear the sunglasses."  She gave them to her uncle Boris who wears them well as illustrated in the final two photos of this post.

Model 17 from the Barbie Basics Denim collection is now 93's Uncle Boris.

Nia is her name.  She poses in this last photo with her Uncle Boris.

I chose the name Nia for Fashionista 93 after first showing her to my husband and saying, "She needs a name."  He said, "Brenda.  Name her Brenda."  I questioned his choice with, "Brenda?  Why Brenda?"  He answered, "It's a name you can spell and pronounce."  I thought about it for a minute and wondered if she reminds him of a Brenda he once knew.  I thought some more and using a doll-naming convention that I have used in the past to remember people who have died prematurely as a result of senseless American violence, I decided to name her Nia in memory of Nia Wilson, the 18-year-old teen whose life was brutally ended by a deranged, knife-wielding murderer at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train station on July 22, 2018.  So, Nia is her name. 


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