Since day one of owning this doll I knew I had to do something to address her nails situation. Not that they were necessarily bad or anything, but I am obsessed with nails in general and toenails in particular.
I read on this forum somewhere that it's best to prepare the nails while they are detached, then attach them to the doll.
The thing is, I could not easily detach her existing toenails - they seem to be well glued. So I sat and thought about this for a while contemplating what's the best course of action. In the end, I decided not to risk damaging her toes by putting too much force when trying to remove the nails, but rather to paint them while they are attached, masking the area around them in order to not to get any nail polish on the TPE material.
Although we have beautiful "permanent" type nail lacquers that needs curing in an UV lamp, I decided not to use them on this project as I was unsure if the UV lamp would cause any damage to the TPE, so I went with a standard air-dry lacquer instead.
Was it a good thing to proceed this way - I don't know, maybe time will tell. In the end I think I did not do any damage and I am very pleased with the result so far.
If any of you are disgusted by toenails and/or do not like seeing them, please look away now - for I am about to cover in detail the process that I used.
First step was to
very lightly file the tips of her toenails, taking care not to touch the TPE material with the file. This was needed to make their shape a little bit more to my liking (I couldn't do too much however, as they were kind of short to begin with) and to eliminate some rough edges from the production process.
Second step was to apply the masking tape. This worked out well in the end.
- s1.jpg (189.55 KiB) Viewed 332 times
Third step was to apply the first coat of nail polish. I chose a dark red nuance for this project, which I particularly like in combination with some lighter red nail glitter.
- s2.jpg (183.9 KiB) Viewed 332 times
4th step was a second coat of the red nail polish.
- s3.jpg (216.27 KiB) Viewed 332 times
Typically I only use 2 coats of this polish when doing my wife's nails however in this particular application I felt the need to apply a 3rd coat as the 5th step.
- s4.jpg (219.76 KiB) Viewed 332 times
For some reason the macro function in combination with the phone flash reveals even the slightest imperfections. The whole thing looked so much better in person, that appears in the photos!
6th step is a first coat of the light red glitter
- s5.jpg (205.41 KiB) Viewed 332 times
7th step was a second coat of glitter
- s6.jpg (211.17 KiB) Viewed 332 times
8th step which was a first clear coat, brings a much needed shine:
- s7.jpg (264.13 KiB) Viewed 332 times
Finally the 9th step is a second clear coat, which I don't typically apply, but in this application I felt the need to cover some imperfections.
- s8.jpg (153 KiB) Viewed 332 times
The end result, after carefully removing the masking tape:
- r1.jpg (124.41 KiB) Viewed 332 times
I then repeated the whole process on her left leg. My poor ol' body was starting to hurt, apparently I did not choose the best position to perform this task. Here she was asking me to get back down and finish the job
!
- p1.jpg (227.61 KiB) Viewed 332 times
As I said, so far I am very pleasead with the end result.
- r2.jpg (196.5 KiB) Viewed 332 times
Why so many layers? Because taking pictures to document the process revealed to me so many imperfections. Also, I want this to last for a long time. Absolutely I expect that I will need to re-apply a layer of top coat from time to time, in order to restore the shine.
