The Doll Forum

Hello!

I have had an odd thing happen. I ordered and received a Dolls castle doll, 'Iracone' . Every step of the way, including the apparent video of the doll ,in factory, before being sent i made sure the color of the doll was correct. I bought it off the 'naughty by nature' website here in Australia. The only option was 'Tan' so i assumed all the pictures of the doll online was the 'tanned'.
I love the body shape, its chunky and curvy which is a nice change from having a (much loved ) WM doll.
BUt...she really does have a reddish Tan that isn't apparent in any of the online photos , nor the video of 'my doll' in factory.

I fully trust Naughty by Nature as a company, and also Dolls Castle (who make different dolls but some quality in detail needs be attended to) but i presume all studio shots, and factory doll shots are taken in bright light and under fluorescent factory light, causing the doll to look a lot lighter than in real life.
In normal room light my doll looks very 'red-tanned' , not like any photos i looked at in buying the doll.

Also, another weird thing is when i go to take a picture, my phone seems to lighten the skin as well! I'm defiantly not imagining it .
I DO like woman of color so there's no qualms racially . Its just odd my doll didn't arrive exactly how i wanted.
Has anyone else had this issue?
AS it took a bit of a delivery blunder and many many days to get , there's no hope of return, even if Dolls Castle ok'ed it. Im going to live with it. ( Id attch a photo but because i've a new account i cant until i have some approved posts. Ive had an account here years ago so no stranger , just a new account)

Im happy to review Dolls Castle dolls further as i think they have a lot of potential but...there are buts.
heres their link. (my doll defiantly doesn't have the contrast between nipple and skin like in these pictures!) https://dolls-castle.com/product/iracone-150cm-j-dc03/

First, you say you bought "a Dolls castle doll" from "the 'naughty by nature' website here in Australia," and you say that Dolls Castle "make different dolls." This seems to imply that Dolls Castle is a manufacturer; but my understanding is that they're a vendor. Certainly they are listed on this site's list of vendors, and I do not see them listed as a manufacturer on this site. This may be a case of one vendor working with another vendor to help deal with Australia-specific import issues, but I thought it worth mentioning because, if my understanding is correct, the actual manufacturer of your doll is some third company. I don't happen to recognize the specific model shown at the link you provided, so I can't say what that manufacturer is, but it's worth keeping this in mind because the exact same thing could happen again if you buy another doll made by the same manufacturer but bought through another vendor.

Second, it's pretty well-known in this community that it's hard to judge the exact color of a doll from photos. As you've discovered, lighting, how cameras react to particular colors, monitor calibration, and other factors can lead to a doll's skin tone looking different in person than on a web site. There's also the fact that the color of the TPE or silicone can vary from one doll to another, either because of batch-to-batch differences or because the manufacturer may change the formula for its skin tones once in a while. Thus, if the exact skin tone is important to you, you may want to contact your vendor to buy a small sample. Sometimes you can get a simple block of silicone or TPE in the specified skin tone; but if not, buying a vagina insert can do the trick. Of course, this won't help for the sample-to-sample variation, but it will help for the photographic artifacts.

Third, the nipple contrast is generally achieved by painting at the factory. Most vendors have an option to adjust that to certain values, and the link you provided has just such an option, called "areola color." It's possible that your secondary vendor didn't provide such an option, or whatever you specified got lost or changed somewhere in the order chain. It's also possible that what you're seeing is akin to the photographic effects on skin tone, or that it's a difference from how one employee does the painting vs. another. If by "my doll defiantly doesn't have the contrast between nipple and skin like in these pictures" you mean that the nipples are completely un-painted, then that's definitely a manufacturing defect. You can adjust this yourself by painting it or using makeup on the nipple. There are certainly makeup and painting tutorials on this site, but I don't have links handy. Adjusting the whole doll's color in this way is possible, too, but it would be more time-consuming and, as even the best makeup or paint job will eventually fade or flake off, it would likely not be permanent enough to be worth the effort.

The DC tan skin does look much more darker than in the factory photos , that was my impression when unboxing . The lighting at the factory when taking the picture , is crucial and can easily confuse a customer

Please post some photos of that beautiful bbw doll you have !! We did not yet seen around the forum any 'user photo' just those edited photoshots

You just need 5 post to be able to upload pics

I would love to see her factory photo

Thanks

Thanks for the reply!
There's nothing i can really do, but i needed to share here, or be all alone in my frustration! (not a HUGE frustration but...)
I believe Dolls Castle IS the manufacturer, a fairly new company and they have vendors they use, 'Naughty by nature' being one of them .
Dolls castle take custom orders (this was one , ie: gel breasts) They have a 'proof of doll in factory' video they send out after its built. They say Manufacturer on a few websites as well as in the booklet sent with the doll. ( https://www.instagram.com/dollscastle01)

I will take pictures and share because i DO like the body shape and its worth Dolls Castle being known for this shape, not just large breasts but a bit of a belly and thick thighs.
Maybe with some attention, possibly a representative looking at these posts, they might up their game!

Dolls Castle is an actual manufacturer, not a vendor.

Tan is a notoriously variable color in TPE land, not only a Dolls Castle problem.

Yup, Doll Castle actually makes dolls. I got one from them custom designed to my specifications and it is great. They are a good company to work with.

But contrary to common belief, pictures do lie. Especially when it comes to lighting. I've had images of my dolls skin "change color" based on using room light, LED, incandescent light or natural light. Even the background color can throw off the skin image color. It all really gets down to phone cameras and most others getting "smarter" and doing automatic white balancing. That is probably what is throwing off your images, they don't look like what you actually see with your eyes. Most phones and cameras allow the user to disable it and set a specific light color temperature and such, but that is beyond most users and unrealistic to expect a vendor to know that. That is why the hire pro photographers for the important promo shots. Plus as noted above, the monitor color calibration and a host of other factors can impact the image.

A good example of this was "back in the day" when folks used film and fluorescent lights were common. A white sheet of paper under those condition was not actually white, rather the human mind knew it was "white" and "color corrected" it in real time to make folks "see" a white sheet of paper. If you used outdoor (daylight) film the white paper was not white, so you compensated with a slight color filter. Now the phone camera does that automatically, making its best guess.

You MIGHT get a better idea if you could get the vendor to do a close up of just the skin area with next to a white sheet of paper. So you only have the TPE skin and white. But even then it is not a 100% perfect color match based on lighting.

The REAL situation is that you are comparing a physical item (your doll) with a picture of the item. It rarely matches exactly and you NEVER do that same thing in real life. If so you would have the same issue. A female may look great on the screen, magazine, film, whatever, but I seriously doubt that you have ever compared that display image right next to the human source. For test take a picture of your hand or other body part, display it on your phone or larger screen and compare to your flesh. You might be surprised.

Probably the only way to get your perfect color would be to fly over to the manufacturing plant and track you doll through the production process. Expensive but you might get EXACTLY what you want.

Lacking that, as long as the color is close you are good. The "tan" should not be bone white. But tan colors are notorious for variations based on vendor, the dye mix in the mold TPE and other factors. Nipple and areola colors are no big deal to adjust. That is a major topic here and many ways to do it.

Good luck and enjoy your new doll.

Cheers!
... W ...

Hello Dear
We are sorry for your bad experience, we were vendor ever before 2021, but we are a real maunfacture since 2021, we maunfatcured the dolls on our factory, as for the long shipment, our shipment agency shipped to wrong doll to you, odds things happened.
'naughty by nature' is our athurotied reseller, we got your order from them and put the order into production with settled details , we sent factory photos before shipment to the reseller.
the doll is of Tan color the same as the doll photos shoot listed, we can be sure of there is only one Tan color for all of our dolls, not made by the 3 part factory, but we agrred wtih that we do have to be attened to some details like the wigs and well package, thank you for your kind advice and we will pay more attention to that, we will try all out to make perfect doll to all of your sastisfication, if you can send some real shoot pictures of the doll about the color will be much appreciated, thanks again and any idea we are open to it.
Regards
Lucky

Agree 100% Not saying you did, but never pick dolls based on their makeup & body art among their sale pics.

Those things can contribute false coloring on the said doll and if there's some photo editing... well you get the picture. It does seem like every manufacture can have a different tan tone especially for TPE dolls for that matter. Vendors will do their upmost best to make sure we get the doll we want. Thats why I kept emailing mine with many changes also directly contacted the manufacture about my doll options then they contacted my vendor about what I wanted to change.

Gotta give them every bit of detail that you might regret not asking for later on even if you think it sounds petty b/c we are spending big money on these dolls.

Thankyou @DollsCastle and everyone for your insightful comments.

Every comment has been helpful.
I fully support Dolls Castle in their work. The body shape is excellent , i can arrange things and she looks great. I'll post pictures when i can.
I think, just a minor glitch in that there wasn't the 'fair skin' option on the webpage i initially got it from, and how the tan color isn't represented well in anyone's photos, including my own. Its all good, and Iracone has been fun.. shopping for chubby/curvy lingerie and gym outfits a thrill in itself.

setevoltas wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:52 am Dolls Castle is an actual manufacturer, not a vendor.

Tan is a notoriously variable color in TPE land, not only a Dolls Castle problem.

Dolls Castle is listed under Vendor.
Please explain this.

Thanks for the factory pics. Thats a beautiful and meaty doll , regardless her skin tone

ill post pictures of her too ... soon. Im waiting on clothing and time to set up

setevoltas wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:52 am Dolls Castle is an actual manufacturer, not a vendor.

Dollicious2 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:11 pm Dolls Castle is listed under Vendor.
Please explain this.

I believe there was a vendor called Dolls Castle. It was as a vendor that they received TDF certification (or whatever). Then a doll manufacturing company bought the trademark. TDF never updated their access.

Pyewacket66 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 5:02 am ill post pictures of her too ... soon. Im waiting on clothing and time to set up iracone (1).jpg

Come on baby . Show it to us all !