Removal of TPE stain with Benzoyl peroxide 10% (acne cream)

[Solimentus]

Hello everyone,

I'm presenting here a case of stain removal on a tan skin TPE doll. Hopefully this post will serve for future reference to other TPE doll owners.

1. The Case.

Stain occurred on a TPE WM 166 C doll. I dressed her with a black (95% polyester +5% spandex) skirt (brand new, never previously washed) and left her sit on a chair. The skirt was in contact with the skin for approximately 2 days. This was the result:

Day 0

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Day 0

IMG_6597.jpeg (2.58 MiB) Viewed 2204 times

2. First attempts to remove the stain.

Upon discovering the stain, I tried to use mineral (baby) oil, vaseline (petrolatum), toothpaste without any immediate result. After consulting this forum, some other possibilities arose:

-Baking soda / Hydrogen peroxide
-Acne cream (benzoyl peroxide, 10%)
-Special stain remover from doll vendors
- 'Disguising' the stain with foundation/oil

I chose the second option as acne cream is easily found in any Pharmacy and it is a quite cheap product (less than $10).

3. Treatment with 10% Benzoyl peroxide based acne cream (BP 10%, acne cream).

3.1. Benzoyl peroxide

Benzoyl peroxide is an organic peroxide, whose structure is shown below:

Figure 1

2880px-Benzoyl-peroxide.png (48.79 KiB) Viewed 2204 times

Its mechanism of action is based on its oxidative properties. It oxidizes the dye molecules causing decoloration (that's why you don't want acne cream to touch your clothes). It is basically a bleaching process. Theoretically, benzoyl peroxide (red dots) would penetrate the TPE matrix (which is shown below), reaching the dye molecules (purple dots) and oxidizing them, causing the color to disappear or fade.

Figure 2
Red dots: BP molecules
Purple dots: dye molecules

Structure-illustration-of-thermoplastic-elastomers.png (216.4 KiB) Viewed 2204 times

From a physicochemical point of view (structure of the peroxide, composition of the vehicle, compatibility, etc), acne cream was the most promising agent to remove the stain.

3.2 The treatment process

Basically the process consisted in applying a generous amount of cream on the affected area. I used a kitchen silicone spatula for smearing the cream. After application, I covered the area with a wet microfiber cloth, and left it for 9-12 hs. Before each new application, zone was thoroughfully cleaned with a soaked microfiber cloth, dried with a dry cloth, and powdered with talc. The applications were carried out uninterruptedly during 8 days. The results are shown below:

Figure 3

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For semi-quantification purposes, the intensity of gray color for the skin (unstained) zone and the stain zone was measured over B&W pictures (trying to use adjacent zones and avoiding lighting artifacts) (Note 1)

Figure 4

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The evolution of the ratio X/Y (being X the intensity of the stain and Y the intensity of the skin) is shown in the table and graph below. Ideally X = Y, which means that the stain zone has the same intensity of the skin zone and therefore the stain is not discernible from the skin. Results are approximate.

Table 1

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Figure 5

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4. Discussion of the results.

After 8 days of treatment with 10% BP, stain was removed 90%. Further treatment with mineral oil helped to diffuse the remaining dye color. Below, some after treatment photos are presented:

Figure 6

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Figure 7

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The stain -if any- was barely noticeable, at least for photo shooting purposes.

It is important to remark that it is highly probable that stains on 'tan' TPE -being the second darkest skin color- are more easily 'removed' than those presented in lighter skin tones.

5. Conclusion.

In this particular case, a strong black stain was almost completely removed using acne cream containing 10% BP; acne cream thus proved to be a cheap and easily available alternative to doll vendors' stain removers.

Hopefully, this experience may help many other doll owners with similar cases in the future.

Any comment, suggestion, idea that might arise upon these results will be most welcome.



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Note 1: This way of measuring the disappearance of the stain could not work if the color of the original stain is other than black. I am not expert in color measurements and the method presented here was applied just as an approximate approach to see color intensity change.
Note 2: Images, other than the doll's photos, were taken from the web and belongs to its owners.
Note 3: Apologies if the English is not correct.

[Rock13]

And to think that you were about to throw her in the dumpster before some of us turned you onto .10% benzoyl peroxide. Glad it did the trick for you!

[Solimentus]

And to think that you were about to throw her in the dumpster before some of us turned you onto .10% benzoyl peroxide. Glad it did the trick for you!

I tried to avoid here all the drama from the original post, and strictly stuck to a more professional perspective

[Leaf]

I tried to avoid here all the drama from the original post, and strictly stuck to a more professional perspective

But... but the drama made it so much better!

[gogodolls]

Spectacular result! Well done!

And I must also congratulate you on this report.
The description of the problem, the test methodology and the conclusion are worthy of good aeronautical laboratories.
Cheers!

[Rock13]

And to think that you were about to throw her in the dumpster before some of us turned you onto .10% benzoyl peroxide. Glad it did the trick for you!

I tried to avoid here all the drama from the original post, and strictly stuck to a more professional perspective

You provided a fine analysis and I'm thrilled that it worked so well!

[slvstake]

You're experience will benefit many present and future doll owners!

[nicvncnt]

MODS: please consider this for a stickie.

[Dolllove1991]

Good job. I've done this. What brand did you use? There are different products that have BP 10% in them. I seen one guy on here last year saying he used one and it destroyed the TPE I think even if the two have BP 10% they may have other chemicals that are different. I'm curious what you used. I used Clearasil acne cream, Many times with no damages to the tpe at all.

If anything it seemed the cream had pulled the oil out of the tpe in that area abit. Maybe I was over thinking it but it's for getting oil out of the skin isn't it? Acne cream it pulls the oils and junk out of the tpe like it does on us. I've done it to a dolls entire body to see if I could clean her like that. She did come out brighter and cleaner but she felt like oil had been taken out of her. But she felt fine not damaged or anything. I'm not recommending using it to wash your Dolls tho. Only for stains.

[Solimentus]

Good job. I've done this. What brand did you use? There are different products that have BP 10% in them. I seen one guy on here last year saying he used one and it destroyed the TPE I think even if the two have BP 10% they may have other chemicals that are different. I'm curious what you used. I used Clearasil acne cream, Many times with no damages to the tpe at all.

If anything it seemed the cream had pulled the oil out of the tpe in that area abit. Maybe I was over thinking it but it's for getting oil out of the skin isn't it? Acne cream it pulls the oils and junk out of the tpe like it does on us. I've done it to a dolls entire body to see if I could clean her like that. She did come out brighter and cleaner but she felt like oil had been taken out of her. But she felt fine not damaged or anything. I'm not recommending using it to wash your Dolls tho. Only for stains.

You have a point there, that I did not mention in my original post. I also experienced that feeling of oil being removed, and the area looked more shiny and 'plastic', but that was easily solved by a good massage with baby oil in the affected area (it was even an erotic experience ). Nowadays my doll's booty feels as the first day. Baby powder (once dry) also helps to a nice touch feeling.

Regarding the creams used for the treatment:

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I started with the one on the left, and continued with the other. None of them seemed to damage the TPE in any noticeable form.

[jantra]

Here is the brand that worked for me on Jaidyn's BAD stains. It was recommended to me by DG. Thanks DG!!! I've had to use it several times and it hasn't failed yet given a little time to work it's magic.

[Tank177]

Thank you for posting this. I just made a horrible error of placing a brand new black silk nightgown on my doll and forgot to wash it before placing it on her. I left it on her for over a week. After removing it I saw that damage and was completely horrified. She wasn't as stained as yours, but the damage was clearly visible. After reading this thread, now I know what steps to take to remove it.

Thanks again

[ack1122]

Thanks for such well-informed sharing! I'll try it to my doll who got stained almost 2 years ago. But fortunately most of stains fad away over time ... so let time fix it if you are not sure how to D-I-Y.
Cheers.

[Dolllove1991]

Maybe I was wrong about it pulling the oil out and drying g the TPE I am doing a experiment and applying rhe cream everyday to see what happens to the TPE just out of curiosity to see if it is pulling the oil out. And if it eventually damages the TPE or changes how it feels.

[seagull]

The difficulty with this is the variability of TPE blends, including mixing errors, that will determine if there is a good outcome