The Doll Forum

I decided to freshen up a dolls lips with Ms. Atleur paint.

I'm not an artist, not even a painter. Last time I held a paint brush in my hand was years ago, painting a bathroom door, and I didn't like the results. So giving a doll new lips was a formidable challenge to me. This is my high anxiety story of beginning to learn how to use this new material.

I bought the TPE test piece for a $1. That's the best $1 investment value I've ever made. I practiced on it for a couple of days until I though I could do the lips. I should've practiced some more!

My first problem was about how to deal with over paint. I knew I would accidentally paint past the lip line so I turned to customer service for advice. According to them, there is no known solvent that will work on this paint once it's on TPE! Whoa! The only way to remove it is to wipe if off while it's wet, or wait until it dries and then rub it off. Fine, I tested painting and wiping it off with Q-tip. It leaves a very thin film of paint behind. You cannot really see it other than under 10X magnification. Not good enough for me. So I came to think of another solution. I covered an area with Vaseline and then painted over it. Again wiped it off with a Q-tip and this time there were no paint residue on the TPE. Problem solved.

Second problem. How to get an even coat of paint with one (or possibly 2) coats of paint? This paint is unlike anything I've ever encountered so far. It doesn't flow or behave like regular paint. I was not able to get an even layer of paint with brush strokes. Dabbing, a dab-dab-dab, just a little bit of paint at a time to the leading edge of a paint field finally produced an even coat. Problem solved.
Third problem. How to get a sharp lip line? Since you cannot paint, in traditional sense, with this paint, it's impossible (at least for me) to get a sharp edge on the paint field. Here comes my Vaseline experiment to the rescue. I was thinking, that if I paint a line of Vaseline around the lips, I could then intentionally over paint, ever so little, and wipe it off with Q-tip to get a sharp line. It worked to a certain extent, but this paint dries very, very fast, like in minutes, before it's unremovable even over Vaseline.

Show time! In order to be on the safe side, I oiled and powdered the lips, as this will make it a lot easier to remove the paint, if I ended up with something really gross. In the end, the lips looked really nice, but under some magnification, I can see that I did a very poor job. I need a lot more practice with this paint before we become best friends
The paint dries up glossy, but it looses it's shine after just a couple of days when painted on a clean TPE surface. It holds it shine longer on an oiled and powdered TPE, but it's not as durable. In any case, you still want to have that lip gloss handy, either way.

Please share your tips and tricks working with Ms. Atleur paints.

If you over paint immediately wipe it away with your finger or a towel. I usually just use my finger.

Second, this isn't really paint. It color and TPE dissolved in a solvent. You can apply think coats, if you mix the color well. I usually apply two to three coats for my Body Color application.

You shouldn't apply it with petroleum jelly like that. It won't stick well, and the edges will fray like shown in your pictures. Clean the surface normally. If you want to remove it easier you can apply powder, if you want it to stick clean the surface with rubbing alcohol. After the color has dried you can soften it with powder or make it glossy with Vaseline. Also, if you want to remove it apply petroleum jelly, and let it set in. The color should losen up much easier after that.

@orchid; I am sorry you are not getting the results you were looking for. But, to be clear, BodyColor is NOT a paint. It's application is similar to that of paint or
nail polish, but it does not flow the same, and it does take some practice. A lot of people use BodyColor for a lot of different applications. WE are still
amazed at the number of ways and applications in which BodyColor is being used.

While we are very proud of the accomplishments that BodyColor has achieved, we do recognize that it is not suitable for all applications, and it is
certainly not what everyone is looking for. And this is perfectly OK. BodyColor is only ONE option for coloring TPE, there are many. But to date it is the
most durable coloring system available, that is still easily removed. There are ways to color TPE that will last much longer. But there is NO option for
removing them other than to wait for months or longer for them to be absorbed into the body of the TPE far enough to not be seen.

WE do stand behind BodyColor and have, and Do work with our customers to improve it continuously, and we do admit to being somewhat slow in
releasing updates and new BodyColor products. But we do the best we can with the available time that we have! Please remember that BodyColor
provides the means for us to produce other goods and services to the Doll Community that also requires a good deal of our available time!

Thanks and Have a GREAT Day!

grimreefer24601 wrote:If you over paint immediately wipe it away with your finger or a towel. I usually just use my finger.

Second, this isn't really paint. It color and TPE dissolved in a solvent. You can apply think coats, if you mix the color well. I usually apply two to three coats for my Body Color application.

You shouldn't apply it with petroleum jelly like that. It won't stick well, and the edges will fray like shown in your pictures. Clean the surface normally. If you want to remove it easier you can apply powder, if you want it to stick clean the surface with rubbing alcohol. After the color has dried you can soften it with powder or make it glossy with Vaseline. Also, if you want to remove it apply petroleum jelly, and let it set in. The color should losen up much easier after that.

Thanks for the explanation for the frayed looking edges of the dried paint. I might just have to accept the slight imperfections after wiping over-paint off from a powdered surface. It's hard to see with naked eye anyway. Over time, with practice, I should get better at painting lips and have less over-paint issues.

Painting nipples is much easier since they don't require sharp edges like lips do. Actually, it would look unnatural if the areola was a perfectly sharp circle.

Applying baby oil on the dried paint after it has lost is shine will bring back the shine only as long as the oil is absorbing. I don't get much shine with Vaseline. Lip-gloss gives a longer lasting effect. It may also depend on the shade of the color and the thickness of the paint layer, perhaps?

I have found some success dealing with edge fraying by either doing better prep work (e.g. cleaning with rubbing alcohol before application) or by taking a small amount of thinner on my fingertip and gently and quickly wiping across the edges. Most of the time this gets those little imperfections to settle down.

The application itself takes some practice to create straight edges. It’s difficult to be sure. My biggest problem is that I tend to apply too thick instead of using a nice thin coat and waiting for the color to darken as it dries.

Like CC hinted at, I think we are all in an experimentation phase as we try to figure out the limitations and best use cases for BodyColor. Let’s keep discussions like these alive so we can all master this fantastic product!

orchido wrote:

grimreefer24601 wrote: Also, if you want to remove it apply petroleum jelly, and let it set in. The color should losen up much easier after that.

I treated the lips with Vaseline and the paint came off easier than from my test block which I didn't treat. However, I was not able to get the paint off on a couple of spots. I suspect those spots had a thinner layer of paint than the rest of the lips. I have the same issue with the test block; some paint just doesn't seem to come off with any amount of rubbing.

The thinner you apply it the harder it is to get it off. It will come off, but it is difficult. Until you get used to how it works, I would say to powder the area that you want to apply the BodyColor to, then apply the BodyColor, the powder will create a barrier to the underlying TPE. This will allow for very easy removal. But the edges will lift easily as well.

Hope this helps!

Have you tried using thinner to get uplifted edges to settle back down CC? It seems to work for me but maybe I’m crazy, or just lucky haha!

Maybe I misunderstood orchido's post? I thought he was having trouble getting it to come off. When practicing, I will often powder the area that I will be working on, this will allow the BodyColor to be removed very easily. But it will not have a very strong bond. This will cause the edges to lift if left on for some time. But for practicing it makes removing it very easy and fast!

orchido wrote:I bought the TPE test piece for a $1. That's the best $1 investment value I've ever made.

Where did you get a TPE sample for $1? My vendor wants $35 for one.

And thank you for sharing your experience with Ms. Atleur Paint. I've been considering this paint to apply freckles.

We offer a very small approximately 2"×3"×1/2" peice of Jinsan white TPE to add to a BodyColor order for $1.00 as a practice peice. Most of what vendors offer is significantly larger, and they usually offer different colors.

TripleA wrote:We offer a very small approximately 2"×3"×1/2" peice of Jinsan white TPE to add to a BodyColor order for $1.00 as a practice peice. Most of what vendors offer is significantly larger, and they usually offer different colors.

Thanks TripleA.

That's great info, a smaller size would actually be perfect for my testing. I will keep this in mind when it's time to order.

Since I'm not an artist or a painter, these BodyColor lips turned out to be a formidable challenge for me.

I discovered that I could use baby oil as a over-paint barrier and wipe all the paint off with a Q-tip soaked in baby oil. Unfortunately that causes similar issues as Vaseline which I used earlier, although to a lesser extent.

So now I'm thinking about using some masking tape instead. What kind of masking tape would stick to TPE and repel BodyColor at the same time? Of course the tape must come off clean and not leave any glue residue behind. It would have to be a very, very thin tape since after removal there shouldn't be an edge between the paint and the surrounding TPE.

For my part, I found the most important part of using Body Color was/is the applicator. For use with nipples and labia/anus a very very small sponge brush (Wall mark craft section-pictured) will allow for fast work (something you need to perfect as the product sets up quickly and once tacky can be very challenging to get "right") and edge softening as well as color blending (see nipple work picture).
For lips, the self contained applicator brush included in the larger bottles is perfect for producing fine lines. Important your painting hand not be "freestyle". You will fudge the straight line I can guarantee. The heel of your hand needs to be resting on her face to get a perfect line. Also, load the brush heavy so you can get as much of a continuous line run as possible. I prep the lips with alcohol. and powder after cure for a natural look. When I want a fashion look, a lil Vaseline on a q tip. Check photo below. This was applied some two weeks ago.

Thanks for the detailed description of your lip painting technique. I'll have to try it out.