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Face-up Removal – Winsor Newton Brush Cleaner vs. Acetone

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I finally got around to trying the Winsor Newton Brush Cleaner everyone seems to rave about on the forums and I thought I would share my experiences with using it for the first time. To begin with I have to say I am very skeptical of any sort of “miracle product”, which is how this stuff is made out to be, but I did find myself quite pleasantly surprised!

I used the brush cleaner to remove my Luli’s old face-up the other weekend when my Zaoll arrived, and I really was amazed because after rubbing the face-up with a cotton ball soaked in the stuff, the face-up started wiping away quite easily. You do have to apply a little bit of elbow grease however in comparison to using acetone, so it may take a few minutes more to wipe the entire face. The benefits to using the Winsor and Newton Brush Cleaner is that is doesn’t contain harsh chemicals that can potentially eat the resin. I’ve also read where people will let their doll heads soak in a solution of the stuff without incident, but eh…I’m not willing to try that yet. The drawback would be that it is going to take you longer, but I think if that’s the payoff for having a safer less harsh chemical, so be it.

I do want to say a word about being able to get into the tiny crevices of your doll with the cleaners though, because they differ here too. If you are trying to get dark corners out of mouths with the brush cleaner alone, it is going to be hard. For the most part on my Lusis I am regaled to using an old detail paintbrush to try to rub the cleaner in her mouth corners. You really have to apply pressure to remove heavier paints, and of course it’s difficult to apply pressure with a tiny paintbrush. In the end I gave up and gave the hard to reach crevices a wipe with the acetone since acetone can easily break down paints without any scrubbing.

In the end I think the Winsor and Newton Brush Cleaner is a great tool to have in your arsenal, but I wouldn’t ditch your acetone either. I find that Acetone can be helpful in removing tough spots left behind by the brush cleaner. You may be thinking then, well why buy the brush cleaner, why not just use acetone and be done with it? Well I shall tell you why….Each time you use acetone it does eat away at the surface of the resin, albeit in small unnoticeable minute amounts. However over time that wear can add up, so the more you can get away with cleaning a head without it, the better for the resin. If you only use acetone for small touch-ups, then that means less damage to the resin.

I realize everyone kind of has their own opinions when it comes to face-up removals, but I think I will continue to use the brush cleaner, and still hang onto my acetone for the tough business. I definitely will be glad to get away with using less acetone and I know my fingers will be glad for it too!

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A Sorta Face-up Removal Tutorial from a Newbie’s Perspective

yaranoface So for a while now I had been dissatisfied with my Yara’s face-up, as her eyebrows seemed too close to her eyes and her lip color was a little too bland for my tastes. Being an artist I already knew I had all of the pastels and watercolor pencils to do those nice natural face-ups you see online, so after reading some more tutorials I finally decided to take the plunge and I went out to grab a fresh can of Testors and some acrylic gloss.

So, first things first, on every tutorial you start with washing off the existing face-up. I remember that a couple of the tutorials I had seen said to just wash the face with warm water and soap, using a toothbrush for scrubbing. Well I did that and the face-up didn’t budge, not an inch! Though the eyelashes fell right out nicely after the soaking, so I picked them up and saved them for later. I remember thinking to myself that Asleep Eidolon then must seal their face-ups really well, but instead of congratulating myself on the quality of my own doll, I was instead vexed and decided to head over to DoA to find out more about removing face-ups.

On DoA the first thread I come to is recommending using Acetone to remove the face-up, but I’m like, wait a minute won’t the Acetone eat the resin? Curious though, and really wanting to remove this face-up now that I was committed, I read on. Apparently you can use Acetone or nail polish remover to remove the face-up, BUT you need to be sure to thoroughly wash off any residue, because leaving Acetone sitting on your resin will indeed ruin it. I guess there are two different camps on this issue though, those who feel you should not use Acetone, and those who think it’s ok as long as exposure is minimal and you are sure to thoroughly wash it afterwards. Desperate to get the face-up off I decided I would try some nail polish remover that had acetone in it. I did so, and slowly the face-up started deteriorating and I was able to begin to scrub it off. However there are problems with nail polish remover. First of all, if your nail polish remover has any tinting in it, it can stain your resin, and secondly it is still going to take a while and be smelly. I knew from experience with image transfers that pure Acetone would probably work better, so throwing caution to the wind I finally took some pure acetone to my dolls face and within seconds the face came clean and she is not horribly disfigured from contact with Acetone.

So in the end my advice is to screw trying to scrub a face-up off with soap and water. If you have a factory sealed face-up, it is so not coming off with soap and water, not even if you scrub it with a toothbrush or nail brush. This is good news though because it means your face-up is really resilient! Previously before I tried this I thought face-ups were much more delicate than they are. In the end, just use straight acetone which you can get cheaply at any hardware store, just be sure to wash and rinse thoroughly afterwards.

Next I’ll write about my adventures with sealer and whatnot. Right now my Yara’s face has a fresh coat of Testors on it that looks like it’s ready to take pastel. Adventure! XD