ghoul-in-the-shadows - Tumblr blog

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today's fashion doll is: Barbie Fairy of the Forest (1999)

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1970s Lundby Yellow Dollhouse

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👑 Disney Perfume Princess 👑

Suggested by @/redshirt42

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curly hair Draculaura btw. If you even care.

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oh I love how the stand is actual scenery and it clips to her leg instead of cradling her crotch area

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it's only been a year and i can't find any of the creepover dolls in stores anymore. like i didn't even see them clearanced out or anything they were just gone one day.

idk if it's just me but it kinda feels like they are moving too fast with releases.

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Doll Hair Repair Tools

Updated Jan 05 2024 (because I got a new flat iron and I’m excited!!!!)

For a while, there, I was using this Conair flat iron (you can see when I bought it):

It’s here: https://amzn.to/3tL8Qtt

This one has 30 heat settings, though it doesn’t tell you what they are, exactly. They’re just labeled 1-30.

Kanekalon - 1

Nylon - 10 through about 15

Polypropylene - 10 through about 15

Foil and plastic tinsel - 1 to 10, choose whichever matches the hair fiber

Saran - 5 - 10

Brushed acrylic yarn - I know I have used this to flatten brushed acrylic but I don’t remember what setting it was on. You’d have to start at 1 and work your way up to figure it out, but it’s doable with this iron.

It was ok, but I found it difficult to get close to the scalp on a lot of dolls and ponies with my flea comb, which gives the smoothest flattening. The Conair also had a problem where the plates only really touched each other at the very tip, and that’s not very useful, honestly. It’s difficult to get a good flattening unless you’re committed to doing ¼th inch sections at a time.

I started seeing really narrow flat irons on Instagram, and went looking for one to try.

I found this one:

Now this one, which is here:  https://amzn.to/3S7jLqA

I am so impressed!!!!!

It tells you the actual temp (in Fahrenheit; important to know), but not only does it show you the temp you’ve set it to, it shows the temp it actually is! You can watch it count up as it heats up! That’s super handy and makes it easier to know if it’s malfunctioning.

it also beeps at you when it’s ready.

It’s lowest temp is 120F which is far too cool to even do anything to Kanekalon, meaning this flat iron works for many 80′s and 90′s Barbies that are otherwise difficult to smooth out without melting their hair. I haven’t tested, yet, whether it’ll work on Creata hair without melting it.

I found 200 is right around when I could feel the hair starting to stick to the plates, so for Kanekalon I recommend 190 and no higher than 200.

For nylon, 250 is where it started to feel a little sticky, so 240 to 250 is about as high as you’d want to go. Nylon is pretty hardy and may tolerate a slightly higher temp. Go higher at your own risk.

Polypropylene needs a temp right about where Nylon is but I didn’t test it to find out the exact right setting.

Regardless of which flat iron you’re using, remember to wash and condition the hair first, to get the best results.

Ironing damp hair works best, but you don’t want it dripping wet. Dripping wet hair can result in boiling hot drops in your lap, or water getting into the flat iron and causing an electrical short. Towel the hair off, first.

To get the smoothest hair with the flat iron, I use a handled, metal flea comb to lead the iron.

https://amzn.to/3S5ICv6

You do want metal tines. They aren’t going to snag on or tear the individual hair fibers the way plastic tines can. Though avoid any metal combs that are punched from a sheet rather than made of individual wires. Those will destroy everything with their sharp edges

This comb having a handle lets me keep my hands away from the heating elements on the flat iron without needing to wear heat-resistant gloves.

These dog combs are excellent for detangling prior to making your final passes with the flea comb.

https://amzn.to/41UpX8U

The wire tines are smooth and gentle with hair, but it is also unyeilding so you do have to be cautious that you’re not ripping or tearing through tangles.

If you have a lot of knots that are difficult to remove, try a cat slicker brush.

https://amzn.to/47mw4DT

Again, the wires are metal and won’t shred your hair fiber. Using a cat slicker over tangled hair will make an awful noise, but that noise isn’t the hair tearing like it would be with the metal combs above, it’s the sound of the wires being pulled back and then springing up again.

A slicker brush yields to the tangles a bit and doesn’t pull.

You do have to be careful with a slicker, though, because the wire bristles are very fine and will stab you.

I do work with older Barbies sometimes, and sometimes they have Kanekalon hair that’s supposed to be crimped. Kanekalon can’t take much heat and melts easily, so again, you need a variable temp tool.

This multi tool works:  https://amzn.to/3S5aT4W

I haven’t tried using it to flat iron because it’s rather wide, but I have successfully recrimped Kanekalon on the lowest heat setting, and nylon on the second or third setting.

You can see that this crimper combo tool is the same brand as the new flat iron mentioned above, but I think this one is in Celsius. I’m not 100% on that.

I do NOT gate-keep tools or supplies so if you have any questions, let me know.

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Part 2 of Rainbow High with natural haircolor

Part 1

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Personally I think that the RH girls rainbow colored hair are their natural colors but it’s fun to imagine them with realistic hair color

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Huh. This scene seems different than I remember.

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Freaky Fusion Tournament

Round 1; Match O

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I bought this fabulous Barbie fashion pack a while ago and It suits the Wild Hearts Crew perfectly! Here’s Cori (left) and Jacy (right) modeling some wild looks ❤️‍🔥I’m thrilled I can add to their wardrobe—next to Monster High, they’re my favorite dolls to dress up!

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Monster high g3 haters be like

“I redesigned her cuz the g3 design was NOT it” and it looks like this:

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every monster high fan is talking shit about a fit and flare dress when what we need to do is find who keeps making letterman jackets with huge fur sleeves

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monsters your high

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Does anyone know if there's digital copies of the art that was on the 2013 McDonald's Monster High pails, specifically Draculaura? Been looking for it

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(Miniature) couch restoration

I found this couch ( with a bunch of other things I didn't care about) for 2$ at a second hand store

Finding dollhouse miniatures is kind of rare around here so I grabbed it, I thought at worst it would be a cheap MDF off of AliExpress or something and I could repaint it, but once I scraped a bit of the paint off I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice wood finish!

There was at least 3 to 4 layers of paint through (⁠‘⁠◉⁠⌓⁠◉⁠’⁠) (white, gray, maybe white again and finally pink)

Out of curiosity I pried up the fabric which was obviously not the original, to find another unoriginal fabric and pried that up too and that was still not the original 🤣 matroshka doll of upholstery

After huffing 99% alcohol and paint brush cleaner for probably 5 or so hours I ended up with this

I left the back and seat of the couch rough as it would be covered in fabric anyway, it looks like that maybe at some point this got sanded in a few spots? I fixed it up by finally using my furniture repair markers as intended (mostly I don't think they had mini furniture in mind)

You can see on the left half where I tried different colours to see what would match best

Now new upholstery! I only had the original couch cushion seat so I decided to just redo the whole thing in silk of corse (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

I wanted it to look a little worn so I picked this really textured blueish green/cream dupini silk

From barbie would be embarrassed to have this in her house to Victorian centerpiece! Or well I would like to think so ;;;