Onto the second de-yellowing method: Oxiclean! Billy Mays, you best not disappoint me (may you rest in peace). After the baking soda & peroxide debacle, I didn’t have a whole lot of expectations for this. Nothing, of course, will get dolls back to their original factory color. It’s just not going to happen. Yellowing is a natural process of resin and though you can delay it/prevent it from becoming severe, you can’t stop it. I will make a post with tips for preventing severe yellowing at a future date, but for now lets see if we can mute the yellowing that’s already there.

Here’s a quick shot of my first doll. She’s seven years old, and when I started the hobby, I didn’t pay too much attention to where I left her or how I cared for her. I was just stoked to have a doll! So yeah, I left her sitting on the windowsill in the sun more than a few times. Another thing you should know about this girl is she’s the only doll (save for the cheshires) that have a company faceup. I’ve been so scared to do anything to it, because once it’s gone that’s it, but it’s kept me from doing a lot of things with her. She had originally been (hastily) bought with the intention of being my first OC, but due to certain circumstances, it just didn’t work out and she’s been nameless/characterless for awhile. Well. Not exactly characterless. She has A LOT of character. Nightmareish character. I like her because of that.

Here’s a closeup photo of the company faceup. It’s really lovely and has little details I like, but I’ve never been in love with it I guess. You might’ve noticed in the last picture, but it looks like her head is just a little bit more yellow than the body. I think that’s just the sealant they used on her face sort of yellowing, but we’ll see after she gets put back together.

And here she is blank! This is the first time I’ve ever seen her without a faceup. Woah! There are a couple of specs that haven’t come off but it’s not too bad. For anyone curious, I use a Mr. Clean magic eraser and Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner to remove faceups. when the eraser won’t fit into crevices, I use a paint brush and the brush cleaner to get those. It works well, but never let your doll head in the brush cleaner for a prolonged period of time. I promise you won’t like the result.

So here’s how it works. You take your original Oxiclean, a container, and of course the doll. Clean off the doll as best as you can (magic erasers are the bees knees), and then soak that baby! I had a 10qt bucket (the one in the previous post), so I used 2 and 1/2 scoops. The doll started soaking on Saturday and finished today, Tuesday. I figured I’d leave her in there for as long as I could stand it, haha.

After she was done with her Oxispa, I cleaned her off in the sink. Note: do thoroughly scrub your doll after the soaking. The Oxiclean left some residue on her. Just a word of caution if you’re gonna dive straight into blushing/faceuping.

Now the moment of truth: How well did it work?! I left the headcap out so I’d have a good comparison to the before and after. Have a look…

There’s definitely a difference! The Oxiclean did lighten her up pretty well. I did make sure to scrub the headcap down as well, so that’s not just dirt/wig stains on it I promise! All in all, I’m pretty impressed. Oxiclean gets a thumbs up from me. If you’ve got any questions about this, let me know and I’d be happy to answer them!