One of my current projects involves Marty, Naomi’s Twilight Carlisle Cullen. When we were unpacking the guys from their tub Naomi found that Marty’s black shirt had left dye stains on his arms.
I hoped that the stains would wash off but after washing him in Fairy, our Dawn equivalent, and scrubbing the stains with bicarb soda on an old toothbrush they had barely faded. So Marty had to get the Oxy 5 treatment. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Oxy 5 is acne cream. The main ingredient in acne cream is Benzoyl Peroxide so any cream or lotion with that as the main ingredient should work the same way. Oxy 5 is a milder version of it than the Oxy 10 I have used in the past but was all I could get at the time.
This treatment is not a whole lot of fun for poor Marty as it involves having to stand in a sunny window wearing nothing but Oxy 5 and plastic wrap on his arms. Not ideal for a Vampire. Luckily it is only on his arms so I wrapped him in a face washer and covered his head so that he would not get too much exposure.
After 5 days I could see that the marks had started to fade but this looked like being a long slow job. In the meantime I will wash his shirt and in future we’ll make sure that anyone going into long term storage is checked more regularly or goes in nude. I have had this happen to me with dolls as well. Once with a red dress that came on a playline doll and left stains on whoever wore it and another time with a pair of blue boots on a Candi doll. It’s something you always have to be aware of, especially with stored dolls.
It is now several weeks since Marty’s treatment began and I’m quite pleased with the results so far. I have changed the cream on his arms at least three times since the first lot went on in late June.. All that are left are some faint markings on his upper arms and I am hopeful that one last treatment may take care of that.
As Oxy 5 is not as strong as Oxy 10 it is possible that if I had that or something designed for doll cleaning like Remove-Zit it might not have taken as long to get to this point.
Some people prefer not to expose dolls to sunlight at all and I’d certainly recommend being cautious and covering up other parts of the doll if you are going to do that. I always do like to put the dolls in a sunny spot inside or outside. I’ve done it a lot with Op Shop dolls with no ill effects but I wouldn’t with a fragile old doll or one that would be hard to replace. I have read that you can still get good results leaving the doll in a darker spot but it does take longer. I think the key to success with stain removal is patience.
If I can get Marty’s stains to fade any more I will post an update.
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
I recommend getting a replacement body via Integrity toys, if your doll does not have the stains removed. Integrity toys (fashion royalty hommes) bodies are awesome. My custom Louis XlV was done with a twilight character head rerooted and repainted and an Integrity hommes pale japan tone body as they refer to it for skin tone, and he is amazing in his articulation. Great job on getting those stains out. You can see photos of my Louis on my flicker https://www.flickr.com/photos/pumpkinhillstudios/33780960925/in/album-72157639934241455/
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I was not sure if you could swap body parts. We’ve actually been wondering if you can put an Integrity head on a Mattel body if the skin tones match so that’s good to know.
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Oh, that’s horrific! What a shock you and Naomi must have gotten when Marty’s shirt was taken off. Poor Marty does not look like a happy camper. I can just hear him cursing that black shirt that he thought made him look so cool. The Oxy 5 has certainly done a good job on reducing the stains. Hopefully another treatment or two will totally eradicate the faint stains that are left.
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I’m hoping so. It looked like he’d been tattooed the marks were so bad. We’ll be checking all the other guys when they come out of storage. I may need a new tube of cream.
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this happened when I had doll tags w/ blue or black ink on them stain another dolls leg in storage. now my tagged dolls have the tags done in graphite which just washes off. Marty/Carlisle thankfully as a twilight vamp doesn’t get sizzled by sunlight like classical or true blood vamps, plus he has very pale skin/vinyl which shouldn’t discolor like darker shades.His orig marks in your pic looked like a tattooed doll..making me wonder if this might be used to remove factory applied body art on dolls.
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I felt bad for him but luckily he can withstand some daylight. Naomi is getting Divergent Four and she wants to remove his back tattoos but we are going to try nail polish remover first like we do for beards.
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awesome, I think he has the same face-mold. I already have Carlistle and Emmit w/ that face so will forego 4,I might use another doll for his character as I didn’t think it looked all that much like the actor..same thing w/ Gale from hunger games..If she wants that face w/o the tattoo it’s also on Texas Tech/college doll.I think) I donated one to a toy drive as it was a cheaper boxed doll I got in a lot.I’m so thrilled over-all w/ the diversity of different faces the guys have these days making the fun of swapping out more limited clothes choices less upsetting. I just got the tie dye shirt ken w/ the blonde hair just in time to pull out dolls for a pool scene..to wrap up Summer…Hope you find your guy.
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I think Naomi has the Texas A&M guy but she often wigs the ones with very short, sleek hair like that. They are the easiest ones to do it to.
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Hey I have a random question for you and Naomi, have you heard of a clone doll named Matilda , think she’s a witch doll about Skipper size, came in a clear tube. Was on a clone chat on Facebook..gonna check on Planet of the Dolls but so far, nada..
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Can’t say I have. You might check out Jenjoy’s All Dolled Up. Jen knows a lot of dolls I’ve never heard of.
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Thanks for the tips. Someone who made doll bodysuits to wear under clothing could make a ton of money.
It looks like your story (well, Marty’s) has a happy ending.
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Funny enough the Justin Bieber rooted dolls might be good character dolls as they don’t really resemble him. Thanks for the reminder about Jen Joy. I did find a Matilda for sale on E-bay, She might be able to wear Peppers stuff? Dk, but has a lovely crochet on her .Even though she comes from down under I STILL don’t know who made her yet..
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