Adventures in Lip Repainting
- wingedmermaid
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Out of all the doll customization or restoration things I've done, repainting lips always makes me the most nervous.
I attempted my first two lip repaints back in February 2024, after watching and reading many, many tutorials. Each recommended to use acrylic paint, thinned with water or floating medium, and to work carefully in several thin layers. Feeling pretty confident in my ability, I gave my mom's doll slightly more berry-colored lips and I slightly darkened the lips on my Danish doll, Emma. Both paint jobs went well!
...And then I tried to darken the lips on my mini me, Mia. It was an absolute disaster. Every color I mixed looked fine on the plate, but ended up completely different on Mia. Some mixtures started out fine, but dried in unexpected ways -- too bright, too orange, too purple. Worse yet, the more I tried to fix her lips, the more I was losing her original lip line, until she began to look more like a Bratz doll than an American Girl.
I grew more desperate. I tried to remove all of the paint with acetone-free nail polish remover. It got a good chunk of the color off, but streaks of red remained. The more I scrubbed, the more those streaks smeared out beyond the doll's mouth. I tried Magic Eraser, but it didn't help at all.
I finally gave up and decided to send her in to the American Girl Care Center. I was really worried that she'd come back with a terrible head, like the second Create Your Own doll that I ordered and ultimately returned. I sent her in with a note explaining what had happened to her and asking for a doll head with symmetrical eyes and eye sockets, and thankfully, the Care Center delivered.
While Mia was away, I attempted another lip repaint -- this time for my custom Ariel doll. I used thinned cherry red acrylic paint to match the character's animated movie coloring. Then I sealed the paint with clear coat, just like before. I'm still really happy with how she turned out!
With my confidence slightly restored, I decided to attempt to darken my new Mia's lips (while also reshaping her eyebrows). Before I began, I studied the lip shape of different Josefina molds and found that I liked the ones that had slightly thinner and wider lips. I very, very, very carefully added thin coats of paint to her lips and then sealed them with clear coat. They came out exactly as I hoped this time!
The following year brought a new lip painting challenge -- how to restore lips to their original look instead of the darkened and glossy look. I was working on restoring my Just Like You #7, April, and wanted to keep her as close to how she originally looked as possible. This time, I kept it as simple -- just a few thin coats of very watered down paint and no sealant. I also added in some more blush, which turned out to be more difficult than I expected! Overall, I think she's one of the best lip repaints I've done. It's hard to tell she was repainted at all.
A few months later, I went back to the darker with gloss method for "Adventure Lizzie." I was happy with how her lips had turned out at first, but over time, the color seemed to shift to something a little more orange-y and faded. But that came after I attempted two other lip repaints...
I wanted to add a late '90's Josefina to my collection and ended up with two different dolls. My plan was to keep both as close to original as possible, but unfortunately, both had lip paint that was coming off easily.
I decided to use the doll that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to keep as practice for the one I was going to add to my collection. My goal had been to keep her lips more natural, but the color dried a little darker than I was expecting. But thankfully, it turned out to be a really, really pretty color and I'd managed to do such a neat job, her lips looked almost like they came that way from the factory. As a final step, I gave them a protective gloss coat.
For the second doll, I tried to use a gloss coat first to try to keep the original paint intact, but unfortunately, it didn't work. I was afraid to mess up the second doll, so I ultimately decided to use the same lip color I'd used on the first one. I didn't do quite as nice of a job, and I did have to go back and add a little more gloss to cover some missing spots, but she still turned out looking very pretty.
While I was working on the two Josefina dolls, "Adventure Lizzie's" lip color had weirdly faded and turned slightly more orange. I decided to try painting her lips again, this time aiming for something more like her original lip color, but slightly darker. But just as with Mia's lips, Lizzie's just would not cooperate. I tried different combinations of paint, but nothing seemed to be working the way I wanted. Finally, I decided to give up on the more original color and go for darker and glossy. While I was at it, I slightly changed the shape of her lips to thin-ish and long (as opposed to the fuller and more narrow shape of her original lips) and it gave her more of a smiling look.
Not long after, I began to realize that my original Lizzie, my favorite doll in my entire collection, had some pretty faded lips as well -- especially compared to all of my other dolls. I compared her face to the new Just Like You #21 I'd bought and there was a distinctive difference. So much so that it gave me the nudge I needed to attempt repainting her lips. To do that, I was going to take everything I'd ever learned about lip repaints -- what worked well, what was hit or miss, and even what I hadn't tried before, but seemed to work really well for others -- and do the best job I possibly could with my favorite doll.
I mixed a color that was as close to her original as I could get and then I added something new -- floating medium. This was supposed to help keep the paint thin, smooth, and brush stroke free. I started working in impossibly thin coats. The mixture still felt a little thicker than I wanted, so I added a tiny bit of water. After three rounds, I was satisfied with the coverage. The color was a little brighter than I wanted, but I was afraid to try tweaking it, so I decided to sleep on it and see what I thought the next day.
The following day, I looked closely at Lizzie's lips again. I decided the color was still a little orange-y, so I tried to tone it down a bit with a thin coat of a deep berry and vintage pink mixture. The final result is maybe a fraction brighter than I wanted, but I think it's probably as good as I'm able to get. I could try to add one more wash -- maybe a brown to tone down the brightness -- but it looks good now and if my whole lip painting journey has taught me anything, it's know when to put down the paint brush.
I'm really happy I darkened Lizzie's lips. I love her even more now! I get why American Girl used to keep the lip colors so light, but sometimes (in my opinion anyway), the lack of color can make the dolls look a little sick and pale. Lizzie never looked quite that bad, but now she definitely looks fresher and brighter.
Lip painting is still nerve wracking, and it will probably always be my least favorite part of customization or restoration, but when it turns out well, it can really be the perfect finishing touch on an already cute doll.
