I'm not exaggerating when I say that for the past several months, I had forgotten what it was like to really have fun. While my dad was alive, I had a hard time "turning off" caretaker mode, and after he passed away, I just felt broken.
Keira was actually a really good first healing step for me. When I finally unboxed her (a little over a year after I'd purchased her from an amazing Amazon sale), I began to remember how much fun I have collecting American Girl. I enjoyed beginning to develop her story, too.
Then, toward the end of January, I added another doll (who I'll introduce soon -- she needs a few finishing touches). This time, I decided to swap her wig and darken her lip color. It had been a long time since I'd done a wig swap -- not since 2018, I think! While I was at it, I helped my mom re-wig a doll she'd been working on (off and on) over the past few years. I was so happy with how they both turned out!
But not all of my customizing went smoothly. I attempted to darken my mini me, Mia's lip color and the results were disastrous. I'd read several tutorials beforehand and followed everyone's advice. I'd worked slowly with thinned paint and waited in between coats. No matter what colors I mixed, they all turned out terrible. Her lips were too bright, then too orange, then too purple. Sometimes the paint wouldn't cooperate -- a second coat would pull up the supposedly dry paint, no matter low long I waited in between coats. Finally, I tried to start over completely and remove the paint with non-acetone nail polish remover. The paint would not come up nicely. It smeared no matter how careful I was. I tried again and again. I tried Magic Eraser. It was no use; her vinyl was stained. She was a complete mess. I felt so horrible. I sent her off to the American Girl Doll Care Center for a head replacement. I really hope she returns home with a good face. I'm really worried.
Something New on the Horizon
Around this time, American Girl announced their newest Disney dolls -- Ariel, Tiana, and Cinderella. I really like how they designed Tiana and Cinderella, but I was a little surprised by their choice of the Nanea face mold for Ariel. She's a very pretty doll, and I can understand what they were going for -- the Nanea mold has big, bright eyes and Ariel's pointed chin, but her face just doesn't completely read "Ariel" to me. I think it's partially the way they designed her eyebrows. Ariel's brows are thin and curved and AG Ariel's are thicker and more angular.
The nose seems slightly off to me, too. Ariel has a very perky, almost turned up nose, and from the side, the Nanea mold nose is more flat. I've seen someone say the doll looks like "a Truly Me playing dress up as Ariel," and I think that's sort of how I feel about her, too. She's super cute -- whether she's dressed in her typical Ariel attire or other outfits -- but she doesn't feel as truly Ariel to me as other doll versions of the character do.
Ariel has always been my favorite Disney princess -- ever since I saw The Little Mermaid in theaters as a 5 year old -- and it's a love that's never really faded away. She was the first princess I learned how to draw by heart, she's the first princess I had a collection of (heck, she's probably the reason I love collecting things in the first place), and she's the first I ever cosplayed as. When I made her mermaid form costume -- with a lot of help from my mom and dad -- I spent a lot of time pouring over pictures of her, trying to get every detail right (or at least as close as the supplies I found would allow). I think because I've become so hyper aware of what the character looks like, and I'm so familiar with the different doll parts AG has produced over the years, I feel like they could've translated the character into American Girl form in a slightly more accurate way (and this is 100% just me being super nit-picky).
Trying Something More Adventurous
When I first saw everyone's photos of their new Ariel dolls and read everyone's thoughts on the latest Disney release, I began to daydream about how I would design Ariel if I worked for American Girl. I probably would've opted for the Joss or Marie Grace face mold (even if they have been used a lot already), and made the eyebrows more curved. Everything else I probably would've kept the same (though maybe I would've made her meet outfit a two-piece, so the tail could be worn with a variety of tops).
Then I thought, "If I were making my own custom Ariel, I'd probably choose a Josefina mold. Then she'd be similar to Talia" (my accidentally Rapunzel-looking custom). And then I casually began to look at eBay for blue-eyed dolls. I'd already been looking around to see which dolls were selling well on eBay, because I'd been trying, unsuccessfully, to sell Arista -- not an easy feat when competing with American Girl's end-of-the-year sales and then the new Disney dolls. And, the reality is, not everyone likes fantasy dolls to begin with.
Then I thought, "What if I didn't sell Arista? What if I just found her a new head?" My mom's doll had been made from an eBay head, Beautifully Custom eyes, a new body, and Arista's old wig (formerly from Grace Thomas and then Arista). For being made of so many different parts, she didn't really look it! I began hunting in earnest on eBay, but what I found was that in a lot of cases, the head by itself was surprisingly expensive -- at least for one in nice condition.
And then, as I was searching, I stumbled upon a used Elizabeth doll. She'd had a very haphazard haircut -- a few inches off the bottom and hacked off pincurls -- but otherwise looked to be in pretty good condition. I had eBay gift cards from Christmas and my birthday, and her expression was so cute, and the price was almost too good to pass up, so... I did it. I bought her.
This was actually a first for me. I've bought dolls off of eBay before, but they've always been new. Even pre-pandemic, I've always been pretty germophobic. I feel comfortable cleaning things with harder surfaces (like pre-owned Cherished Teddies), but anything stuffed or soft-surface, I've always tried to find new in package or new old stock. I think a lot of it comes from having worked with young kids in the past. Little kids are cute, but they can definitely be a little gross lol. If something has a harder-to-clean surface -- especially if it was likely used by little kids -- I want to know its history, for my peace of mind. So, I bought used!Elizabeth with the plan to remove her head, clean it really well, remove her wig, and give her Arista's body (a known soft-surface).
Two days later, I lucked out and found an official AG Ariel wig that someone was selling -- new, from a new doll -- and snatched it up. Surprisingly, it was about the same price as a typical new doll wig. The wig is one of the parts of AG Ariel I think they really did an excellent job on, so I was super happy to find it!
Elizabeth arrived a few days later, and she was even cuter in person! I almost didn't have the heart to change her so drastically! But luckily, the Ariel wig arrived at the same time, so that kept me on track. I began cleaning the doll and was pleasantly surprised to find her in such good condition. She had very little grime on her face, and her body was only slightly worse (though she did have a significant shine patch on her ankle). It almost looked like someone hadn't bonded with her, had tried to give her a haircut to modernize her, and then gave up and let her be. She also came with her meet dress and some other clothes, but some of these were much dirtier. Her dress has two mystery stains that I'm not sure I want to attempt cleaning. Again, if I don't know the history of a dirty spot, I'm pretty hesitant to tackle it.
I got to work removing Elizabeth's old wig, removing her head, then cleaning it once more while it was detached and free from any hair getting in the way. Then I removed Arista's head, set her body aside, then used the Elizabeth body to learn how to tighten a doll before adding Arista's head. I have at least two dolls who need to be tightened badly, but I didn't want my first attempt to be on them. I opted for the tightening method where you use hair elastics to tighten the limb elastics, and it didn't seem too difficult. The hardest part was re-stuffing. I might actually go back and re-stuff the body... she ended up a little broad-shouldered. Meanwhile, soon-to-be Ariel got Arista's old body. I thought about trying to tighten her limbs while I was at it, but chickened out.
The next day, I held my breath and attempted to repaint formerly-Elizabeth's lips. Thankfully, I had no issues this time! I did two very thin coats, then sealed with a semi-glossy top coat. I used a little of the mixture to darken and redden her eyebrows as well. And then, I decided to paint her nails, too. I let her dry, then did a fit test for her wig. I was having so much fun working on her, and I was so happy with how she was turning out, I was almost too excited to sleep each night! I just wanted to keep going!
The next day, with some help from my mom, I glued down her wig, then waited impatiently for it to fully cure. Once it was dry, I combed it out, fixed her bangs, then dressed her in her blue dress. American Girl knocked it out of the park with this outfit -- it's absolutely beautiful! I tried to give my Ariel a half-up, half-down hairstyle with her bow like the stock images of the blue dress outfit showed, but decided I liked her hair down and fuller better. I took an AG hairclip I wasn't using and carefully cut out just the white hair elastic part of the bow, then slid the clip in. I'm really happy with how it sits in her hair. As a finishing touch, I gave her a pair of bluish pearl earrings and then she was complete!
I am so, so happy with how my Ariel turned out! The older-style American Girl eyebrows are a great match for the animated character's (IMHO), and give her such a bright, happy look. Elizabeth's face reminds me a lot of the way the '90's Disney dolls' faces were designed, so I think that helps my version read more "Ariel" to me. Had I not gone with the Josefina mold, I think Joss would've definitely been my second choice for an Ariel custom.
I've been having a little too much photographing Ariel -- my phone is filling up with photos of her! She looks especially good wielding my doll-sized keyblade!
And remember how I said I almost couldn't bear to change her appearance so drastically? I may have found a solution to that... hehehe... ;) Stay tuned.