Stocking bodies!

From March 16th to march 27th I was in my hometown of Madison…so it was time to buy a few things not readily available in Japan: Hair texturizer product for my limp hair, cheap bras in my size, NYX make-up (But they are coming back to Japan SOOOOOON), Urban Decay make-up, fun clothing from Zip-Dang on Monroe street, and some Barbie Made-to-move bodies.

Sidebar: Special shout-out to the heart-printed 1654 Retrolicious Be Mine Bombshell Dress. It wears so easy…it’s nearly sold out in most sizes but they have this cut in other prints.

This is right before removing make-up after two dance sets. Sweaty GLOW!

Why did I buy Barbies?

There’s something now called the Made to Move body Barbies. HIGHLY articulated bodies. I needed one to use as a replacement body for a Pullip “Nah-tou” belly dancer I’m going to start fixing up. Most replacement bodies in Japan don’t have the right skin color, they come in WHITE and LESS WHITE. This MTM Barbie has a less curvy build than the iconic Barbie and is a close match. I’m going to have to hit her face with a little bronzer to make it work when I repaint…more on her in future posts.

But…when stalking the Walmarts/Targets/Toy-soon-to-be-not-R’s I saw the MTM CURVY body at TARGET. And I HAD TO BUY HER. Barbie Fashionista line has had a variety of bodies, including this curvy one, for a few years but this is the first release of it as a MTM.

I’d seen people on-line in a Pullip group talk about this body, excited at the idea of having more curvy options for their existing dolls. There was brief talk from a few commenters about how we should write to Mattel asking for LIGHTER skin colors (as Pullips are notorious PALE-AF) but a bunch of us were all OMG NO! NOT A GOOD LOOK! PLEASE DON’T.

I promptly took photos of her once back at my mom’s place.

She was a hit with friends back home and I subsequently brought her to a few meet-ups with female buddies. We’re adults, yo.

I didn’t know what I was going to do with her. She’s not a skin-color match for anything I had. I looked online and noticed that some other industrious Pullip customizer has been taking pictures to figure out possible skin matching. I wish I could find it now but it showed that the Curvy MTM matches well with the Tiger Lily Byul.

WHAT is BYUL?

Well, Byul is the Pullip doll I had theretofore found seriously creepy. She’s just too jowely.

And Byul Tigerlily? Um. So Pullip did a Peter Pan series….

Yeah. Um. Racist Stereotype Tigerlilly.

And at the Ikebukuro Dollyteria that Byul is in a plastic baggie, fully dressed up, no alterations. I always am terrified and upset when I see it. Nope. I can’t justify that used purchase, even for a Curvy body.

But DollyTerria ALSO had a Byul head on some other too-pale body that I’d remembered seeing online. When I returned to Japan I ordered it and it was delivered the next day.

Then I got an Inspiration. CATY! The MUA who did an inspiration look from one of my faceups.

Caty’s curvy and STYLISH BEYOND WORDS! So, I’m going to do a Caty inspired look.

But first I had to get the body ready:

Off with her awesome head, sorry.

Shave down the neck peg thingie

But the curvy neck turns out to be TOO wide at the top to attach the head. So I filed and sanded until it fit.

Here’s the head on the new body, the outfit, the makeup, those eyes and hair are temporary…just to show Caty why I think this doll is gonna kill one of her looks.