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.

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.

 

If you’ve got a favorite Catysuewho look you think I should be looking to…lemme know!