Revlon Re-Paint

A Revlon doll after painting

Longtime readers might remember a lovely Madame Alexander Margaret doll I restored last year as "Evening Star Margaret". Margaret came in a lot with a Revlon VT-18 doll who was in even worse shape than she. I wasn't sure if Revlon was repairable, so she's been sitting in my office for months. I finally decided to tackle the job.

The face, partially re-painted.

Poor Revlon had red staining around her mouth from her original lip paint. Sometimes the lip paint bled into the vinyl around the doll's mouth; it's pretty commonly seen on Revlon dolls. Unfortunately, someone tried to scrape it off, so the doll's mouth and nose were all gouged up. There isn't any good way to fix this. I considered using hard plastic epoxy or acrylic modeling paste to re-model the face, but decided in the end a good camouflage paint job would be the best way to go.

The legs were stained.

For vinyl dolls, such as the Revlon doll I use acrylic artist's paints. I tried to blend the colors so the face had its original dimensional look. I painted over some marks on her legs as well. The best thing would be to just put new black stockings and shoes on her to hide the stains. That's what stained them in the first place. After painting I sealed everything with acrylic matte varnish.

The re-painted face

The legs still have marks.

I decided to sell this re-painted doll cheaply to dress or use for her good parts. Revlon dolls marked Ideal as this one is are worth a lot of money, but not so much if they're re-painted. It wasn't worth it for me to dress her and lose profit on the doll. A re-painted doll is still good for display or for an older child, who can be careful with the painted areas, to play with.

The Revlon VT-18 marks

You can find lots of fully-restored dolls in my store, so please check: http://stores.ebay.com/atelier-mandaline.