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Saturday, April 6, 2019

Thrifty Makeovers! (Monster High and Ever After High)

Ok gang, today it's time for a doll makeover post!
Gosh.  I had this entire review typed up and ready to hit "Publish", but blogger froze and wouldn't let me do anything!  When I refreshed, it all disappeared.  Ahh!  
I'll try to do my best to write what I had, but at this point, I think the photos will pretty much just speak for themselves!



The girls and I finally got lucky at our local thrift store and came across a bag of donated Monster High and Ever After High dolls!  
Pictured from left is Sugar Coated Holly O'Hair (EAH), Picture Day Abbey (MH), Posea Reef (MH), Signature Jane Boolittle (MH), Ghoul's Alive Clawdeen (MH) and Signature Raven (EAH). 

It was really fun to clean everyone up and see how much life 2nd hand dolls still have left in them. 
All of the dolls above were only $1 each. 


First up is Ghoul's Alive Clawdeen.  She wasn't too bad, but she definitely needed some help in the hair department. 


Here she is all cleaned up and she's looking pretty good!
She has this gimmick where you press a button on her back and her eyes close and she looks like she is howling.  The gimmick no longer works, but she's still a cool doll. 



Next is Picture Day Abbey and she was pretty much complete in terms of outfit and accessories!  Whoever had these dolls before took pretty good care of them and beside the messy hair, they didn't look like they were played with too much.


This Abbey had VERY gluey hair though and I had to do 4-5 glue treatments on her to get the stickiness out of her hair!
Overall she came out pretty good, but she's actually a double for us, so she may find herself back at the thrift shop!  At least now she's clean and glue-free! :)


                                                                                                                                   
Raven Queen is also a double for us, but I couldn't pass her up.  She was also "complete" as far as her outfit goes, but her hair was also VERY gluey.  She took several glue treatments to finally have soft, manageable hair again. 





It was cool to find a signature Jane Boolittle doll and she also barely looked played with!  Luckily her hair was glue-free so she just needed a scrub with dish soap\/baking soda as well as a hair wash and condition.  I didn't even take her ponytail out as she was in great shape already!




If we're being honest, this Holly doll is actually one of our dolls from our own collection.  I included her in this review as she needed a makeover anyway.  She's Little Button's Holly doll so she has been played with quite a bit.  She was also an easy clean up and luckily we found her missing hand!
I'm not sure where I put her dress though, so she is borrowing a Dutchess "Fairest on Ice" dress for now.





Posea was the biggest and best transformation of them all.  The other dolls we found together at the thrift store, but this one Pumpkin Pie found at the bottom of a box of dirty toys at the flea market. 
She had the worst hair I've every come across in a MH doll!  I wasn't sure how she would turn out, but she cleaned up beautifully!  She was actually easier to clean that Abbey and Raven!  




It was really satisfying to clean her up. :) 


So here's one more before and after shot of our new thrifted dolls. 
I really hope I can buy more 2nd hand dolls in the future as they're so much cheaper and they're really fun to clean up! 



Whether or not they all stay in our doll collection, I love knowing that if they get redonated, they will be more appealing to a child (or adult collector, haha) now that they are fresh and clean and looking good again.

Do you guys like to shop 2nd hand for any of your dolls?  What's the best find you've had out there in "the wild"? 
I remember finding a Little Mermaid Vanessa doll for $0.75 at our shop once! :)

Hope you're all having a good weekend and see you in the next post! :)

xoxo Farrah

16 comments:

  1. Po zabiegach pielęgnacyjnych dziewczyny wyglądają wspaniale!
    Akurat w moim mieście (mieszkam na południu Polski) nie ma w "sklepach second hand" żadnych lalek typu Barbie ani MH. Tylko raz udało mi się kupić Królewnę Śnieżkę, ale to było kilka lat temu. Wiem jednak, że w innych miastach często kolekcjonerki kupują lalki z drugiej ręki i są to naprawdę ciekawe okazy!
    Pozdrawiam serdecznie :-)

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    1. Thanks, Olla123! I'm sorry to hear that you do not have many second hand stores in Poland where you live. That is great that you found a Snow White doll once! I live an a small town so there are not too many of those stores to me close by, so we don't find too many dolls. At least there is eBay! Best wishes to you, too. Pozdrawiam serdecznie :-)

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    2. Google translator response: Dzięki, Olla123! Przykro mi słyszeć, że nie masz wielu sklepów z używaną odzieżą w Polsce, w których mieszkasz. To świetnie, że raz znalazłeś śnieżnobiałą lalkę! Mieszkam w małym miasteczku, więc w pobliżu nie ma zbyt wielu sklepów, więc nie znajdziemy zbyt wielu lalek. Przynajmniej jest eBay! Najlepsze życzenia dla ciebie. Pozdrawiam serdecznie :)

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  2. Good job with doll transforming. They look so much better now :)

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  3. They all look great. What do you use in your 'glue treatments'. I've never been successful in completely removing the glue/grease. It always comes back.

    Thanks,
    Teresa F.

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    1. Thanks Teresa! For the glue treatments, I place about 1/2 scoop of Oxy-clean into hot water, let it dissolve and then soak the doll's hair in it overnight. Then I rinse it out in the morning, let the hair air dry and see if it needs any repeat dunks. It seems to work pretty well! With some of the dolls, I had to do it 4 nights in a row, but the end result was finally worth it!

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  4. The dolls look so much better after the makeover! Here there aren't many second hand stores or flea markets where I can get cheap dolls. Also, the very few that there are avaliable don't seem to carry many toys, except for baby dolls. You guys make me green of envy with those backyard sales bargains!
    Take care.

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    1. Thanks, MC! It's funny you say that because I feel like in my area, we don't have much either, but I see other people on Instagram that are always finding so many great dolls! There is nothing better than finding dolls at a bargain!! :) Good luck and I hope some great dolls come your way soon!

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  5. You've done a great job of transforming these young ladies, Farrah. I occasionally go to a very big secondhand market along the coast from us and often see dolls that are in need of a serious makeover, particularly Barbies, and am tempted, but so far have more or less resisted! I have done a few makeovers on secondhand dolls in the past though.
    I would love to do a big makeover on a doll though, I think it would be a lot of fun.
    xx

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    1. Thanks, Sharon!! I have always loved your doll transformations that you've done in the past and shared on your blog. You have a really good eye for matching up wigs/eyes, doing subtle face ups and making clothes that really bring out a doll's personality! :)
      xx

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  6. What a fabulous job you have done with these dolls Farrah, they look as good as new now they are all cleaned up.
    Big hugs,
    X

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    1. Thank you so much, X! It was really fun and satisfying to clean them up. :)
      Hugs back xo

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  7. These days, I actually buy most of the dolls for my collection second-hand. I've been really disappointed lately with the quality of a lot of what the toy companies are currently putting out. Not to mention there seems to be a lack of imagination in the doll development process, in the sense that the same themes are being repeated over and over again. The fashion doll aisle at my local Walmart is largely filled with fairy dolls and princess dolls and mermaid dolls. Not that there's anything wrong with fantasy genre dolls. In fact, I love dolls with fantasy hair colors. But I like having a wide range of product choices when I shop. The second-hand venues in my area deliver a larger variety of dolls than the few retail stores that still carry toys. Plus, I can find dolls from canceled lines, as well as the occasional vintage doll.
    It probably helps that I live in a large city with multiple options for second-hand shopping. I know not everyone lives in an area where thrift stores and flea markets are common.
    Signed, Treesa

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    1. Hi Treesa!
      I agree with everything you wrote. I am quite bored with my local Walmart and Target. It's the same stuff every week and I'm not very inspired by these dolls. I will admit that sometimes I will get a Fashionista just to get something! Lately there haven't been too many 2nd had dolls at our thrift stores, but I will have to search to see if we actually have some thing like a Savers in my area as people always seem to have a lot of luck there! :)

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  8. Nice work! The differences (especially in the hair) in the before and after shots is amazing! :)

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