Hi everyone!
It's been a while. Life is busy as usual.
I'm the same amount of busy since before the pandemic believe it or not!
I want SO MUCH to keep this blog alive, so I'll be trying, the best I can, to post on here.
I want SO MUCH to keep this blog alive, so I'll be trying, the best I can, to post on here.
I've said this all before, so I'm just going to get right to the post, lol.
This barbie has a gorgeous Goddess face sculpt, which first came out in 1998. I think this is such a pretty adaptation of that sculpt.
She has a beautiful medium skin tone, pretty gray eyes and dark brown hair. Her eye shadow is brown with a dark red hue and her lips are a rich dark red.
Her hair is worn long with the front pieces parted down the middle and fastened at the nape of the neck with two long tendrils that frame her face.
I'm not the biggest fan of the clear straps holding the dress up as they have broken down a little over time, so I might cut them off.
Next up is "Miss January" from the Birthstone Beauties series.
The back showcases more information about the doll and birthstone, while also displaying birthstone info for each month.
Here is the light-skinned Barbie still attached to her box. When I bought her on eBay, I failed to notice the paint defect she has on her left eye. When she arrived, I was so disappointed. When I went back to the listing to see if I had totally overlooked this, and I could kind of see it in the photos, but the seller was not forthcoming about it. :(.
She's beautiful, but I just don't have the skills to fix that, lol. I'm being a little picky, but I really want to have pristine dolls in this collection!
Toe-polish is a little "off" haha, but I do appreciate the little detail!
She wears open-toed heels in the same garnet color as her dress and they stay on surprisingly well! 
Today I'll be taking a look at two doll lines I've started to collect and these are the Barbie Birthstone Collection Collectible dolls (released in 2002) and the Barbie Birthstone Beauties (released in 2007).
I found all of mine on eBay. I probably paid too much for them, but oh well.
These appealed to me so much because I thought they had really beautiful faces and the different color combinations and collectibility factor are really appealing to me.
Here's a look at our first girl in her box.
There's nothing too special or exciting about the packaging, to be honest.
The back of the box is even less exciting, but has some information about birthstones and the garnet stone in general.
Here she is out of the box! She comes with a long chiffon shawl, which isn't shown here, but will be in later photos.
Each month featured three different dolls to choose from, but I chose the darkest skinned toned Barbie as she was my favorite for January's choices.
Image from Google
Image from Google
She has a twist and turn body with 5 points of articulation at the neck, shoulders, and hips.
She comes with a lovely faux garnet necklace (made from metal!), which per the Barbie Collector's website, is a Swarovski crystal.
She definitely has typical box hair, but nothing that can't be fixed with a boil wash.
The back of her dress has a short train of chiffon.
Here she is with her shawl.
What a classy stunner!
She wears simple dark red pumps.
There's a lot of glitter fall off, which is always fun (nope).
She also comes with a saddle stand and certificate of authenticity.
Remember when you could mail away for stuff? :)
These were released in 2007 and each month showcased two different dolls; a light-skinned version and a darker-skinned version. All 24 of them have the Steffie face mold.
The boxes are shaped like a gem and color-coded to the specific birthstone it represents and the interior of the box has a gorgeous holographic shimmer to it.
Needless to say, she will be going back up on eBay with a discounted price and full disclosure of the defect and I will hope to find a better one in the future.
The darker-skinned Miss January is perfect!
Here she is in all her glory.
She comes with a white collector stand and a Certificate of Authenticity. These dolls are part of the Pink Label collection.
She sports the Model Muse body and has 5 points of articulation (head, shoulders and hips). Her ensemble consists of a lacy garnet dress, a velvety bolero jacket, a ribbon belt and multiple pieces of jewelry.
Her dark brown hair is pulled up to one side and styled in a few bouncy curls in the front.
The back of her hair is pretty matted, but that can easily be fixed with a boil wash and re-curl.
She has the Steffie facemold with those tell-tale pouty lips! This is such a pretty face sculpt and this is the first darker skinned version of this facial sculpt I've ever owned. I love it!
Her eyes are brown with gray highlights, she has light brown brows and brown and gray eyeshadow.
She has faux garnet earrings, a faux garnet necklace and a matching gold charm bracelet.
Her beautiful necklace consists of 3 garnet colored crystals that dangle from a gold colored chain.
This is actually metal! Not plastic!
Oh the good old days. :)
She wears a gold charm bracelet decorated with gold hearts and a single garnet crystal.
I honestly love this bracelet. I love how it sparkles, how it dangles and how it has multiple charms on it.
Dang, her nails are painted really well!
All of these dolls come with a small dog. Her little chihuahua is pretty cute. I think for a small prop, it's pretty well sculpted and painted. I could honestly do without it, but I am glad they at least took a realistic approach (minus the crown, haha) instead of the more cartoonish pets that are included these days with the Barbie packs. The ribbon lays nicely around his neck, but doesn't really look like a "real collar".
Side view of the puppy and I also see there's a weird plastic defect in the shape of a circle in her inner left ankle.
She wears open-toed heels in the same garnet color as her dress and they stay on surprisingly well!
Here they both are in their full glory. I think they are equally gorgeous (especially in terms of faces) and I like that one is evening wear glam and the other is cute-glam.
You can't have enough glam when it comes to dolls, in my opinion.
Overall, I'm so happy to have these lovely ladies to add to my Barbie collection. I'm hoping to collect more of them and will be sure to do some comparisons to see if it is worth it to buy more in these collections.
Which one is your favorite? It's hard to choose, but if I had to choose one, it would probably be Miss January.
My birthstone month is March, what's yours??
I hope you're having a wonderful day and see you next time!
xoxo Farah
P.S. Here is the companion video I made for my YouTube channel if interested. :)
