From dog piss on snow into a beautiful snowflake - Yuki's transformation

[Loona]

[apologies for the title, you'll see why  ]

I've been meaning to create a general photo thread for awhile, and this basically started out as that... then I realised that almost all the photos I initially wanted to share were of Yuki. So I decided she deserves her own thread. Please enjoy the Yuki spam, I hope it will be a cool breeze in the summer heat ^^
 
Let's start at the beginning Pullip Snow Miku, or Yuki, as I came to call her, was the first Pullip who came to live with me, a little over a year ago. I bought her second-hand, but in "displayed only" condition, together with her box and stuff. Upon her arrival, the doll I pulled out of the box had a heavily yellowed wig (that's what inspired the subject ) that I was unable to look past (of course the seller never mentioned this  ). I seeked help and advice from Klein/Hina_Ichigo and Gwen/Requiemart, who were both very kind and helpful, the advices given and methods recommended were, however, unsuccessful in restoring Yuki's yellowed hair. The whole situation left me heavily disappointed (and here I’d like to mention that poor Yuki already started from square -1: I found her for a good price, and bought her in hope she’ll be able to eliminate my cravings for LOL Miku, my grail Pullip, who was back then not yet re-relased and was thus going for several hundreds of $$), so Yuki ended up back in her box, while I started madly searching for an affordable replacement (or an affordable LOL Miku).

Poor thing, I haven’t even taken a picture of her back then… I remember taking some for the seller to show them the flaws, but I searched for these in vain. I guess in my disappointment I deleted them at a later point The earliest, and only picture I have of her (=that I have taken. I do have her ad photo taken by the seller, but I’m not sharing that, as I haven’t taken that and don’t have permission) that is still showing her original looks is this quick and crappy phone shot. I decided to share anyway, to offer a more illustrated backstory.


Yuki (Pullip Snow Miku)'s transformation, pt. 1: The original wig by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Some of the yellowing is visible on the right side, but it's nowhere near compared to how bad it actually is at the top and the back. I thought of taking the wig out of the box and taking a photo of it now, but have decided against. Let's not open wounds...

Though originally I had no intention of changing her original hairsytle, I wasn’t able to look past her yellowed wig. My attempts at  buying another Snow Miku doll, or an original replacement wig, fell through: complete Snow Mikus are rather ekspensive, and sadly this flaw is a common thing with her, even in box, so I was only able to look at a fragment of the listings: on MIB ones I could not see if the flaw is there, and out-of-box Mikus tend to have messy hair. I had to start considering a different wig. At first I was looking for one that is similar to her original hairstyle, but no sufficient substitutes came by, so a different hairstyle was the next step I had to digest. The first wig I bought for her was still with bangs - it looked OK (minus the thin bangs), but I did not *like* her in it. I would have never bought her, had she looked like this.


Yuki (Pullip Snow Miku)'s transformation, pt. 2: The first rewigging attempt by ~Loona~, on Flickr

The second wig looked wonderful. But I *hated* it on Yuki. All I could see was that huge forehead


Yuki (Pullip Snow Miku)'s transformation, pt. 3: The second rewigging attempt by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Too bad, because just look at that beautiful ombre! 


Yuki (Pullip Snow Miku)'s transformation, pt. 3: The second rewigging attempt by ~Loona~, on Flickr

At one point I tried out a dark blue wig as well, which is lovely in itself, but it changed Yuki’s appearance drastically, transforming her into another doll who I, again, didn't like nearly enough to buy, had she looked like this originally. I don’t have a picture of her alone in this wig, but she’s sporting this look on this family portrait back from April 2020.


Pullip family portrait, 13/04/2020 by ~Loona~, on Flickr

To make things even worse for her, by this time she had company – or competition rather. One of them was Holy Grail herself, LOL Miku. And another one was a doll who never became a grail because I simply never even believed for a second that I could own her: Yokohama Miku. The composition of this picture says it all: at this point I loved all my other dolls, but poor Yuki in the corner, distanced from the others (and even out of focus…), was out&displayed with the others only because I felt too sorry for the poor thing to keep her in her box. And deep down I knew she is a wonderful doll (she already was once, before the wig issue), I just needed to find the right way to look at her – instead of seeing a flaw and a bad purchase eksperience.

In my failed attempt to find the right wig for her, at one point I came to the conclusion that I'll have to try my hands at modifying a wig to resemble her original hairstyle. So I ordered a pure white wig with bangs, and blue hair wefts in the same length to add to the bottom/back part of the white wig. This happened sometime before the picture above was taken - but sadly not early enough: the zombie apocalypse hit the world in the meantime, and while the blue wefts magically arrived after some months , the white wig never did
 
On came plan C (D? E?): I decided I’ll try cutting bangs to the ombre white-to-blue wig I previously didn’t like on her, also adding some short extra hair wefts because there's no way there's enough hair in the (otherwise thick, but Miku's original bangs are thick too) wig to create the desired look. Luckily I did have short white hair on hand, so I took out the ombre wig and put it on her to check&measure where to cut…

…and that's when the magic happened! In my struggle to put the wig on her (it doesn't go&stay on easy), I accidentally put it on lopsided, creating a side-part effect. And... poof! Love at first sight! Or well, maybe fifth or sixth, but it was love. Big-big love


Yuki (Pullip Snow Miku)'s transformation, pt. 4: Third time's a charm! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Just how the heck did I not think of this earlier? *facepalm*

Now that I started to feel a bond forming with her, my mind started to work and come up with ways to make the bond stronger, ways to make her even more beautiful - and this is how that extra row of blue-coloured eyelashes happened. As well as this:


Yuki (Pullip Snow Miku)'s transformation, pt. 5: Eyes! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

No, sadly my painting skills are not that good. Those are water-transfer nail art stickers Their finish is much less shiny than I ekspected, totally bearable enough for me to leave it alone as is, instead of wanting to give the eyelids a coat of MSC.
 
At this point, I was so in love with her that I often found myself glancing towards the shelf where she was sitting, making sounds and ekspressions one does when seeing a baby or a cute animal. The husband found the whole situation overly funny and amusing 
 
This was also the point when I finally felt connected enough to her that I wanted to take proper photos of her – and these are the real reason of this thread. I have, however, decided to put a cliffhanger here and leave those for my next post: I've been holding back for too long, waiting to finish editing all of them, and tonight I felt that if I really want to edit everything before showing them to you, summer will be over. And likely autumn too So this is the end of today's Yuki spam - but there is more to come

[davidd]

Yuki is quite enchanting in the original photo. I can see why you were captivated.

The side-part is adorable! I've never even thought about trying such a thing! I may need to go ex-periment with Pullip wigs now! And two-tone eyelashes! What a cool effect!

[Alliecat]

Ugh, sellers who don't disclose all the details should be booted off whatever platform they're on!!!!
That IS a gorgeous ombre blue, but I see what you mean about the forehead. I was going to say, 'I guess it wouldn't sit farther forward without covering the sides of her face?', and then scrolled down to see you'd put it on 'sideways'. The extra little touches are cute, and she looks lovely now. Looking forward to seeing some more of her photos, and glad you finally settled on a look you like!

[Aijo]

What a journey! Wig-buying in general is difficult, especially when you are going for a particular look. I also have a similar wig with that type of parting. I put it on just the way you had originally--with the part in the middle. It looked so unnatural! But, then I decided to put it sideways as the wig seller had in the item photos, and it was just instant love! I think that for those types of wigs, they are best positioned to the side. That wig is really gorgeous on Yuki with the ombre and everything! It's perfect!!

[Lejays17]

What a roller coaster! She looks interesting in all the variety of wigs you put her in, but if they weren’t “just right” for the look you were going for, they’re no good.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of her now that she’s just how you want her.

[neon_jellyfish]

Wonderful transformation!!! I'm glad the ombre wig worked at last, it's really beautiful. And those snowflakes on her eyelids are such a clever touch!

Funny how some Pullips look great with parting, and some require bangs or some other forehead cover, eventhough it's the same sculpt all the time.

[werepuppy]

Such a wonderful transformation, it's easy to see why you were enchaned with Yuki!

As neon said, it's funny how despite all being the same sculpt, it feels like some Pullips need bangs, or a side-parting, while others don't.

[Lilcurly]

I love reading dolly journeys like this, it not only reassures me that I'm not the only one that gets like this over certain dolls, but it's also really interesting to see the process of finding just the right look.

I LOVE that wig on her, with the side part, it looks beautiful, and I really love the additions you've made to her eyes! Can't wait to see more pictures of her, don't keep us waiting too long!

[Loona]

Thank you for the kind comments everyone! And apologies for making you wait with the rest of the photos, life has gotten busy, and I either didn't have the chance to sit down to edit photos on evenings, or I simply looked at the monitor too much during work and my eyes refused to continue doing that also after working hours. I'll try to get at least one batch done during the weekend

Ugh, sellers who don't disclose all the details should be booted off whatever platform they're on!!!!
That IS a gorgeous ombre blue, but I see what you mean about the forehead.  I was going to say, 'I guess it wouldn't sit farther forward without covering the sides of her face?'

In defense of the seller, they said they weren't aware of it. The doll might have been in storage for some time, and the damage could have happened during that time. That said though, in a similar situation I always check items again before packing them up for sending, so yeah... not a good excuse.
I did try that - but when brought forward to make the forehead area smaller, it just did not sit right, it covered the ears, and also, the part isn't long enough, so it ended at the top of her head. It just looked wonky overall.

(...) then I decided to put it sideways as the wig seller had in the item photos (...)

Oh, I wish the seller had pictures to give me this suggestion! I could have spared half a year of hating mistreating poor Yuki. Sadly though, if I remember correctly, this seller didn't even have a picture that showed the wig on a doll - and if they did, that was a BJD. As the wig was not made specifically for Pullips, but for 1/3 BJDs, I was prepared for some ill-fitting, but not this much, I guess

Funny how some Pullips look great with parting, and some require bangs or some other forehead cover, eventhough it's the same sculpt all the time.

It is! I was just referring to how Pullips manage to look SO different at times even though they all have the same face sculpt in another discussion. It requires some creativity (and I think one also has to get the hang of it) to know how little features can change the appearance, but I think the sculpt itself must be a very well-built base too, otherwise some looks would not only look different, but also off or wonky.

[DeadlyNova]

She's too cute! Those snowflakes on her eyelids combined with her new wig...WOW! I think she's far more beautiful like this than her stock look ever was. I think these things happen for a reason, I'm glad you've finally bonded with her. <3