BJD doll are hand-made, resin dolls from Asia – more specifically, South Korea, Japan, and China. They’re made to look just like real people. Every doll is different; some have freckles or scars, the adults may have aged lines or wrinkles. Despite how lifelike they are, each doll will not be identical to another.
Resin is a smooth material that’s somewhere between plastic and porcelain. It comes in various colors like normal, fantasy pigments. Normal skin is the fleshy color of a Caucasian, while beautiful white is even lighter, whiter than normal. There is also a darker resin that resembles the skin of an African American or Latin American.
There are also fantasy colors, like green, blue and red. Fantasy BJD dolls are fairies and other shape-shifters. The resin is hard but not indestructible so you should be careful if you drop your doll from a no height to a softer surface - the resin will break or chip.
There are many doll companies in Asia with different sizes and types. The most common size is Yo-Sd which stands for 9.7 cm (just over 3 1/2 inches).
Dolls are categorized into different age categories depending on how old the person is supposed to be. SD doll (57 – 65 cm dolls) represent an older (18-25) adult, MSDs (40-50cm) represent a preteen (13-16), Yo-SDs represent a kid (~8-12), and simpler dolls are classified by their specific company. There is some room for normalization with doll ages, because owners can change the age of their dolls as they please.
BJD dolls are fully customizable. Every single component of their physical appearance is alterable. When you receive your BJDs, they will be completely naked and blank. How you dress them is up to you, but also consider that not all companies provide the same clothing for different BJDs–if you want a brunette BJD dolls with green eyes, for example, you’ll have to order from an outfit company with BJD dolls with those features. Still, because there are so many different options for customization, each doll will be unique in some way: one doll might be dressed as Sherlock Holmes wearing a deerstalker cap and smoking jacket; another may be free-spirited in white lace with flowers twined in her hair and blue angel wings spanning from the shoulders (think Stella McCartney’s Fall 2017 collection).
A doll's face-up is it's makeup, style and clothing. It includes a realistic detail on the doll's face or features such as eye shadow, blush or freckles depending on the gender of the doll. Fixed in the head are eyes and eyelashes which can be customized. A doll's face-up is changeable to match your tastes might take extra time, money, more care or a third party to modify.
Owners often buy a doll that reflects the personality of the owner, not the personality of a video game character or fictional character. Dolls are given life when their creative owners develop them creatively.
xoxo~
edelweiss