Milena Marie

With Milena, I wanted to fulfil the dream of a Reborn Baby. As I had no idea, I - like probably many others - fell for a "Reborn" Baby from Amazon... This is NOT a real Reborn Baby, but a cheap copy. You can find out more here.

I thought for a long time about whether to include Milena in my gallery, but I consciously decided to do so because 1. she was my first experience and 2. I want to show others why one should not fall for such cheap fakes.

Here is the link to her sales advertisement, by the way. In the meantime, there is actually a product video in which you can see that the product photos do not represent this doll at all!

Here is a photo from her product description:

Here is a picture of what she looked like when she arrived at my place:

A resemblance can be seen, but that’s about it. I was very disappointed when I received "my" baby and was close to sending her back. In hindsight, I should have done that better. But as they say, hindsight is always 20/20!

Here is a photo of her oh so great rooting:

In this picture, you can clearly see how artificially she is PAINTED!

This is really no comparison to the product photo!

But since I still found her somehow cute, I kept her. I must also mention that she was in no way weighted. That is already an absolute no-go for a reborn baby. 

So I decided to weight her. That made a huge difference. But since I was still not really happy, I completely decoloured her, removed the hair, and redesigned her myself.

Here are photos of the process:

Removing the hair was extremely tedious. The glue was applied almost half a cm thick in places and hard as stone.

I then cut the hair off to be able to remove it better.

I finally did it. Somehow she already looks much better now that those artificial-looking hairs are gone. What I actually noticed positively were the faint veins that were painted on. But also that. Painted on. The whole doll looked really painted.

The picture was taken after the first attempts to decolour her. I immediately noticed how thick the layers were applied.

Finally completely decoloured. She actually looks quite good like this. I would like to point out at this point that the blank feels completely different from a high-quality blank. It is harder and does not feel as silky. It is really a huge qualitative difference.

Here is an interim status of my paint applications. I would like to mention at this point that it was my first attempt and yes, I applied way too much paint. However, this vinyl does not really take the colour well either. I noticed afterwards with my real kits just how big the difference is!

I didn't like my result, so I bleached everything out and started again.

Here the colour application is already significantly better.

Not perfect. But definitely better than before!

Here is another problem that has occurred. The colour hasn't held well! This has never happened to me with a real reborn blank.

For the first time, I think I have achieved a very good skin texture.

And done.

Here is the direct comparison again.

After I finished it and posted it in the reborndolls subreddit, I was informed that it is a fake and very likely toxic. Therefore, I disposed of it. You can't sell something like that with a clear conscience. I have learned from this and taken everything I experienced with it as valuable knowledge.

R.I.P little Milena Marie