Happy Birthday to Me!

Can you guess what I bought myself for my birthday last week?

Correct! A Blythe doll! 

I have loved Princess Milk BisQuit de Q-Pot for years, but since she is an older doll (released in 2009) and only 3000 were made, she goes for a higher price than I normally like to pay. But the combination of my birthday plus a family issue (that had me very stressed out) equaled the need to treat myself to something great. And here she is:

Although I prefer fantasy-haired dolls, the first two Blythes I ever bought were both brown haired (Raspberry Sorbet, and Petite Dejeuner), and I've gotten a couple more over the years, so it takes an extremely special brown haired girl to get my attention--and this is that girl. She has so many special features I don't know where to begin to tell you about them! Her hair is a mix of several brown tones which are especially striking in person. She has pretty brown eyelids, and special long eyelashes. Her lipstick has an iridescent shine. Her pull ring is the same dark brown as her stand, and features the burgundy ribbon that is also on her cane and the strap of her bag. Her eye chips are all made with holographic paper, so they are especially sparkly, and the front-facing brown chips have a Q in the pupil. Her look, from head to toe, says "chocolate" to me, and I do love some delicious chocolate!

I had to do a little research to find out what "Q-Pot" means. I discovered that it is a fashion brand in Japan, designed by Tadaaki Wakamatsu. The products are mostly whimsical fashion accessories. There is also a Q-Pot Cafe, featuring sweets and chocolates, which probably explains why she looks so very chocolate-y!

I can't wait to take more pictures of her! I especially want to see her with Gerda Eternity and Veronica Lace, both of whom have multiple tones in their brown hair. 

She did have a few minor issues. The first two can be explained by her long confinement to her box: a slightly musty smell, which doesn't really bother me, and which I expect to dissipate with time; and her boots, which were in a plastic bag, had become oily. I've seen this before with the older plastic boots. A thorough washing with Dawn removed all the oil. The last issue was the most surprising to me: her hair was a mess! In all the pictures I've seen of her, her hair is smooth and beautiful, but right out of the box, hers was frizzy, tangled, and had several bad knots that I had to cut out. She also shed quite a bit the first time I brushed her hair...but she has such thick hair that it didn't matter at all. First I washed her hair in Dawn and gave her a quick soak in fabric softener, but her hair was still frizzy when it dried. Next, I dunked her hair in near-boiling water, then ran it under cold water, then left it to soak in fabric softener for an hour. After that the frizz was gone and now she looks like a proper princess.