Ball-jointed Doll Yellowing

It's a common topic to talk about when it comes to ball-jointed doll owners and honestly, I was quite fearful when I first got to know this issue because not knowing what it will turn out to be since "yellow" can come in different shades. 

As far as I am concern about the yellowing issue, ball-jointed doll yellowing does not yellow to the degree that it turns into banana yellow but rather majority of them turns into creamish or pale tone. After reading those horror stories and paranoid dramas, I do not find them a very big deal because it is an unavoidable issue and let's face it even humans age over time. 

How does the yellowing process happen?

Ultra-Violet (UV) Ray is one of the most common reason that accelerates the yellowing process but what is going on is that the color pigment breaks down over time because most skin color is made out of different color pigments. Among all the color pigments, red pigment loses its red tint faster compared to other color pigment. Therefore, pink skin or normal skin when red tint losses leaving mostly yellow pigments since pink skin or normal skin are mostly made out of those two main pigments. Hence, when red tint losses in tan skin ball-jointed dolls, yellow and blue pigment will result in greening rather than yellowing. Consequently, even without the presence of UV ray, there will still be some slight changes in color. 

Picture taken from WithDoll

Real skin with sunscreen a-uv(o), Real skin without sunscreen a-uv(x) &

Korean resin made like real skin for the test (k)

In relation to the experiment from WithDoll, the picture above shows the degradation of resin that happens only when there is extreme UV exposure towards the resin. So far, such dramatic color changes are normally seen in sample pictures or resin experiment pictures like the one above using extreme UV exposure, unless you want sunbathe with your ball-jointed doll under bright hot sun for hours which I personally think that it is unlikely to happen. Apparently, for transparent resin like French resins, it is easier to yellow when there is exposure of sunlight over long period of time.  

Generally, UV exposure is one of the most common relation to yellowing issues among ball-jointed dolls but it requires long period of exposure to UV to result in dramatic yellowing similarly to "sunburn". There are also other uncommon factors that can cause yellowing such as instabilities inherent in the resin used to create ball-jointed doll but not every dolls has such issue. If you are particular towards the color change in ball-jointed dolls, research would be one of the many ways you can do before purchasing them because it comes back to your color change acceptance. Also, get inspired by other ball-jointed owners because you will be amazed that most owners out there love the color change in their ball-jointed dolls and some love their ball-jointed dolls even more after the change of color. Love them and age with them~