Summer Vacation Day 23

A by-product of this countdown is that I've been doing some very serious thinking about which dolls stay and which dolls I can let go.  The dolls that stay sometimes require a "tweak" here or there.  It could be a paint tweak like Touch of Frost Eugenia, The Royal Weiss Agnes, or Glow Vanessa.  (By the way, the artist e-mailed me recently and told me she was feeling better.  For those of you who are interested, the artisan who did these eye corrections for me was Veronica Hage.  She can be contacted through her flickr page.)  Or it could be a body tweak like The Muse Adele.

One of my very favorite dolls in my collection is Cosmetic Takeover Natalia who was the subject of an earlier blog post.   To me, Natalia Fatale is blonde.  I don't know why, but I always think of the character as blonde.  Cosmetic Takeover did not come with applied eyelashes, and I've always wanted a Natalia with eyelashes.  I had settled on Shapeshifter from 2008.  She was released as a FAO exclusive gift set in an edition size of 500.  She cost $260 retail.  She is also very difficult to find on the secondary market.

Shapeshifter Natalia suffers from the quality control problem that many of the Integrity Toys dolls seem to come with.  I have seen Shapeshifter with really wonky eyes and/or very poorly cut hair.   (When I open a doll box from IT, I feel like I'm playing the old "Mystery Date" game, holding my breath and asking, "Will it be a dream, or will it be a dud?")  It took me a very long time to find a perfect version of this doll on secondary market at a reasonable price.  She came to live with me last year.

Shapeshifter was produced prior to the handspeak system, so I was faced with the challenge of deciding whether to put her on a regular handspeak FR body or the FR2 one.   For potential body donors, I owned both the Sweet Victory Natalia from the 2012 convention and the Brazen Beauty Natalia from the 2013 convention.  Brazen Beauty actually looks quite similar to Shapeshifter; however, in my opinion, Shapeshifter has a better face up.  Since IT announced there would be another blonde FR2 Natalia later this year, I decided to go with the regular FR body.  (Had I put her on the FR2 body, she wouldn't have been able to wear all the clothes from her gift set, so I was happy to keep her on the FR body.)

It was very stressful releasing this doll from her box.  There is always the potential of the eyelashes releasing during the heating of the head - it's happened to me several times.  Only one corner of one eyelash required a minor dab of super glue.  I carefully redressed her in Red Zinger Dania's skirt and blouse, adding the jewelry and shoes from Style Counsel.

I think she turned out quite lovely!  She has the most exquisite face up!

And look at the hair from behind!

I will probably loosen her hair in the near future, but, for now, why bother?  Shapeshifter Natalia is everything I look for in an Integrity Doll - chic, sensuous, elegance!