Image 1 — Universe
Image 2 — Universe
Image 3 — Universe
Image 4 — Universe

Universe

My June PPU order came, and I had to try out the stamping plate immediately!

It's 34c here so I worked as fast as I could with a frozen cool mat on my seat to keep my temperature down. (read: should have waited longer to topcoat but needed to be done ASAP before I melted)

My honest experience with the stamping plate, I didn't have as easy a time as I do with MoYou, Uberchic or Hit the Bottle plates. ​​Some of the more delicate designs were tricky to pick up; I found that giving the whole plate a quick wipe with pure acetone helped subsequent attempts. ​​Is that a known trick I've subonsciously remembered?? ​

Unfortunately at the last second I decided to use my over-thinned cuticula topcoat, and it was a bit too runny so I made a bad job of smearing everything. ​​​

Still trying to get the hang of hitting the whole nail without distorting the image, my C Curve is practically a 90° drop off at the side walls on some nails so it's a bit tricky.

🌟 Product list:

✨ Mooncat Getting Even Primer

✨ 3× Cadillaquer "Steven Universe" (June PPU)

✨ Cadillaquer "universe" Stamping plate with MoYou London in "Purple Mouse"

✨ Cuticula Limitless topcoat.

u/GremmyRemmy — 8 days ago
▲ 210 r/NoviStars

Got my office shelves!

So my whole vibe for my sewing business is space, like uchuu-kei cute alien galaxy vibes. The reason I even got into these girls is because someone told me back in 2019 that my alien mascot reminded them of Alie, haha.

I finally got the first set of shelves I want for my office (still want to convert the back wall into a full fabric storage/display area ​so my faves/most fittingly designed girls are finally in here where I want them!

Please excuse Tula's hair, I went to pick her up from her old spot and not only had she sprung a leak in her right leg, but her hair tie snapped! So at some point I need to give her a spa day and reseal her leg.

Not pictured: Anne, Ina, Tilly, Roe, Una, Justina or Doe. Doe may end up staying in my bedroom, I need to make Justina a stand, and the others are in the "to be customised/restored" box.

u/GremmyRemmy — 14 days ago
▲ 132 r/NoviStars

No offense to the seller but...

"good condition" my butt. The posing of this poor Sila is ENDING me, she looks so sad!

She's listed in "good condition" but as well as having No clothes, shoes, hair or her antennae, her eyelashes are completely missing! Her eyebrows have rubbed off and there are more bald spots on her head and body where the glitter is chipped off. Her eye makeup also looks like it's scuffed up. Delulu behaviour.

I feel so sad for her and part of me wants to bring her home, clean her up, remove the probably dangerous batteries (at this age and in her condition I expect her battery compartment to be a leaky mess!) and try to match her glitter to restore her... But they also want quite a high price that matches other listings for Silas who do have their outfits, hair and other accessories. So as someone who doesn't have money to burn, it's not really feasible.

But yeah, tldr she's going in my "cursed dolls of vinted" folder where I add all the weird photos I see (and some of them I use as reaction images)

u/GremmyRemmy — 19 days ago

Unboxing grails!

I've had a bit of a journey getting a Mimi Merize but she's here! I initially ordered one from eBay and there was some strange Shenanigans with the tracking. Eventually I contacted eBay customer service over the phone and we had a very long conversation that ended with the staff member telling me he thinks that Mimi was lost, and that there was something fishy about the tracking numbers and that he would fast track a refund even though it wasn't normally allowed so early.

Dejected, the phone call ended and I hung up. I do not normally look very often at one particular application because they do not ship directly to my country, ​​​ but I did just then and suddenly there she was! Freshly uploaded, Mimi Merize with all her accessories ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​for a really good price. ​

I actually assumed that she had some damage to her dress and that was the reason for the price but now I have her in person I can see that it was just the reflection of the light making the vinyl look like it had been worn away. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I have friends in that country who were happy to collect her and forward her to me as well as Justina and I'm super happy. I am on the hunt for Vera and will probably pick ​​​​​up Sila at some point, but I honestly think I'm close to done. I don't know if I'll actively be looking for any of the other supernovas or Beach Novis (although if anyone has any that are damaged, I am going to be looking for ones that I can restyle or customize) ​​​​​

youtu.be
u/GremmyRemmy — 28 days ago

Shoe restoration!

Hello everyone! Long time lurker, but this time my searching post history didn't yield me much so I'm posting!

I wanted these specific shoes for a Novi Stars Roe Botik ​restyle, and long story short to get a left and right shoe I ended up buying several pairs from different stores. The right shoes are in great condition but the Lefts are mmm... Not so great. They're a bit chewed up in places.

(edit to add that they are Equestria Girls Sunset Shimmer boots if that makes any difference to anything!) ​​​

My plan is to repaint them black anyway, and touch the studs up with silver, but before I do that I want to try to fill in some of the more grotty areas and shallow cracks.

I'm guessing some kind of silicone putty/liquid or adhesive might do, but I'm not sure what I should specifically be looking for? Any product/technique advice or just links to stuff will do. I am in the EU so I can't shop American stores but I can do my own research into equivalents products. Thanks for reading if you got this far haha!

u/GremmyRemmy — 1 month ago

Pet Count!

(I know I need to dust but I'm meaning to move these girls to a new shelf soon!)

So I'm of the, possibly unpopular, opinion that some of the pets just ain't it, chief. I feel like I would rather have had extra accessories for some of the Dolls rather than a pet (Alie could have had glasses and a math book!)

Other pets however, knock it out of the park. Diz is fantastic, I LOVE him so much. He's also quite big which makes me happy ( his owner is currently on her way to me but is staying with a friend right now)

As a lover of all things mermaid, i really wanted Octogen too. I eventually want to do some kind of tribute to the unreleased mermaid Novi, but octogen fills the void for now haha. His face is so cute!

The Watcher Protecc.

u/GremmyRemmy — 1 month ago

Help me decide!

Ok so I'm making Roe an all black/silver outfit and here are two shoe choices (the other choice is Gail Lexi's shoes but I wanted something more boot-ish)

So long story but! I originally wanted the shoes on the bottom row. I ordered them and the shoes on the top row is what they sent, so I had to order AGAIN and they got stuck in customs!

I believe these are Monster High, they look like the same unpainted mold of a pair of Torelai shoes. The bottom row is actually Equestria Girls, even though my first image search told me that they were either from rainbow high​ or Lol Omg.

Pros of the top row: the fit is really good! I love the straps. I intend to paint the studs silver. There's a left and right LOL

Cons: they're higher than the others and cover more of the robot leg. I'm not enamoured with the open toe.

Pros of the bottom row: they are what I originally wanted and I love the spikes and the big heel, I love character design silhouettes that have large shoes.

Cons: they sent two right shoes! It looks kind of silly if you look too close. ​​​I've asked the seller if they can dig out two lefts for me, but I don't yeah think they'll want to.

I may be overthinking it but at some angles they do look kind of comically too large, and I don't know if the shrinking method will be accurate enough for them to still fit at the end.

I do plan to paint whichever shoes I go for to bring out the details and add some metallic accents, which ones would you pick?​​​​​​​

u/GremmyRemmy — 1 month ago

Subtle Mermaid Nails

Maybe too subtle??

I thought from my swatch book that the rose gold stamping polish I used was actually a different tone to Velvet Rose? But they're way more similar than they look in the bottle, and fun fact, before topcoat it looked better because stamping polish dries matte and Velvet Rose is glossy. Once I put the top coat on everything glossed up and it wasn't as obvious. It is more obvious in real life but the camera just completely loses it. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If I did this again with a specific photo or video I wanted to do, I would do velvet rose on its own and then the morning after at the stamping polish on top of the top coat so it stays matte, even if it wouldn't be as long-lived.

Product list:

1× hardcore base coat

1× getting even primer

3× velvet rose with the velvet horseshoe magnet

What's up Nails B038 stamping plate with Uberchic stamping polish in "Daydreamer"

1× Speed Demon Topcoat while in the magnet bed to finish.

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u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago
▲ 241 r/NoviStars

The brain rot has really taken over

Malie Tasker might be my favourite doll of anything ever. I love her design, I love her colour scheme, I love her four arms. I haven't drawn for leisure in a long time, but I really wanted to draw Malie.

u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago

Never were there such devoted sisters

Managed to pick up this Magic Mixling Deer for 2.50€, I love the vibe and she was kind of giving "little cousin of Doe"​ but I'm wondering about giving her a bit of a restyle, bangs and making her a dress to make her more of a "little sister of Doe"​. I think it would be cute!o

u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago

Oh man please be careful guys.

I saw the post this morning about someone who had been scammed on the Novi Stars selling/trading Facebook group. 

First of all, the people involved were admin so I would get out of that group if you are in it, you have no guarantees of a safe transaction with any member, if even the admin are doing this. They'll not care if another member does it too and some of those "members" will be alternative accounts or bots!

I had sent lineage Endure a message but because of the lack of photos and the fact that she had no itemized list of what she had, or any prices I couldn't be bothered to go any further. Today I went back and asked for photographs and they are AI generated. 

https://preview.redd.it/yk18m8oclb0h1.jpg?width=1758&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=492525787acc55c1e5d721538e66f034ea13ef21

I really recommend that if you are looking at a listing that you compare photographs to other older images. If we look at the comparisons, real on the left and fake on the right it becomes more obvious. The text above Diz is completely illegible, at first I wondered if it was just an eastern european release and the quality just wasn't high enough to make out the language, but it is complete gibberish. In fact if you check out Diz himself there are a lot of extra artifacts and strange shapes because the engine could not understand his markings.

https://preview.redd.it/jscfpjpamb0h1.png?width=1315&format=png&auto=webp&s=1348c2d930920d8cf9048e71561eb395614b1cc6

Equally if you look at her stand the heels are not symmetrical. One heel indent is merging with the front of the Sole indent. Also check out her left ponytail and her right hand. Vera's stand is harder to see but I think it's also melting, she has some strange artefacts on her legs and her arms aren't quite right.

https://preview.redd.it/ny4q0yfdmb0h1.png?width=1254&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a87b16a683ecc21e64729b1645062022d2720da

https://preview.redd.it/4bkha7zmmb0h1.png?width=1565&format=png&auto=webp&s=399a527c8c7a0bb9da2d29e26d09ab1d43f0711e

Left, Real! Right, AI!

Same goes for Mae and Una's pets, the text around them and the doll's faces. For me the text was the big red flag, and I would urge anyone to check when looking at photos. (Mae's stand is missing an entire shoe indent)

I would have originally said that I recommend asking for extra photos if you are unsure on something but this proves that even if a seller seems friendly enough and happy to provide pictures they could be running them through an AI engine first. So while I still stand by the advice, it now comes with the additional recommendation of going over the image as best you can. Ask friends and real people to help you look, AI detectors are NOT reliable.

It sucks that we have to be so careful when purchasing, my general second-hand market tips would be to read every listing twice and take screenshots before you buy anything. This is the best way to maintain evidence of an unaltered listing. 

I also would not agree to pay in any method that cannot be protected. Shit happens and people get banned from PayPal for the silliest things, but if a seller tells you they cannot accept multiple trusted sources that offer buyer protection, and urge you towards "friends and family" payments or gift cards then there is a reason. I've done bizum in my country, and friends and family for small sales and sometimes with people who I've worked with before and believe I can trust, but for a first sale with a stranger, please don't accept unprotected payment methods, especially for large amounts. Walk away, another doll will come to you from a more reliable source!

Once you've gone through with a sale, keep the screenshots and write down your tracking number. Take screenshots of the tracking updates as well as sometimes these will get lost to time as the website moves on. (something I sold on vinted was marked as lost and vinted took away the option for me to track the parcel through the app. But because I have kept the information my buyer and myself were able to continue watching the parcel's progress and eventually get it safely to him) 

I also recommend filming an unboxing (likewise if YOU'RE the seller, film the packaging step) so that you can prove that there's no foul play on your part. 

And those are just my two cents on how I try to keep myself safe when purchasing online. I've run a small business since 2012 so I'm used to scammers, ghosters, problems with transit companies and have learned to spot shady dealings, but I know that it's not always common knowledge!

reddit.com
u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago

Further to the Mimi Eye Mechanics post...

Gosh imagine a custom Mimi with her eyechips done up like this....... She'd look so spooky cool.

reddit.com
u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago

Took me ages to notice....

I got my Nita around January, and tbh I'm a bit obsessed with her and her pod so I read old reviews ​and always stop to look at listings of her,,, and I only just noticed mine has two straight arms. As far as I can tell Nita is supposed to have one bent arm but mine must have had a donation from Tula maybe?

There's a YouTube short of a rerooted Nita in her pod, one of the first videos I ever saw, and that first made me want her... that one also has two straight arms, so maybe that's why I didn't notice at first?

I like her arms straight, it looks like she's enjoying floating 🫧 :3c

u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago

Ignore the cat hairs on my brace, my cat thinks the fact that I sleep with my arms straight out makes for a fantastic bed for him. ​​​​​​

So I've been wearing Mooncat's Garden of Evil and I love the green,​ but I was wearing it in *four* coats and it was still sheer. So I decided to redo it over two coats of ILNP Treetop. It's darkened up GoE considerably but it also brings out the shimmer and sparkle more, so I really like it. ​​​

My only other green cremes are some lime stamping polishes, so I'm going to have to have a hunt for a creme in that nice ugly grass colour. ​​​The slight disappointment in the sheerness of Garden of Evil is offset by the fact that I missed my chance to buy it last April from hypnotic, and finally got hold of it this year after pining for 12 whole months (I Live in Spain and most polish brands do not ship here)​ The formula is fantastic and the green is my spot-on favorite kind of green with my favorite pink to purple ​​shimmer. Plus how dark and moody it looks over a dark green creme is pretty dope. ​​​​​​​​​​​​

u/GremmyRemmy — 2 months ago