Decals for Imomo dolls?

I'm thinking of "customizing" an Imomo head using decal stickers and was wondering if anyone who's tried it before could tell me whether its worth it and how easy it is. Does it look good? Do I need to know anything to avoid messing up? If you have pictures, I'd love to see them!

 

The head in question is a Miko so it has open eyes and the decals I want to buy are these :

 : 

Edited July 21, 2023 by enyka

In case anyone is interested, i ended up buying a few decals to try out and here's how it went :

I used a small hobby knife to cut the decals. I tried to cut them as close to the design as possible as the decal paper is shinier than the head and blank parts stick out visually. This part is fairly easy if you take your time.

I thought these would be like temporary tattoos and stick to the surface when wet but they really dont. You have to soak the paper they're printed on in water and the decal kinda just floats away. Transfering the decal to the head requires meticulous handling as they are fragile and can fold or break easily. Placing the decal on the head is also a little challenging but gets easier with practice. I still dont have the hang of placing eyebrows symetrically though. Once the water dries, the decals do not adhere at all and a breath can blow them away. I lost a small part this way ;_;. I had to buy decal glue ( Mr. Mark Setter ) to make the decals stay in place until I could seal the head. There can also be little folds or bubbles on the decals surface and it's easier to smooth them away if there's some adherance. 

Since the head I used had a sculpted mouth, I had to practice my faceup skills a little. I'm really not good at it and I'd say in retrospect, I should have started with that because the decals are easier than painting for me and I ruined the sealant by removing painting mistakes. 

Overall it was a positive experience. The decals are cheap so I could afford to make mistakes while I learned. They dont look as good as a real faceup because the blank parts that you cant cut out are shiny, even after sealing, but if you dont have faceup skills like me, and want to learn, I think they're a good entry tool. You only have to take care of the blushing and mouth (if not flat) and once you get good at that, maybe you can gain the confidence to try to do the whole thing yourself!

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by enyka

Here's my first try. I placed the decals too high over the eyes and lost the lower eyelash decals, so tried to paint them and it didnt go well so I had to remove them and it damaged the sealant. Leasons learned! I'll do better next time! 

Edited September 4, 2023 by enyka

Thanks for sharing! I have never tried this! I’d like to give it a go sometime! 

I don’t have any experience with this yet, but am looking to use decals on tiny 1/12 resin heads, so this was helpful.

Out of Base sells decals for tiny heads and has a tutorial on how to affix them here, which might be useful to you for future projects.

One thing it mentions which I thought was helpful is to keep the eyebrows attached to the eyelids so you don’t have to fuss with making them even.

For technique, it says to soak the decals in water for 20 seconds and to wipe away the excess water with a Q-tip once they’re in place. Idk if soaking them longer or removing the excess water would have helped you, since it sounds like it was just not working for you at all, but @XOHimitsuOX suggested using Mr. Marker Softer to soften the decals to conform to the shape of the eyehole and Mr. Mark Setter (which you mentioned using) to adhere them.

To get rid of the shine (particularly if you kept the eyebrows attached to the eyelashes), the tutorial suggests using a matte finish spray. Idk if the sealant you used has this function, but if not it might help in the future.