Welcome to the forum! Your babies are beautiful. I started out using GHSP, but after about 5-6 months I switched to air dry paints. I could no longer tolerate the fumes from baking the vinyl and actually got sick from it. I have now used air dry for over 7 years and have not regretted it.
Welcome to the forum…Look forward to seeing you often… 
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I do get migraines triggered my odors which has also played a part in my delay in trying Genesis. I am happy to see so many air dry users here- I have often felt so isolated because it seemed I was the only one.
Thank you Westernstarr!
Hi Jenny, nice to meet you! I agree, stick to air dry because your babies are beautiful! 
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Thank you Kareninflorida! I do like the air dry, but I have not yet figured out all the techniques and translated to air dry. I am planning to work on adding scratches and tear ducts with air dry products soon.
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Welcome! Beautiful babies!
Thank you Angel76.
I know what you mean when you mention the lack of tutorials for air dry paints. I myself had to learn a lot on my own although Debbie Henshaw has great tutorials on her blog which I referred to many times.
With the skin texture on light skin tones I use a large mop brush to pounce with instead of the cosmetic sponge. I do several layers with the mop brush until I am satisfied with the textured look. I have tried several different types of sponges also for different effects. It’s just a matter of trying different things until you find what is right for you.
The only paint that I had a problem with is the Luminaires that I had a hard time getting the paint to adhere to the vinyl. Needless to say I trashed them and would never recommend them. The key is to use good quality paints. I have been making and selling reborns that I have done with air dry paints for a little over 7 yrs and have never had a complaint from a customer or anyone who has gotten one of my reborns about it fading, cracking, getting shiny or peeling. If you are using a paint with a high rating for light-fastness or like many of the paints specifically made for reborns that assure it has a good quality light-fastness and you applied them properly then you should have no problems with fading. Cracking comes from paints that are not flexible and do not bend with the surface you are painting and are made for hard non-flexible surfaces. This also will cause the peeling. If the proper mediums and paints are used then there should no problems with shine. In my opinion it is the knowledge of the artists that they have with the products they are using and are using them properly. This goes for air dry or genesis paints.
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Hi
It sounds like maybe my fear of my babies not holding up may be exaggerated as air dry paints are durable if done right. Since I started sealing and began using mostly Liquitex I have not had the fading that I did with LDC. That paint was made for reborns and they say you don’t have to seal, but it did fade. Not completely, but I could see it. I guess maybe Genesis does not hold up good either if someone bathes the baby and changes the clothes often. I see some collectors do that, but I don’t so not sure what would happen if I did. I have some Genesis painted babies, but they and the ones I painted myself are treated with great care and not played with.
Hi Denise, nice to meet you!
Liquitex is one of my favorite paints. It is a high quality artist acrylic paint, it is flexible and it has high ratings on most of their colors for light-fastness which is printed on their labels. I only use colors that are rated 1 or 2 and don’t use any with a lower rating. They have also been tested for toxins and have been approved by ACMI for being non-toxic which is also printed on their labels. I’ve used the LDC paints, but I was not pleased with them. Reborns are a lot of work and they should be treated with some TLC.
So glad to see you on here, Jenny!! Welcome! 
Your babies are beautiful!
Thank you all again for welcoming me. I am off my holiday break soon, but plan to try to make time to post regularly.
Hi , I am new here and want to get started with reborning. I want to use air dry paints and purchased Daler Rowney system 3 original. I noticed what you said about the rating on the tube. This paint says it conforms to ASTM and has ACMI on the tube, but I was wondering where do I find the rating number and have you ever used this paint?
I have never used the Daler Rowney paints so I don’t know much about them. The ASTM do several types of testing in which one of them is for light-fastness which has a rating from 1 to 4. If this rating is not on the paint label you can check to see if they have a chart on their web site that shows each color with the rating listed. If not you can contact them to see if they have one available that you could obtain. Here are some notes I had copied explaining the light-fastness ASTM ratings:
If your paint has an ASTM rating of one (1) it has excellent light-fastness and the pigment will remain unchanged for more than 100 years. An ASTM rating of two (2) means that the pigment in the paint has very good light-fastness so that it will remain unchanged for about 100 years.
Fair ligh-tfastness, with an ASTM rating of 3, will remain unchanged for 20 to 100 years, while paints rated ASTM 4, poor ligh-tfastness, or Fugitive will show discoloration in less than 20 years.
ACMI tests for the safety of art material such as for toxins in the product. Here is a link that would explain it better: http://www.acminet.org/
I read somewhere yesterday that April Yap will be doing a class or tutorial for the new redesigned WaterBorne air dry paints. I used the old ones when they were new and I’m wondering what the new ones may be like.
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There were some shelf life issues with the others along with a couple other issues popping up but The new formula has a more stable/longer shelf life is more matte and the new slow dry that goes along with it for thinning allows for more working time and for smoother more translucent layering.
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