An Unboxing - Santoro London Gorjuss Doll

For a few years, I have been debating whether to get a particular type of doll with just one main thing putting me off. I look at them on and off but often the price puts me off and then the other day the price really dropped on one of them, and one I had been keeping an eye on.  I checked the price on camel camel camel and it was the lowest it had been at under £35 so I decided to take the chance and order her figuring if I really didn't like her I could always return her, or sell her on later.  She has since dropped in price even further!  So without further ado, let's do a box opening.

Said box waiting to be opened.

Opening up the box and inside is...

A Paola Reina Santoro London Gorjuss doll.

Her box was inside a plastic bag.

The box is lovely

A lovely sentiment written on the back.

Beautiful shoe box type packaging.  No ridiculous hard plastic that you have to cut into and risk injury getting into her.

She comes attached in the box nice and simply with two little elastic bands and a hair net over her head.  So beautifully presented.  Just how doll packaging should be.

This is the type of fixing.  There was one round her neck and one round a foot.

Removed from box, I am immediately struck by her scent of Rose and Honeysuckle.  The smell is quite strong initially so anyone who has a sensitivity to scents should beware of this, although several days later the scent has lessened significantly.

She is very cute, and I love her outfit and little pigeon toes.

Her hat is held on by one of the dreaded plastic ties that go into their head, and whilst I really dislike these immensely I can understand why they have attached it, and fortunately there is only one, unlike a doll I unboxed the other week which had FOUR!

Comparing her to Madeline who also has simple features.  

It is the lack of mouth that has made me hesitant to purchase her...perhaps too much watching of Sapphire and Steele when young and a particular episode which was a little 'scary'.   I figure I could always add a mouth if it becomes a problem, I have seen others do this.  But in reality it is not as 'bad' as I thought it would be.  There is actually something quite appealing about the very simplistic features.

Comparing her in size to my Paola Reina doll Dasha.

I believe they can share the same size shoes.

I just adore her little outfit, it is so beautifully made, although it does have the dreaded velcro on the back so care needs to be taken when taking the clothes off so it doesn't catch on the knitwear or netting underskirt.

Her little feet!

I forgot to photograph her fingers and toes, but she has four fingers and four toes on each hand and foot.

She photographs beautifully.

I just adore her outfit.

I am pleased with her, especially considering she was £20 less than most of the other Gorjuss dolls and is one I would have wanted to choose anyway.   I am very impressed with the quality of dolls that come out of the Paola Reina factory.  They are all so well made with beautiful clothing. 

Her name is Little Violet and I am keeping that name. 

 

My Birthday Doll - A box Opening

Don't you just love doll sized boxes that come in the post?!

Opening the top, and then removing the tissue paper to reveal....

Squeal! 

In the bubble wrap

Removing the bubble wrap... so excited to receive one of these fabulous dolls as I never thought I would ever have one as to buy one new direct from the shop is just way too prohibitive for my pocket especially with the extra customs fees on top so to find one being sold by a friend in the UK was just perfect.

Cheeky photo in her underwear.  Sorry about the 'leaning' table.

I knitted a top for her anticipating her arrival, but wasn't sure what size she would be for skirts/trousers so....

She borrowed a Sasha skirt initially which was way too big around the waist!  I also tried her with a short wig as she came with  a long dark brunette wig (unfortunately not her original red which would have been lovely).

Here she is with the wig she arrived with, wearing a skirt I quickly made her that fits better than the Sasha skirt (Alice is pleased about that as she was wearing it and had it whipped off her, so is happy to have it back).

The pixie look with a matching beret.

A close up of her sweet face.

The beret with the long haired wig.

Another close up.

This doll will take me a while to get used to, as she is unlike anything I have ever had before, but I am really pleased with her and feel quite excited about making quite different clothes to what I normally make.  

She is Smart Doll Resilient in Tea Colour.

 

Bright Orange Hair!

A second Paola Reina doll has joined the Rose Cottage Friends.

She came in plastic package with little shorts and t shirt.

Here she is just let free.

Plastic hair band removed - she has really lovely soft hair.

I knitted a little dress last night with some of the left over sock yarn from the last pair of socks I made.  I was pretty sure the greens would go well with her bright orange hair and I am pleased with the look, although I have in mind to make her a steam-punk type outfit.  Not that I really have any idea how to go about this, but that is my thoughts at the moment, so we will see.

I think she has the same face mold as Oona Faith, I will have to take  a photo of them together at some stage, but I was so excited that she arrived this morning, I wanted to write a short blog post welcoming her straight away.  I've called her Orla Hope

Edited to add photo with Oona Faith.

 

Unboxing Chloe

So another box opening... this time a Les Cheries Corolle doll.  Now I already had three of these little dolls that are quite special to me.  One my MIL gave to me for Christmas a few years ago, one I found in a New Zealand Charity Shop in 2019 which was fun, and one I was from a friend.  Out of curiosity I did a search the other day and discovered they are no longer producing this line of dolls.  They briefly changed them to 'ma cherie creation' but I don't think they really took off under this newer guise.  A shame as they used to have such lovely clothes when they first came out. Anyway I managed to find one on Amazon - but not by searching on Amazon, nothing came up!  Instead I found her on a google search that came up with an Amazon link.  There were only about three I think it was available so I decided to get her as I didn't have one with brown hair.  (I used to have one years ago, but sold her!  Haha, yes I have re-purchased the same doll, but not in such a lovely outfit as my other one had).  

In her box 

Back of the box

She was easy to take out of the box, although does have a mark round her neck where the string was.

There are little bits of fabric that you can attach to the dress

to make 'designer' outfits.  Obviously very much geared with children in mind.

However, the dress has that 'yukky' feel to it, I guess so the other 'bits' stick, and I couldn't wait to take it off her.  She DID come with underwear which was nice, as I have had two dolls arrive without recently.  She also has pink shoes.

She has a pretty little face with eyes that open and close.

She fits into Oona Faith's clothes and I love how these dolls can share clothes with other similar size dolls.

Next post I will show her with her 'sisters' and also with Oona Faith, my Paola Reina doll for comparison.