Appreciation post: how I used to scrub antique doll faces with bleach vs. now using gentle soap

Ngl, when I first started collecting vintage porcelain dolls about 5 years ago, I was totally clueless. I grabbed a bottle of bleach and a scrub brush to clean up a $15 doll from a flea market in St. Louis. I ruined her painted features so bad, she looked like a ghost. It took me 3 tries on different dolls before I learned from a collector forum that you should only use mild dish soap and a soft cloth. Now I spend like an hour gently dabbing with a Q-tip on each one, and it's way more calming. Has anyone else messed up a restoration project and had to learn the hard way?

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patriciamoore8d ago

Oh man, I feel this in my soul. I once tried to "speed-clean" a vintage bisque doll head with a magic eraser because I thought it would be just like scrubbing a coffee stain off my kitchen counter. I ended up buffing half her nose off and she looked like a tiny porcelain Mr. Potato Head. Now I'm the weirdo sitting at my kitchen table with a dental pick and a bowl of lukewarm water, gently coaxing 50 years of grime out of hairline cracks like it's some kind of meditation. What's the most embarrasing thing you've accidentally ruined while trying to fix it up?