Been so busy and stressed with work lately that my defenses were down, and DD Kirika snuck in ^_^;
I lost out on her lottery and didn’t plan to pursue her further, but spur of the moment I snagged her second hand. My worry was that I’d regret it once I saw her face in person, but as usual Volks photos don’t do her justice and she’s absolutely lovely.
Her faceup is pretty detailed, with teal accents around the eyelashes contrasting with a very warm brown liner. I’m planning to repaint her at some point but the default is nicer than expected. Her eyes are similar design to Neris, with the same issue in that they look good in natural light but tend to get blown out in bright photos.
The default outfit set is beautiful but does look like it has potential to stain. I’m going to keep an eye particularly on the teal inner sleeves and back part of the collar piece, though it does appear that Volks is making some attempts to reduce staining with lined pieces and protective arm covers. I haven’t yet tried the mini-skirt version that came with the set, and don’t really plan to pierce her ears to use the earrings which have a cheap plastic look.
The big let-down here is the wig, which I expected after reading other folks’ experiences. You can see in the photo, it’s stupidly thin on the sides and makes her head look a bit lumpy. There’s a lot of glue used to style the bangs but they still don’t look much like the product photos. The ponytail has a black band that’s a bit wider than the butterfly clip, and I didn’t feel comfortable trying to force it after hearing about broken butterflies from other owners. It looks ok from the front, and it’s not hard to get on her head unlike the Rise and Mariko wigs, but big fail from Volks on this wig. Fortunately I have similar one I can try for her later.
The new feature for Kirika is her detachable elf ears. Unlike SD that use a tab system, these ears are molded to fit tightly over her human vinyl ears. The elf ear resin is a pretty good match for DD normal and feels more pliable than SD resin. It’s really unlikely they’ll fit any other DD heads, unfortunately.
Overall very pleased with Kirika and the quality of her clothes, the only complaint is that Volks wig quality is even worse than the usual mediocrity. She’s got a very unique face I’m happy to have her join the doll lab ^_^
