Oxy10 for vinyl stains. Benzoyl Peroxide removes stain from Vinyl. Restore Dolls - Vinyl Dolls - Reborn Dolls : Do-it-Yourself Tips & Tricks

Oxy10

for Ink Stains on Vinyl

Oxy10 is almost miraculous for ink stains. I repair dolls and give them away at Christmas time. This CPK imitation doll was donated, and her face was tattoo'ed with blue ink. So, I decided she was the real test case for Oxy10. I applied it over all the blue marks and let the doll sit for six weeks. When I washed the Oxy10 off, the doll looked like new.

Oxy10 is a blemish or acne cream for teenagers and is available in almost any pharmacy dept. I buy the extra strength invisible formula, which comes in a little bottle with a snap pop top and the bottle is packaged in a yellow red and white box I think. Benzoyl peroxide seems to be the necessary ingredient. The generic brands seem to work just as well, but the cream in Oxy10 is better quality and spreads easier.

CAUTION: sometimes Oxy10 or benzoyl peroxide will bleach out the vinyl color of the doll. It's best to test a small area to determine if the Oxy10 will fade out the vinyl color of your doll. The skin tone will get blotchy white spots which may be just as undesirable as the ink stains. Oxy10 is too strong for some vinyl dolls, so testing is recommended before you begin full "therapy".

Oxy10 goes on like a white cream and on vinyl dolls it dries white. (I'm not sure what it does on teenagers.) Put the cream on the ink stains, covering them well. Leave the doll alone for 4 to 7 weeks, depending. If you take it off and the blue is still there, then reapply and leave for a few more weeks.

If you want to speed up the process you can put the doll in the sun or under a heat lamp. Be sure to keep an eye on her, though, because Oxy10 can burn the vinyl if left under the hot sun for too long!! Also, you may want to cover the doll's face so that her face color won't fade in the sun: only expose the area that has a stain on it.

Oxy10 seems to work best with blue or black ball point pen type inks. It usually works on red ink and magic marker also but it takes longer. It doesn't seem to work on pink or yellow highlighter but maybe it would if you put the doll in sunlight. I have managed to fade out the highlighter, but it took a VERY long time before the color was eliminated.

Benzoyl Peroxide is the bleach ingredient in Oxy10. This bleach stays in the vinyl and it stays active. If you ever decide to dye your doll, the area that had Oxy10 on it will not accept the dye.

TOUGH CASES!!

Because the benzoyl peroxide stays active, sometimes I put the doll in the hot sun WITHOUT any Oxy10 on her. I only do this with a doll which has had many applications of Oxy10 already, so I know that the benzoyl peroxide is in the vinyl. I put the doll in the hot sun all day, baking her as much as possible. It also helps to rub the doll with mineral oil or Skin So Soft oil when I do this. The heat and the oil apparently help the benzoyl peroxide soak deeper into the vinyl. This is effective for dolls with very bad stains especially.

The hot sunshine method has faded some of my hardest, toughest cases. It took more than six months of messin' around to get DeeDee (left) free of the bad ink marks on her back, but she's all clean now. It would have gone much faster if I had read this web page first. :)

One collector told me that she used soft scrub gel on black marker and put the white doll in hot sunlight (Arizona.) After one afternoon, the black marker was gone. So, bleach or bleach gel might have some possibilities for removing ink stains also. I have not tried it yet.