So you finally received that long awaited box, you removed the covers euphoric - and there she is: your beautiful lady. But what should you do first? Of course: get her out of the box as being described in the instructions. But this is your first doll - and it is not unusual, that it may feel strange. She laid stiff in a box and is cold from the transport. And this cold skin feels different.

And though it may sound harsh: for an hour or two leave her alone in that room. Then come back and find yourself a lot more appreciated by a beautiful doll sitting or laying there more warmer and more natural. She now appears more like an adorable companion. And for an adorable lady that she is, she'd now appreciate her initial cleaning (which gives her even more warmth and a good body odor).

They obviously must have eaten some cookies secretly - as they do not turn out to be lightweights. But as they do not move on their own, they need to be carried. Lifting her out of her box has been shown in the instructions. But for regular carrying around try this (described from an initially laid position):

1. Pull the legs upwards to a position where gets closer to be able to sit (but not totally to a 90 degrees)
2. Bend the lower leg slightly
3. Get her arms in a stretched out position - the arms should be stretched out straight with the hands being at a slightly higher level than the shoulder
4. Bend the lower arms slightly upwards and then slightly inwards - the upper arms are still straight but the hands crossed
5. Get her into a sitting position with slight pressure on the thighs and slight lifting under her back
6. Lift her up - she may "roll" a bit towards you - and have her (crossed) arms on your neck

Why does this help?

• The crossed arms around your neck gives you a bit more support as you "carry" a part of the weight from your shoulder.
• The crossed arms around your neck also fixate her - preventing her from playing piano at the railings and door frames with her fingers (and trust me: they seem to like that - to the disadvantage of their fragile fingers)

While describing HOW to clean the doll may fill books, another question is: where? There are three options:

Putting her into the shower gives you two options: put her there on a chair or let her stand up upright. Having her sitting on a chair means: the legs are bent upwards into a sitting position. And this means: you cannot reach all positions for proper cleaning. Only with an upright standing position there are no bends. And with an anti slip mat she does not slip away, bolts in her sole are facing downwards and are even a slight part higher than the ground (water does not get inside then). And with her arms slightly bended and stretched out she can be leaned onto the wall - with her palms to wall.

Final advice: put a shower towel in front of the shower, so that you get dry feet when stepping out with her in your hands.

Instead, follow these safe methods:

• Spray the perfume on her clothes - before you dress her up. Let the perfume dry a bit, before dressing her up with the sprayed dress (to ensure, that no wet parts hit the skin).
• You may also spray perfume to her hair. If she wears a wig: take the wig off, spray the perfume on the wig, wait a moment and then put the wig back on.
• If it is implanted hair: place a towel between hair and body and ONLY spray on the hair that is placed upon the towel.

There are several ways to apply powder to your doll. You can use a makeup brush, there are some sprayers available for purchase - there is even that version to use socks for this. Let me give you another option, which turned out to be a good choice.

While powder does not adhere to a brush that good and sprayers may cover a larger area than you want - use a makeup removal pad instead. There are some available, which even have a little grip on the backside, so that you can put two fingers in there. The front of a makeup removal pad has a really good adhesion (because in its original use it should take the makeup off with ease).

Powder can be easily taken with this side - and depending on whether you wipe or dab with the pad you decide on the area and the amount of powder. And due to the adhesive front you ensure that unnecessary powder is taken off the skin. Also: the rim of the pads take the powder, too. This helps you to also apply powder between fingers or toes - holding hands feels to sweet and natural then.

Putting on shirts or sweaters - some dresses, too - can get difficult by time. If the shirt, sweater - or whatever you usually put on over the head - has a wide collar, things get a bit easier. But still - this is the part, where lot's of damage can be done when not being done properly (mainly damage on the fingers).

For dolls with a detachable head: Things are always easier with the head taken off while dressing up. Have your doll sit upright while being able to also get behind her. Get her arms stretched out to the front in a straight position - ideally in same height and width as the shoulders. Bend the lower arms a bit up. Ensure that her fingers are aligned to each other - so that the area of the palm is as small as possible.

1. Take the shirt (front side of the show facing the bottom of your room), optionally roll back the sleeves and carefully pull one sleeve over one hand. Take care of her fingertips.
2. With one sleeve being finished - the same can be done with the other sleeve.
3. Having her arms stretched out to the front with the lower arms slightly bent upwards helps you so that no side falls off again.
4. Once both sleeves are pulled over the hands up to her wrists continue to move the rest of the shirt up her arms up to the shoulder.
5. Grab the backside of the collar and pull it over her neck.
6. The rest is the easy part, as you only need to bring every part into its final position.

For seamless neck dolls (non-detachable head): You should take off her wig. If it is implanted hair: put on a wig cap. Then carefully bend her neck forward with chin to cheek. The more the head is on the level of her upper arms - the better.

Position of arms for safe carrying

Makeup pad for effective powder application