Lila - Sunburned unicorn from The Barbie Swan Lake movie (2003)

This is how it ends when I swear to myself that I won't do something - I told myself that I would not collect fairy-tale, unreal horses - and then White Richard with a golden sheen and silver hooves appeared, although at the beginning he was supposed to be repainted. Then the pink Allegra, Butterfly, and finally sunburned Lila came to me.

Lila was in quite good condition, she lacked a saddle pad, hair clips and a brush. The tail and mane were of the original length. Her right side of the head and forelegs turned brown due to sunlight.

The above photos are taken from the advertisement.

As she arrived

She arrived on December 13, 2021, although she did not look dirty or dusty, as part of the admission to the herd, I decided to give her a bath. Before I did that, of course I took pictures of her.

Lila is a character from the movie - Barbie in Swan Lake. She appeared in the year 2003 as the part of Princess Collection. Other horses in this series were Marzipan from The Nutcracker and Boticielli from Rapunzel.

Lila was also available in the set with a carriage - in this set she had purple hooves, no silver markings on legs, mane and tail were brighter and she had completely different eyes.

I have to admit that I realy like her big shiny blue and lila eyes.

The horn and the saddle are made of flexible material, they used to be blue, today it's hard to say what their specific color is, it is more like gray with a delicate blue tinge.

After the photo session, I took the saddle off and washed - both the saddle and the horse.

Lila's hair after bath

The Lila's mane and tail are composed of blue and light purple hair as well as shiny holographic fibers. The hair is similar in quality to the hair of the White - it tangle and frizz very easily, and the ends like to bend in all directions (which increases frizz and tangling).

Retrobrighting lab rat

When I bought Lila, I assumed that I would try to fight her "tan". Fighting with the sun-changed color plastic is called retrobrighting and there are several methods, I chose the option that seems the least invasive (for plastic!), but it takes time and patience. It involves the contact of color changed surfaces with hydrogen peroxide, the reaction works well at warm temperatures and preferably in isolation from air. NOTE - I do not recommend experimenting this way. I myself had quite a lot of irritation on my hands due to hydrogen peroxide - it was not a pleasant experience. Besides, I took into account the risk of irreversible damage to the horse.

The ends of Lili's hair effectively interfered with their styling, after positive tests on Cripple and Blizzia, I decided to wrap them with curlers.

This way, I was able to safely apply compresses to the burnt areas without fear of getting her hair wet or damaged. I also hoped that their strong curl would straighten the ends at least a little. As you can see the sun changed the color of the legs and head. As part of the test, I put a compress on head and straightened leg. I wrapped these places with foil and secured them with rubber bands. In addition, I placed almost the entire half of the horse in a plastic bag and secured the joints with the horse's body with electrical tape. I placed the patient prepared in this way in a warm place and covered her with a light-impenetrable material so that the sun's rays did not hurt her more (I did it despite the fact that an anti-UV film was installed on the window near which she was lying). Packed in this way, she was lying like that for two weeks. Such changes from the sun do not occur in a short time, reversing the process is also lengthy.

After two weeks, I freed Lila from the foil and compresses. You can see the difference, but the compress on the leg had shifted while wrapping the foil. I also noticed that the compresses worked best in places where they were pressed tightly against the plastic - under the elastic bands - you can see it especially around the neck. There is also a triangle on the leg, under the belly.

The bent leg was not wrapped at all, I decided to put on compresses again. This time, after carefully wrapping the foil, I pressed them tightly with the tape. After another two weeks, I released her head and straightened leg. The bent leg was only wrapped for two weeks, so I left it for another two weeks without unwinding it.

The effect is really good. There are slight brown spots on the face, neck and leg - but compared to the original state - there is a chasm. My plan is to repeat the whole process in summer, when it's warm. So far, Lila has really brightened up.

Lila came to me without a saddle pad and hair clips. I will probably recreate the saddle pad with a little stubbornness, because it was made of silver material with a white tulle frill. The hair clips were made of dark blue plastic - they didn't look very interesting or decorative - in my opinion.

Lila is joining a Christmas project

When around Christmas I had an idea for outfits for Champion and Biały - Rysiek, my attention was drawn to the blue fleece fabric. I immediately thought that Lila would also fit such a garment, and this material has the perfect color and texture. In this way, Lila joined her friends in my Christmas - Winter Horses 2021 project.