"SURREALIST GALA" VERONIQUE PERRIN BY INTEGRITY TOYS & SINUHE GUZMAN

DECEMBER 17, 2024

I have no words. She's just... she's beyond...

Apparently, it's time to start writing. I've only had this gift set in my home for two days, but they inspire me so much I have to gush about her with someone, and who better than you dear reader? This is my first year as a member of the club for Integrity Toys, and this set is definitely the most impressive thing I've yet seen them produce. The fact that I won it still boggles my mind... I never have luck with lotteries! Of course, I did win them on a second chance lotto so maybe that helped, I was second chance lucky and maybe that's not so difficult for my lucky stars to negotiate or whatever.

"Don't overthink it, sweetheart."

No matter! Veronique and her girly sister (I can so relate) are here and are spreading their fabulousness around my place which is almost too much fabulousness to be honest. I have practically no other Fashion Royalty dolls except a few Agnes dolls because I am a big fan of her sculpt and bought them all on Ebay before I became a club member. Since I became a member (February 2024), there has been a complete dearth of Fashion Royalty offerings aside from one Dania in a polka dot dress at the very beginning of the year and I was feeling actively anti Dania at the time for some reason I can't remember. That's not including the multiple FR dolls that were available to convention goers, but if you didn't go to the convention, you haven't seen much that's new from FR this year and they are a big fan favorite.

Sea-Devil Veronique

Until my beautiful blonde sisters arrived! Above is a photo of Sea-Devil Veronique, a previous Vero from 2017. Now she was a beautiful doll reader, thankfully the IT reference site is up and running and we can still easily look at her. She has the same screening as Surrealist Gala and you can really see it. It's a beautiful screening with the irises suspended in the white of the eye and yet the doll looks anything but ceiling eyed, she's staring pointedly at you. It's slightly scary, intense, and intimidating; I adore it.

She's better than you, you both know it.

Those skull eyeballs are pearls!

This doll is just a step above what I've seen from IT when it comes to the care they've taken with it. It's like they know someone is watching them this time or something. The little skull earrings and pendant have tiny pearls set as eyes! For cryin' out loud! Is that the equivalent to adding little gems to an earring? I suspect that it's not...

One side is higher, but don't try to fix it.

Take a simple item like her pants, which are in no way simple at all. First of all, the waist is asymmetrical, which I never noticed from the promo pictures. At first, I kept trying to pull the higher side down so the sides would be even but eventually I accepted the fact that the waist on her right side is just slightly higher, and then I got really into it. Now I think it's such a brilliant design innovation. (I told you I was excited about winning this set).

It's a high-quality mesh.

But then as you go down the leg you have these open zipper patches with mesh fabric (loud 80's guitar) covering the open pieces and behind and under them are these flapped cargo pockets that really work. Keep going toe-ward and you find a knee pad, below that another cargo pocket and then below that the black fabric is sort of wrapped around the mesh fabric and held in place by long black straps (louder 80's guitar). They are so complicated I am looking right at them and I'm not quite sure how they're constructed. I can't tell you how this complexity thrills my little heart, reader.

As you can see they are simply...

The shoes were something I knew I wasn't gonna be crazy about, mainly because they are double decker. They are supposed to spell out S and G for Sinuhe Guzman - the brilliant designer. Now that they are in my hands I honestly can't tell which is the S and which is the G but I am not crazy about the extra height it gives the girls. Their legs are already crazy long enough that they end up flipping over and throwing their accessories to the four winds in sandals. Other than the double decker aspect I actually like the shoes though, but I also believe this badass Veronique with her badass skull jewelry and badass black mesh cargo pants would be much better served by a badass pair of black boots with a sickening heel.

I think that's a G! And my pedi from high school!

When I see Vero's black pants with all the buckles and snaps, zippers and pockets, mesh and long black straps hanging free, topped by a black leather bodice with a black choker, I'm taken back to being seven years old again. I am in the back seat of my older sister's way too old for her boyfriend's corvette, and we are listening to Bon Jovi - the New Jersey album, it's cool, and it's so loud it's rattling my still mostly baby teeth. I know about the rock and roll pants imagery because we were just at my sister's best friend's house watching MTV and saw the Livin on a Prayer video in which Slash was wearing Vero's pants. Or the Shot through the Heart Video. Or both. It's '85 and Jon Bon is big, and so is Slash in his pants. But then go further up Vero's ensem and you come to her skull pendant and earrings - and that takes me to a much cooler '80's memory - around the same age, being at my uncle's house, snuck into the actual room of my coolest older boy cousins, looking at their posters. The deathly scary images of Iron Maiden, always involving a sinisterly grinning skull, in some nightmarish situation that always triggered an intensely scary dream for me. I hated those images but craved seeing them! I still enjoy skulls and the macabre, although I don't normally wear them. But Veronique does here and looks so good doing it.

A pair of gold foxes

Veronique's fashionable shrug is not the most practical piece of attire she wears to the Surrealist Gala that is my living room, in my opinion. The most important purpose it serves to me, is to display these beautiful fox brooches which otherwise she would have no real estate on her clothing to wear, that's how much jewelry she comes with. An interesting choice, the fox. I can see it on the sexy girls because foxes are kinda slinky and clever. But this Vero is more lost boys and vampire mystique, I imagine 2 wolf heads would have represented her ferociousness better. Two thirds of the way down the widely tailored sleeves of the little coat her hands poke out, and then you're left with long sleeve remnants that just take up a lot of space. I don't really get the shrug. But luckily, she looks so good without it in her black leather bustier that you might as well just take the damn thing off her anyway and get a really good look at that under-garment that's somehow ok to wear as a shirt, as well as her other accessories!

"Thar be a purse inside, mateys!"

Vero has a giant black purse that is very simple with a fold over top. But you'll never see it because it's covered by this giant bow and its long train. The material of the bow is quite soft and smooth and feels very good to the touch btw. I personally am deathly sick of designers making dolls' and peoples' tops, skirts, and purses into bows. The first time I saw a bow for a top I thought "Cute!" but I never wanted to see it ever again. It has kept coming in a deluge. But I know that my taste is definitely not always with the majority so bows may be seriously beloved and my attack on them may be considered below the belt (buckle). Far be it from me to question Sinuhe, he has proven himself with this set to be a true genius. But when I look at the length of this bow, I can only think of the ghost of Jacob Marley warning Ebenezer Scrooge about the chain of sin that he had built for himself to carry in the afterlife with his wickedness by saying with horror "It is a ponderous chain!"... Suffice it to say I didn't use this purse for anything, but I did put her accessories in it.

General Issue. Still love it.

This is the makeup. I think the lipstick is supposed to go with Veronique and the palette is supposed to go with Vanessa but obviously nothing is going in Vanessa's egg purse. There is no new piece here, but I do love these pieces, I'm always excited to get them! And added plus - Vero's grasp hand can hold her lipstick really well!

It's all about security.

Here you can see two very exciting and important facets of her charm! One is the long anticipated (by me) cell phone that these girls came with which I immediately thought I lost upon opening them, only to happily discover it the next day just lying on the floor in front of my table like an angel placed it there (dolly magic). The fact that it is rubber banded to within an inch of its life to her hand only brings me to my second charming point and that is: she's also got a skull cleavage pendant. In case you thought she wasn't going to decorate or draw attention to her cleavage area, she's put a gleaming golden buckle there and then below that, a bright golden skull pendant with pearl eyeballs and a pearl droplet, very shiny. In case the leather bustier wasn't enough. She wants you to know she's keeping it tight. Buy the damn makeup.

Mrs. Claus probably wears this shade.

I love her sparkly, glitter red manicure. Veronique has two double gold rings that I had to look at and think about creatively before I could recognize what they were. But once I accepted it, they work really well and stay put once you put them on. She also has these two amazing skull bracelets with pearl eyes as I have become accustomed to by now because I spoil easily and this time the skulls are flanked by triads of tiny set black stones.

The longest of hairs.

Veronique's hair is longer than her sister's. It goes down just to cover her butt, and both girls' hair is listed as "blonde" by Integrity. I would call it "platinum" or "white", it definitely comes off more yellow in the pictures than it is in real life. These dolls' skin tones are extremely pale, Veronique is listed as "Japan" which translates clearly as 'dead girl', and her sister is "Cream" which is also 'not a color found among the living' apparently. I recognize them both because these are the shades I look for when buying foundation. Blonde haired white dolls are usually so boring, and not interesting at all to anyone. But these dolls are a big exception, and I'm not quite sure why but I think it's because there's something supernatural about them. They are some kind of trope, like warrior knight and princess, bodyguard and protected person, jailer and captive.

"Is there a problem here?"

But refreshingly, Veronique takes the male role as protector/warrior/jailer here and the result in Guzman's hands, is magical. This doll is so emotive, so detailed and carefully made, it is truly refreshing and almost gives you your faith back. I will spend next week with Vanessa, but I can't put Veronique away. I don't think I'll ever be done looking at her. I'll have to just move her. She's changed me. At least for the time being...