She's got no strings: Cedar Wood

This week as an early birthday present, my mom gave me a brand new camera! It was pretty great timing too, as just a few days later I got both my Picnic Casket two pack, and, thanks to a friend who grabbed her over in the States, Cedar Wood from Ever After High!

Cedar is so gorgeous, she was the perfect first model to pose for me new camera. I'm still playing around with the settings and figuring out what works best for doll photos since this camera is considerably more complicated than the point and shoot I was using before, but this is the kind of learning curve I love! I mean, one of my favourite things to do is photograph my dolls, what could be better than getting a gift that is essentially permission to do it for hours?

As for Cedar herself, I think Ever After High has kind of out done themselves with this lovely lady! At first glance, she's obviously adorable, but the closer you look, the better she gets. I'm not even a huge fan of Pinocchio, and I was squealing at all the little details I was discovering! When Mattel gets it right, they really get it right, and I think they've hit the nail on the head with Cedar Wood.

Click on through to see just what details had me so excited!

She comes in the standard EAH box. I love how bright and open these boxes are! They look lovely and welcoming on the shelf in a store, and you can't help but pick them up. I also always love getting dolls from across the border, because they have so much more information on them since they only include text in English. I couldn't help but laugh at Cedar's least favourite class being wood shop. I'd be nervous around saws and tools too if I were her!

Her little cartoon is too cute!

And here she is out of the box! She comes with all the requisite stuff; brush, stand, storybook, purse. Her stand has a black base and a clear support and waist clip. I think it would be cool if it was brown or woodgrained to match Cedar herself, but that's a super small thing. Her storybook is one of my favourites that I've read yet as well, for some reason I can really feel her story. As the daughter of Pinocchio, she is cursed to only be able to tell the truth, and she identifies as a Rebel, because all she wants is to be able to make her own choices and decide what to say and when to say it. She doesn't want to LIE, she just wants to feel like she is charge of what she says, and who wouldn't, really? It's a pretty great little story!

She's just so sweet, isn't she? I haven't actually put her on my shelf with my other EAH dolls yet, because she's sitting right next to me on the table next to my computer, but I think her face is a bit less round than most of the other girls. I've grown rather fond of the EAH moon face, but I love that they're branching out and making a few more unique molds, like Cerise and Cedar.

As for her makeup, it is very subtle and natural. Her eyeshadow is done in shades of brown that beautifully compliment her warm brown skin and eyes. There's just a hint of shimmer on her brow bone, and a hint of pale purple in her eyes that ties in her hair and outfit. Her brows are softly arched and perfectly match her hair. Her lips are really interesting! Only the very centre is painted in a brick red colour, meant to evoke the brightly painted but oddly shaped lips of ventriloquist dummies, I'm sure. I'm glad she doesn't look more like a dummy or a puppet though...I'm not exactly the biggest fan of them. She also has just a hint of woodgrain texture around the perimeter of her face, but we'll talk more about that in a bit!

Her hair is really pretty as well! It's thick and curly, in a lovely natural brown colour with a streak of lavender in the front. It's parted on the side, with a braid wrapping around the front of her head that's tied underneath the bulk of her hair in the back. Predictably, the curls are a bit crunchy with product and even look a bit greasy from it, but it's not terrible. I've been finger combing it and it looks and feels better, so I'll probably keep on with that. I wash Briar's hair that had the same goopy product issue, and it got pretty fluffy, so I'm hesitant to do it to Cedar.

You can see how the ends of the hair look a bit stringy here. That's the glue/gel that Mattel LOVES to cake their curly doll's hair with. Blech.

Different angle on the braid! The colour of the lavender is really interesting. In certain lights it almost seems to have a blue sheen or shift to it. Love it!

She has quite a few accessories, which is par for the course for Ever After High. One of the best things about these dolls! Her earrings are slightly dangly slices of wood, with leaf details on one side. Almost like a slice of a tree trunk, so you can see all the rings inside.

Her hair clip is probably one of my favourite things about this doll, and is the one thing that pushed me over from "wow, she's cute!" to "OMG NEED TAKE MY MONEY". It's a little green cricket, as in Jiminy! So. Cute. 

And it just gets better from here. Her ring is a little blue fairy! (Also, pretty proud of the macro on this shot...thanks new camera!)

And her charm bracelet features a donkey (I'm pretty sure it's a donkey...remember that scene in the Disney movie?) and a whale, in addition to a fairy charm. These are the details that made me squeal! I mean, seriously. There is not one inch of this doll that was not thought about and carefully designed, and there are few things I appreciate more than a complete thought, and you don't get much more complete than this!

She also comes with a purse, which is simple but very cute. It's made to look like carved wood, and features a braided purple strap. It does open as well!

Cute! But to be honest, I rarely display my dolls with their purses, unless the bag is really something special. I have bags and bags of tiny purses in my attic!

Onto the outfit! Cedar is wearing a dress that is simple in shape, but there is a LOT going on! From the top, it has a white Peter Pan collars and fluttery lilac cap sleeves. The bodice is a purple woodgrain pattern, with coral-pink ribbon in a Lederhosen-esque arrangement. The skirt has a split peplum in the same fabric as the bodice, and flares out into a simple A-line shape. The skirt fades from the same coral as the ribbon on the bodice into a dark purple, with an all-over pattern in lilac and gold floral accents. Whew! See what I meant about there being a lot going on?

A different angle to try and get a better view of the pattern on the skirt. It's pretty shiny, so it's not the easiest thing, but it is very pretty!

Most of the other EAH basic dolls are wearing stockings or tights of some kind, but I'm very glad they didn't hide Cedar's legs entirely! Instead, she's wearing shimmery knee highs topped with purple ribbons.

On her feet, she has traditionally awesome Ever After High shoes. The straps are coral, and resemble tooled leather that is attached to the carved wooden bottoms. They're carved all over with leaves, and the back of each heel features three knots in the wood. Monster High and Ever After High really do kill it with the doll shoes, don't they?

And I couldn't talk about a doll like this without taking a look at her body, for obvious reasons! I wasn't sure if Ever After High was going to get into this kind of thing, but I am so glad they did! From top to bottom, Cedar's entire body is molded with a woodgrain texture. It's seriously amazing! Also, at her shoulders, elbows and knees she has little circles, meant to emulate wooden pegs holding her joints together. This is such a nice little detail, I actually almost missed it!

A few close-ups and different angles so you can really see the texture. I love that spot on the back of her hand where the grain swirls into a knot. So cool!

And here, you can see the texture creeping up onto her face a bit better. I like how subtle this is, since the graining all over her face would definitely be a bit much, but it gets the point across.

And finally, back in her dress, just showing off how cute she is! Because she is so. cute.

Such a sweet face!

"I've got no strings to hold me down!"

She can't tell a lie, which I bet makes high school really tricky!

I played around with some of the filters on my new camera, and this one was my favourite for Cedar. It really plays off of her warm skin tone in a beautiful way!

Her eyes! She can be so sweet, but there's definitely something more when you look at her from a different angle. I can see the fierceness here!

And that's it! I took many, many more photos than this because Cedar is just so photogenic, and I'll probably post more over on my tumblr, so check it out!

I am so, so impressed with Cedar, and as if it wasn't already pretty clear, I think I'm hooked on Ever After High! The details on this doll in particular are just impossible to ignore, and that's what I really look for in dolls as an adult collector.

What do you think of Cedar? Has Ever After High won you over yet?