HELP! My little brother colored with Sharpie over the eyes, mouth and cheeks of two of my Barbie kens. How do I remove this without taking off the face paint as well?

You can attempt removing it with:

Rubbing Alcohol
Mr.Clean Multi-Surface Cleaner
Ethanol
Fingernail Polish Remover
Hairspray, a sponge, soap and water.
Toothpaste
Lacquer Thinner

I don't guarantee that it won't take the "face paint" off, if not it'll just fade it.

Sarah

Yup... rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl) will get the sharpie off... but first try a bit on his foot or something... just in case it takes the paint off.

Not nail polish remover. A lot of nail polish brands will eat through plastic.

I agree with the rubbing alcohol.

Hmm.

Why don't you try your own recommendation?


To get permanent marker off, I read that if you generously apply butter to the colored area and let it sit for about 45 minutes, the ink will be absorbed into the butter and will easily rub off. Hope this helps!

Hmm.

Why don't you try your own recommendation?

Yeah, I found this while searching the internet later, and it seemed to help but did not remove all of the Sharpie. It lightened, but is a purple color and seems to have seeped into the rubber/plastic on his face. I'm not sure what to do now. I used a Magic Eraser with water on his back and arms, and it came right off. But I think I waited too long to use that on the face, because it won't come off with the Magic Eraser.

Ligherfluid will work as well. Though the toy will need to be commpletley clean before it can be played with again. So usually this is a last resort.

Just buy new Ken dolls.

Methanol works best.

Nail polish remover! That'll get the job done

Someone else said nail polish remover will eat through the plastic.
I'd use rubbing alcohol. I've used it to get sharpie off lots of things before. Even hand sanitizer with alcohol in it usually gets the job done. Or, sometimes even air freshener. Trader joe's sells a citrus air freshener that I've used to get sharpie off things. I haven't ever tried with any other air fresheners though so I don't know if its just that one or air fresheners in general. It might be the citrus in that one.

WD 40 works on a lot of things.