Review: Clawdeen Wolf - Scaris Deluxe

Ringing in the new year is always a highlight for me. Usually my friends and I go downtown and bar hop, celebrating with the throngs of other locals and taking in some great live music before we all countdown and cheer and toast to the new year. This year we went low-key, hanging out at home and watching the cinematic masterpiece that is Showgirls (oh how we laughed). But we did imbibe along the way, and counted down, and toasted. And so today I'm finding myself feeling a tad... how to put it? Eh, I'll just be blunt -- I'm totally hungover. (Let this be a lesson to you, younger readers: the party is fun but the next day you wake up feeling like your head is gonna explode and the rest of your body is fighting a war against itself. It ain't pretty.) ALL THAT SAID, I already knew I wanted to do a review today, hangover or no, and I knew exactly who I wanted to cover. And who could that be?

That's some haute coffee. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

That's right, it's the fierce and fab Scaris Clawdeen Wolf! Reviewing this doll is a bit bittersweet for me because Clawdeen is the last deluxe Scaris doll left to cover. I've loved pretty much everything Scaris related, in particular the deluxe dolls, so closing the chapter on them leaves me with a bit of sadface (or maybe that's the hangover talking). Either way, the buck stops here on the deluxe dolls. On the plus side, it's Scaris Clawdeen. Spoiler alert: I love her.

How could you not?

Clawdeen is a deluxe doll so she comes with all the trappings: diary, rolling suitcase, stand, brush, and an elaborate set up for her Scaris storyline. Here's her extra blurb from the box back.

In her diary you'll find outfit sketches that will look familiar to anyone who has purchased the new basic fashion packs. I especially love these since we get to see Lagoona and Draculaura for the first time in sketch form (that I can think of, anyway). They look great!

But enough about that, let's talk about the doll!

And oh what a doll she is!

Clawdeen has long, dark brown hair with sporadic purple streaks. It has a bit of a wave throughout. The front of her hair is parted just slightly to her left. To her right the hair hangs loosely while on the left it has been twisted and banded below her ear. The rest of the hair hangs loosely behind her ears. There's no part. The texture of this Clawdeen's hair is intriguing. It's fairly silky -- certainly more so than Skelita's or Rochelle's hair -- but it has a tendency to get tangled up. I've found when styling this doll's hair it's best to just use your fingers, as brushes and combs just seem to make it frizz out. That said, when you do use your fingers it's fairly easy to style, and with a little work it generally will stay in place (for a little while, anyway). Thanks to the wave and interesting way they've parted it at the front, there are actually lots of thing you can do with this doll's hair without using any product. Overall, while not perfect, I actually kind of love the Scaris Clawdeen hair.

Clawdeen's faceup -- what to say? Wow. All the Scaris dolls (except the new characters), use prominent amounts of silver for their makeup. Clawdeen takes the silver makeup and amps it up to 11. Rochelle and Ghoulia also use especially heavy amounts of silver in their makeup but Clawdeen puts them to shame. She has a very thin strip of purple eyeliner. Over this is very dark silver, intensely shimmering eyeshadow. The shadow also runs under the eye. Above the shadow is another layer of silver shimmer but it's much more translucent. Her lips are semi-glossy light magenta. What an incredible faceup. Scaris Clawdeen comes across as fierce, glam, high octane, yet surprisingly sweet at the same time. I don't know how Mattel did it, marrying this much fierceness with just as much kindness. I can't even point to anything specific to explain how these two clashing attitudes are being presented on this face, and that it's working. What I can tell you is I truly adore this faceup so much, and being matched with that awesome silky-but-not-silky, wavy, purple streaked hair is working for me in ways I never thought possible. Scaris Clawdeen, I salute your wicked face and hair. J'adore!

Seeing as she's the designer who's win has made it possible for she and her friends to go to Scaris, Clawdeen comes dressed for success and she got it right. She wears a one piece dress, a bit similar to Rochelle's in structure but not style. The bodice is royal purple and features a print of black lace. The straps are black ribbon that criss-cross her chest before hugging her shoulders as they attach in the back. The bodice is lined with black thread at the top; at the bottom it's lined with more black ribbon that attaches to the skirt. The skirt features the same print as the bodice and ends well above the knees with a black lace hem. Over the skirt hangs black gauze featuring a print of shiny gold leopard spots. Clawdeen also wears a black fur vest. The texture is extremely soft -- it feels very nice. Over the skirt she wears the most unique accessory we've seen since DDG Spectra's chain necklace/breastplate/whatever. It's a solid gold belt with three separate rings. The top one is the tightest and features studs and a large buckle. Hanging considerably lower is a second belt consisting of grommets and a small-ish crescent moon buckle. The last belt hangs even lower and features more grommets, another small crescent moon buckle, and a row of small crescent moons dangling underneath. Suffice it to say this belt is amazing and one of the best accessories MH has created to date. The overall outfit is pure fashion, a bit New York-meets-Paris. The use of rich colors, interesting prints, and multiple textures and layers is admirable, and just plain looks amazing.

Clawdeen wears matching gold platform heels. The hood features an array of studs while the body seems to be overflowing with molded fur. The platforms feature claw marks while the heels curve inward and come to a sharp point. The back of the heel is lined with more studs. The overall effect isn't dissimilar to the incredible bone shoes included with the Skeleton Girl CAM add-on. She wears a matching gold cuff on her left forearm. It's made of four bracelets each baring a small buckle; all four are connected to each other in the back. Her earrings are also all gold. In her right ear are two studded hoops, in her left a tiny Eiffel Tower (the only thing that reads as literally "Parisian", and it's pretty small, so I approve).

Clawdeen's rolling suitcase is purple and features some molded pockets and studs on the front. There are also three gold crescent moons. The back features a molded leopard print. The handle is solid gold and uses spikes to line the bars; the handle is a simple upside down "U". The color and texture coordinates nicely with her outfit. Inside are the standard pockets and padding. A nice little bonus, exclusive only to Clawdeen, is that she also includes a doll-sized version of her diary for her to carry around. It has the same cover and back cover as the larger paper one included. It opens with a latch; inside it's just solid gold except for a cute little skullette. I love little extras like these and wish all the deluxe dolls included them, but at the same time it's pretty cool that only Clawdeen got this neat little bonus.

Overall grade: A+ In my opinion the deluxe Scaris dolls have all been resounding successes. Clawdeen is no different. She comes across as genuinely fashionable, thanks mostly to a unique outfit that plays around with textures and sumptuous colors, and a faceup that's both fierce and friendly. In terms of quality her hair isn't perfect but it's very workable. In terms of style it's exactement ce qu'elle devrait etre. She has several interesting accessories (particularly that belt - yowzers!), and her very own doll size sketchpad, something no other doll got. Everything about this doll was well thought-out by people who knew what they were doing. They got the theme and look and fashion right on not just Clawdeen, but all the Scaris deluxe dolls. And with that I bid adieu to them. But it's not too sad, I have a feeling they'll be popping up on the blog sporadically for one reason or another.

Oh and by the way, if I ever hear someone calling Scaris Clawdeen boring, I may have to find them just so I can knock some sense into their obviously thick noggin. This doll is not boring, she's magnificent. (Ditto Frankie. Hmph!)