Resin Figurines: Cleaning, Fading and Where to Put Them

Nearly everything on our Room Ornament shelf is cast resin: the hooded figures, the skeletons, the hippo, the scholar, the dragons, the cat. Resin is the reason these pieces can carry fine detail and a painted finish at the price they do, and it is also the reason a few of them come with the questions we hear more than any other: how do I clean it, will it fade, and can it go outside. This is the answer to all three, written for the pieces we actually sell rather than for resin in general. Short of a display case, it is the whole of resin figurine care.

The short version is that resin is easy to live with and easy to ruin in exactly two ways: solvents and sun. Everything else is common sense about where a piece sits. The longer version follows, with the exceptions called out, because two of the pieces on that shelf are not resin at all and one of them is meant to live in a fish tank.

Key takeaways

• Dust with a soft brush. Wipe with a barely damp cloth and, if you must, a drop of dish soap in lukewarm water. Nothing stronger; alcohol and acetone lift paint.
• Painted resin fades in direct sun. Keep it out of the window line, and treat the one outdoor piece we sell (the fairy bird feeder) as something that lives in shade and comes in for the winter.
• Each format has a job. Shelf sitters need an edge, the wall hook needs a screw, the candle holder needs a tealight, and the caveman set is made for aquariums and terrariums.
• The genie lamp and the bouncy sheep are not resin. The lamp is gold-tone metal with enamel inlay; the sheep is a magnet-backed ornament with a wobbling body. Neither wants a wet cloth: dust the lamp and wipe the enamel dry, and spot-clean the sheep.
• A dropped piece is usually a quick repair with a gel super glue. Heat is not: resin softens before it melts, so keep it away from radiators, stoves and open flame.

What is on the shelf, and what it is made of

The table lists what each product page says about its own material and finish. Where a page does not give a size or a finish, the table does not either.

How do you clean a resin figurine without taking the paint off?

Start with the least you can get away with. Dust is the only thing most of these pieces ever collect, and a soft brush (a clean make-up brush or a paintbrush with soft bristles) gets into the folds of a robe, the ribs of a skeleton and the gaps between the dragon eggs better than any cloth. Do this first, before anything wet, or you turn dust into a paste and push it into the recesses.

If a piece needs more than dusting, use a cloth that is damp rather than wet, wrung out until it barely leaves a mark on your hand. Plain lukewarm water is enough for fingerprints and cooking grease; hot water can dull a gloss finish. For anything stickier, a single drop of dish soap in a bowl of water, then a second pass with a clean damp cloth to lift the soap. Test on the base or the back first. Dry it with a soft cloth straight away; water sitting in a crevice is what leaves a water mark on a matte finish.

What you never use is anything that dissolves things: rubbing alcohol, nail polish remover, glass cleaner, disinfectant wipes, cream cleansers, or a scouring pad. The colour on these pieces is a painted layer over the resin body, and solvents lift it. That goes double for the hand-painted finishes, which the product pages call out on the skeleton and the alien. Matte finishes such as the hooded figure's robe, the Hecate and the Venus bust also scratch more visibly than gloss, so the rule with them is pressure: wipe, do not scrub.

Two pieces in the range take a different routine. The genie lamp is metal with enamel inlay, not resin: dust it, wipe the enamel with a dry or barely damp cloth, and keep anything abrasive off the gold-tone finish. The bouncy sheep has a magnetic back and a body that is meant to wobble; spot-clean it, do not soak it, and do not stand it in water.

Does resin fade in sunlight?

Yes, and slowly enough that you will not notice until you move the piece and see the side that faced the window. Ultraviolet light breaks down the pigment in the painted layer, and it can yellow a pale resin body over time. A pale piece such as the marble-white Venus bust on a south-facing windowsill will look different from its unlit side within a season or two. Dark pieces show it less; the Hecate and the hooded figure will lose some depth in the finish rather than change colour outright, and a coloured finish such as the black cat's fades the way any painted surface does.

The fix is placement rather than product. A shelf a metre back from the window is fine. Direct sun for hours a day is not, whatever the piece. If a spot is sunny and you want something there, choose the darker pieces and turn them every few months so the fading is even.

Heat is the other half of this. Resin is a plastic. It does not melt at the temperature of a room, but it softens and can warp near a radiator, on top of a stove, in a car in summer, or anywhere a heat lamp points. Keep figurines off the top of anything warm, and keep a candle flame inside the holder it was made for.

Can a resin figurine go outside?

One of ours is sold for it: the fairy bird feeder is listed for gardens, lawns, patios and balconies, and it is the only piece in the range whose product page mentions outdoor use at all. Treat the rest as indoor. A shelf sitter on a covered porch is asking for the same fading and warping as one on a windowsill, with rain added.

Even the feeder does better with some care. Shade or dappled light keeps the paint longer than open sun. Rinse the feeding dish out when you refill it, because old seed and standing water are what stain resin and what birds should not be eating anyway. And bring it in before the first hard frost: water that has worked into a crevice will freeze, expand and crack the surface, and a resin piece that has cracked cannot be un-cracked. That is a winter routine, not a reason to keep it indoors all year.

Where does each kind of piece belong?

Most of the questions about resin ornaments are really questions about the format. The material is the same; where it goes is not.

Shelf sitters (the hooded figure, the drinking skeleton, the alien) need an edge with their whole seat on it. The middle of a table is the one place they cannot go. We have written a separate guide to where shelf sitters work and where they do not, and it applies here in full.

The wall hook is the only piece that needs a fixing. It has a keyhole slot on the back, so it goes up on one screw or nail. Its product page lists it for keys, necklaces, bracelets, caps, lanyards and light bags. The word to notice is light: it is a resin hook, not a coat hook, and a heavy bag on a curved talon is how a talon breaks.

The candle holder is a ghost with a place for a candle. A tealight is the sensible size. Keep the flame inside the cup, and never leave it burning unattended; resin and open flame are a bad pair outside the holder that was designed for it. If you want the ghost without the fire, the same listing also has a ghost reading a book.

The wine holder is built to hold one bottle at the angle the violin's body gives it. It holds a single bottle, so treat it as display rather than storage; do not stack it.

The caveman set is the odd one out. Its product page lists aquariums, fish tanks and terrariums first, before desks. Rinse the pieces in plain water before they go into a tank, the way you would any new ornament, and give them the same rinse when you clean the tank. The pieces are small and sold individually or as a set of nine, so a campfire scene can be built up over time.

Everything else (the Hecate, the Venus bust, the hippo, the scholar, the black cat, the skeleton couple, the Reaper, the dragon eggs) is a freestanding figurine that wants a flat surface, a little room around it and no direct sun. Bookshelves, desks and mantels are what their product pages list, and those are the right answers.

What if it chips, cracks or breaks?

Resin breaks cleanly, which is the good news. A dropped figurine usually snaps at its thinnest point (a torch, a talon, an outstretched arm, a dangling leg) and leaves two faces that fit back together exactly. A gel cyanoacrylate (gel super glue), a small amount on one face, thirty seconds of pressure and an hour to cure is the whole repair. Gel matters because the runny kind wicks into the paint and leaves a shiny bloom around the join.

A chip that has lost a flake of paint is harder, because the exposed resin is usually a different colour from the finish. On a dark piece a matte black touch-up paint, dabbed rather than brushed, is a fair match; a permanent marker dries shiny and shows. On a painted piece the honest answer is to turn the chip to the wall. What does not work is filling a chip with glue and hoping; it dries clear and shiny and draws the eye straight to the damage.

Cracks from freezing or heat cannot be repaired invisibly. That is why the two rules earlier in this piece matter more than any repair advice: out of the sun, away from heat.

All of the pieces above live in our Room Ornament collection, and the gothic ones (the hooded figure, the drinking skeleton, the Hecate, the claw hook, the skeleton couple, the Reaper and the ghost) turn up again in Halloween. If a piece here is the first resin figurine you have bought, the routine is short: brush the dust off, keep it out of the window line, and put it where its format wants to be. That is the whole of it.

Frequently asked questions

How do I clean a resin figurine?

Brush the dust off with a soft brush first, then wipe with a cloth that is damp rather than wet. For anything sticky, one drop of dish soap in a bowl of lukewarm water, then a clean damp wipe and a dry cloth. Do not use alcohol, acetone, glass cleaner, wipes or anything abrasive; they lift the paint.

Do resin figurines fade in the sun?

Yes. Ultraviolet light fades painted colour and can yellow pale resin, and it happens on the side that faces the window first. Keep figurines out of direct sun; a metre back from the glass is usually enough.

Can resin figurines go outside?

Only pieces sold for it. In our range that is the fairy bird feeder. Give it shade, rinse the dish when you refill it, and bring it in before frost, because water frozen in a crevice will crack resin.

Can you fix a broken resin figurine?

Usually. A clean break repairs with a gel super glue in a few minutes. Missing paint on a chip is harder to hide; a matte black touch-up paint works on black pieces. Cracks from heat or freezing cannot be repaired invisibly.

Is resin the same as ceramic or stone?

No. Polyresin (cold-cast resin) is a cast composite of resin and stone powder with a painted finish, which is why it holds fine detail and why solvents and sunlight are its two weaknesses. Glazed ceramic is fired clay and tolerates sun and washing far better; stone tolerates both but weighs a great deal more.