Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Misa Fall 2009 I'm Only Human Collection
The long-awaited fall collection from Misa is finally here! You may remember the interesting promo picture for this collection from this post... The colors that go along with it are quite unexpected!
Pictures first, opinions second.
Can't Nobody Take Me Down. Brown creme. This has a lot of red in it, almost appearing purple in certain lights. It's not quite a chocolate brown... It's too red/purple to be pure chocolate.
Forgive, Forget, For Me I Will. Dark orange creme. This looks more red in the picture than it does in real life. It's a very deep burnt orange creme. Very appropriate for fall!
I'm Going To Love Myself. Bright purple/pink creme. Looks like everyone's doing brights for fall! Flattering cool bright pink, in the same vein as OPI Ate Berries In The Canaries / OPI I'm India Mood For Love. Love these pinks on my skintone.
Sorry, Just Can't Help It. Medium red-purple creme. This, as always, look more blue in the picture than it does in real life. I'm a sucker for purple cremes... Sorry, just can't help it. Hahaha, okay, bad joke. But really, I just can't help but love this color!
That's My Little Secret. Berry creme. Cool-toned version of Today is My Birthday!
Today Is My Birthday! Berry creme. Red/warm-toned version of That's My Little Secret.
The shades are slightly truer to life in the bottle picture at the top of the page.
The formula on these is very, very thick. I had a little difficulty applying these because they didn't want to smooth out nicely due to the thickness. Nothing that can't be fixed with a little polish thinner, though. Misas in general are on the thick side so that's normal, but these are thicker than previous Misa polishes I've used. Opacity is very good, you could probably get away with one coat on these but I did two to cover up bald spots. Drying time is long, but they do dry to a shiny finish even without topcoat. One of my brushes was defective, so be sure to check for stray hairs before applying- a quick trim with very sharp scissors should do the trick.
Okay, deep breath. I hate to criticize a polish collection from a company whose collections usually make me jump for joy, but here goes....
I'm not completely in love with it! I really wanted to be. I'm a big Misa fan and I've been dying to see what kind of fun, fascinating and unique colors they had in store for us this year, and, truthfully, I feel a little bit let down....
There's nothing wrong with the colors at all. They're great colors, beautiful colors, colors I like. It's just that... they're not unique. We've seen these already in everyone else's fall collections. Misa usually does such unique and awesome colors, I wasn't expecting these to be so common. For one, they're all cremes, which is okay because I love cremes, but I would have loved to see a little more variety. And second: Berry cremes. Two out of six are berry cremes. I know a lot of people love them, but I personally think I might scream if I see one more berry creme. All of this year's collections have had multiple berry cremes and they're all near-duplicates of each other. Again, I would have loved to see more variety.
I love brown, I love orange, I love purple and I love Misa polish... But I'm just not feeling head-over-heels for this collection like I usually do with Misa. Remember last year's fall collection from Misa? It's still one of the best collections EVER, even a year after its release.... I suppose I was hoping for another one of those.
Also.... I feel the need to address this gem:
I'm not easily offended and I can't say this image actually *offends* me, but it does make me giggle like a twelve-year-old.
Here are the points I'd like to make on this. I'll keep it a clean and mature as possible.
First, it's shockingly raunchy and suggestive for a nail polish ad. I don't think the target audience for nail polish advertisements would really appreciate this type of image. Normally I'm giving China Glaze a hard time about their pseudo-pornographic promotional images, but I'm shocked to see this from Misa! Does this image really appeal to women? Does it really make women want to buy nail polish? I'm not a marketing expert by any means but this really surprises me. "Hey, does that woman have balls in her mouth?" "Yeah, let's go buy nail polish!!"
I understand that this image is supposed to portray Eve's sin (and that's something to celebrate??) and I'm just glad it didn't include the serpent as well.
Second, the theme of this collection is supposed to be a female-empowerment "You go girl!" type of theme. However, the model in the advertisement seems to be simulating a sexual act that is pretty much the opposite of female empowerment. Pardon my language, but there is nothing 'empowering' about being tea-bagged. This image seems to be very contrary to the 'feminist' embrace-your-flaws theme that was intended.
I really hope I'm not being too harsh! I know that I'm entitled to my own opinion, and hey, this is my blog so it's all about my opinion... I have to be honest, and I know you all come to read my honest opinion on things... But Misa never usually lets me down! Hopefully my criticism comes across as constructive, because that's how it's intended.
So... what do YOU all think? I'd love to hear your opinions!