Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Misa base and top coats

Do you know this dreadful feeling - when you are watching a performance of a person you care about; and this performance is really, really bad? I hope you don't, but chances are, you do. So, you know exactly how I feel about Misa'a top and base coats.

Let's start with something positive. Well, I really like the names. BREAKneck and BACKbone, top and base respectively. Creative, but without a cuteness overload.

Now to the performance.

Base coat is available at Transdesign and Head2Toe for about $3. I cannot tell you much about this one - I use ridge-filling coats exclusively, so I don't know how BACKbone compares to other non-ridge fillers. Polish peeled off from one nail the very next day, but I don't know whether it was a top or a base problem. BACKbone has a red hue to it, but it's not noticeable on the nails. My guess, it's just to distinct a base coat from the same brand top coat, since bottles are identical.

Hard part. Top coat. It's marketed as "Fast-Dry Non Yellow Top Coat" and available from the same sources.
What does typical fast-drying top coat do?
a) dries
b) dries fast
c) smells offensively
Well, take out (b) from the equation and you got yourself Misa'a top coat. It does dry (a). Eventually. Let's say, my pedi was smudgeable (is it a word?) in 3 hours after I used BREAKneck. And it did smudge, indeed; and ruined my otherwise perfect pedicure. Call me a top coat nazi, but I do not like when top coat behaves this way. In addition to that, it pulls polish while being applied to the nail. It's weird, actually, for BREAKneck is watery thin and I do not expect something this thin to be a polish-puller. This product, thou, performs excellent in a smell department (c). As you can guess, I'm used to the smell of nail-related chemicals; but this topcoat is something really different. Seems like Misa chemists have tried to disguise an offencive, yet usual smell with some kind of pleasant aroma. This mix is no good.

Bottom line: do not waste your money, got a bottle of Misa polish instead and stick (no pun intended) to your regular base/top.