Misa Surreal Escape Collection Winter 2011 Swatches and Review

This is the first Misa collection I've loved since the Poisoned Passion collection in 2008. From the looks of these colors, Misa is going back to their roots- awesome duochromes and interesting shimmers. I'm very happy to see this as I've been so disappointed by the uncharacteristically bland collections they've released the past few years and I'd really been hoping they'd bring back their old Misa style.

This collection is called Surreal Escape and it's really cool.


Beyond Infinity. In my opinion, the only 'dud' of the collection. It's a plain dark slate shimmer. It doesn't have the speckles and sparkles that are seen in the other greys. The name of it still cracks me up, though. I won't be able to wear this without shouting, "To infinity... and beyond!"

Grey Matters. Now we're talking. A pale neutral grey with black (or dark grey) and silver speckles. You'll want to enlarge this to see the speckles. It looks SO COOL. Like Zoya Harley but with more/darker speckles in it. Not glittery, not sparkly... Speckled. Like bird eggs.



Phazers on Stunning. My favorite of the collection. This is a bright metallic yellow-toned green with strong red-brown duochrome and slight grey duochrome plus a light dusting of silver microglitter. My pictures don't capture how cool this one actually is. One day when I have better lighting, I'll try to get some better pictures. This color is amazing.


Shields Up. This one is basically Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy / Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game, but with a little bit of flat/flake shaped silver microglitter. It goes from dusty purple to grey and from silvery grey to blue and green. This one is more opaque, but not by much. And this sound effect plays in my head when I put it on. Red alert! Shields up!!

Spaced Out. This one is a lot like Grey Matters, but instead of being neutral, it's a cool, blue-toned grey and it's a bit darker. Same awesome black and silver speckles.

The Great Green Whatsit. This one looks to me like a lighter version of Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost with a bit of silver microglitter. Very frosty metallic blue green that flips from all green to all blue and then something in between. Least color shifting of the three duochromes. There's purple duochrome visible in the bottle but it doesn't show up on the nail. The silver glitter is pretty.


The formula on these wasn't my favorite, but it was manageable. It was thick and a little hard to even out and it was very prone to bubbling. I had to wait a good 3-5 minutes in between coats on the multichromes to prevent bubbling and I'd suggest you do the same. The greys didn't have the bubbling problem, but they were thick and stiff feeling. I did three coats of all; the duochromes needed it but the greys were fine with two. The drying time is extremely long.

Overall, not all the colors are completely unique, but they're definitely a lot different from all the other colors we've seen this fall. I have a mega weakness for duochromes and I'm very fond of grey, so this was an instant win for me. I love the names of these. I don't think the formula is that fantastic, but the colors are worth it. Most of the frosty streaks in the duochrome colors disappear as they dry and they turn into really bright, chrome-like metallics.

Very happy to see Misa returning to their former glory. I hope this trend continues. So much potential.