Thanks to the good people at Essie, I was able to test out their summer collection, Buckle Up! An interesting mix consisting of signature Essie shades like pink and coral thrown together with clean white, purple and silver, this collection has me torn. While this is a departure from collections of the past filled with pinks, sheers, nudes and reds, I just can’t love all “out of the box” colors like I hoped.

The standout shade for me is Huckle Buckle. Even though it’s on the sheer side, it becomes opaque with 3 coats. It’s a smokey grape with pink shimmer that gives the color depth. The shimmer reminds me of the polish I made last winter using MAC Entremauve pigment (pictured below). The pink shimmer in the pigment didn’t show up on my skin, only on the nail. While Huckle Buckle is a lighter color, and Entremauve has more blue in it, they both have that amazing hint of pink.

I tried on the pinks and coral shades first. As I expected, they applied beautifully, were well pigmented and only needed 2 coats to be opaque. The “oops” in the picture below are operator error and not the fault of the polish.

Chastity is a cool toned pink creme. Leaning towards lavender, it’s a very mod shade in my opinion. It wasn’t streaky and has a great glossy finish.

It’s A Cinch reminds me of my favorite pink Essie, Ball-timore. They have similar finishes and belong in that soft bubblegum pink category. It’s A Cinch is a bit warmer in spite of the silvery shimmer. This is my 2nd favorite shade in the collection.

Click It Or Ticket! is very similar to It’s A Cinch in finish and shade. They’re almost hard to tell apart in bad lighting. Click It Or Ticket! is a warm coral with what looks like a beige shimmer.

Chastity, It’s A Cinch and Click It Or Ticket!

After having such great success in applying the first half of the Buckle Up! collection, I was excited to try what I consider the “fun colors.” I can’t help it, I love the unusual shades. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Aside from the lovely Huckle Buckle, the other two just didn’t cut it.

Below The Belt was so streaky. It took 3 coats to get it even and by that point it was getting gloppy. Even the color itself couldn’t save this polish. It’s chalky, white-out white but not in an attractive mod way. As much as I’m loving white polish this summer, I just can’t love this one. It looks a tad creamy in the swatch pic below because the sun was setting by the time I shot it.

Loophole could have been and should have been a great metallic silver. The finish and application are what mucked it up for me. It has the same problem most metallic polishes have, it shows brush marks. But, that wasn’t Loophole’s only issue. It’s too thick, making it difficult to brush on evenly. I ended up with pooling even after I removed my first application. The shade is a fab brushed silver and I’m sure if you have patience and a steady hand, it could be a winner. It just wasn’t for me.