I’m so excited that I got my hands on the European Essie Pattern play collection. I didn’t want to get too excited about this collection, since I knew that there was a chance that I wouldn’t be able to get my hands on it. I haven’t seen a new Gel couture collection since probably 2020 here in Europe, so I’m extremely excited that this collection did come!
So, if you forgot about the Pattern play collection (I don’t blame you, we get so many new Essie collections), you can find my original post about it over here. But here is a short recap: The collection is inspired by the 70’s and consists of six new colors: Totally plaid, Paisley all the way, All checked out, Fab florals, Chevron trend and Electric Geometric.
I was only able to find four colors of the collection here in Europe (at Lyko.com). I don’t know whether that means whether only four shades will be available in Europe or that Lyko just picked four shades of this collection. The shades that I was able to find here in Europe are: All checked out, Chevron trend, Electric Geometric, and Totally plaid. Anyway, I’m going to show you the swatches of these four shades.
Essie All checked out
We start off with Essie All checked out. All checked out is described by Essie as a creamy, raisin-brown longwear nail polish with purple and blue undertones. In the bottle it looks a bit like a warm brown, but on the nails it dries darker and indeed a bit cooler-toned. I must say that the purple undertone is not really clear.
I was super impressed with the formula, it covers already quite well at the first coat, and is super easy to apply.
Out of the shades in the picture OPI That’s what friends are Thor is probably the closest. However, I must admit that next to this shade, All checked out indeed seems to lean a little bit purple. Essie’s Chocolate cakes leans very red compared to All checked out and is much darker. OPI’s Krona-logical order is darker and cooler-toned.
I did a second comparison with colors that were often requested on Instagram. Essie Partner in crime is much darker than All checked out. Smokin’ hot contains bluer and Berlin there done that is much lighter.
Essie Totally plaid
This is Essie Totally plaid. I was extremely excited about this color from the start but didn’t want to get my hopes up since Essie often skips the green shades in Europe. On Essie’s website this is decribed as a neutral, olive-green with yellow undertones. I would probably just call it a muddy olive-green.
The formula is again extremely nice and easy to apply. It covered in two coats.
I almost couldn’t wait to compare this shade to Essie Precious cargo-go!, which for a very long time was my only olive green Essie. I’m lucky, because Essie Totally plaid is definitely a bit darker. If you’re not that into olive green nail polish, you definitely don’t need to own both. Both shades have great formulas.
Essie Win me over is clearly much lighter than Essie Totally plaid.
Essie Electric Geometric
Next up is Essie Electric Geometric. I wasn’t super excited about this shade, because I would have loved to see the purple or amber shade instead, but I must admit that Electric Geometric is a nice shade. Essie describes it as a vibrant red with pink undertones. In artificial lighting, it definitely looks like it has orange undertones, but when I was inspecting it in daylight, I could definitely see that it has pink undertones instead!
The formula again is extremely nice, it almost was opaque on the first coat, but I ended up doing two coats instead.
I made this comparison when I was still under the impression that Electric Geometric had orange undertones. It is very difficult to see in the picture, but in real life, it is clear that Essie Fifth avenue and Color binge contain much more orange. Color binge is also much brighter.
Essie Chevron trend
Chevron trend is for me the surprise of the collection. I wasn’t too excited about this polish at first, but I ended up really loving it when I was wearing it on my nails. Essie calls it a deep and saturated magenta. I definitely agree, but in artificial light, it almost looks red sometimes. I would normally say that this shade is appropriate for summer, but it is a tad darker than your average summer magenta, making it appropriate for every season.
Again, the formula is super nice, almost opaque in one coat, but I ended up doing two coats.
I definitely thought that all the shades that I picked would be similar to Chevron trend. However, none of them really is, they are all too bright and cheerful. I also had to think of Essie Bahama mama, but when I held the bottle close to Chevron trend, I saw that Bahama mama just contains a lot of purple.
All in all, I’m surprised to find that Chevron trend is actually very unique in my Essie collection.
Conclusion & Availability
Even after swatching this collection, I’m still incredibly excited about this collection. All the shades also have incredibly nice formulas. I do think that the collection would have been even nicer if it would have been released during fall, but to be honest, I enjoy this type of collection any time of the year. It’s too bad that the Fab florals and Paisley all the way are not available in Europe (yet), since I found those together with Totally plaid the nicest colors of the collection. Although I must admit that all the shades that I bought are actually very nice!
In the US, this collection should be reasonably easy to find. All six shades are for example available on Amazon over here (affiliate link). In Europe, I was able to find the shades on Lyko, but I also heard that some are available on Boots’ website and Beauty Bay.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
