Essie Bubble Gum Pinks Comparison : Groove Is In the Heart, Knockout Pout, Lovie Dovie, Boom Boom Room & Forget Me Nots

Continuing with this week's pink and red polish "Valentine's" theme, I picked out some Bubble Gum pinks to compare. I actually did the work of swatching and photographing these polishes in the summer and then hated the pictures. I was still using my iPhone while my DSLR Canon Rebel wasn't working and these pinks just DID NOT look colour accurate. I try to make all my pics as colour accurate as possible, so those photos got the old heave ho. These pinks are hard to photograph because some have neon pigment in them, so the camera wants to go a bit bezerk. I decided to give it another try since my Canon is working again and these polishes are all showing up true to colour (except one, but I'll point that one out to you as we go. Dang neons!) Enough rambling from me, let's get into this comparison!

Alright, so no dupes among this crowd. They actually make a pretty nice gradient manicure, with the exception of Knockout Pout. It is the difficult to photograph one of the bunch and is actually more peachy-pink than the rest. Knockout Pout and Boom Boom Room are the brightest ones out of the bunch. I've always thought Boom Boom Room was the same shade of pink as Lovie Dovie just brighter, but after this comparison I can see they are quite different!

This is the most colour accurate you will see Knockout Pout in this entire post! Here it's showing off it's bright peachy-pink colour although in person, it's still a bit lighter. All the other photo's of it make it seem more intense and pink than it is. I almost didn't include Groove Is In the Heart in this comparison but because I just posted it on Monday , I figured some of you might be curious. When I looked at it compared to Forget Me Nots, I was like "this polish just does not belong in this comparison", but on the nail next to Boom Boom Room they are closer than I realized! Don't get me wrong, they are definitely not dupes but you can clearly see the that Groove Is In the Heart is just one shade lighter than Boom Boom Room, which may help you visualize the polishes if you are familiar with either of those shades. 

Forget Me Nots

This is an older Essie that came out in the 2002 Spring Collection called Flower Power.  It's not one you see on the permanent Essie display though, so I wasn't really in the know about it until last Spring when Essie released the "Lilly Pulitzer for Target" collection. It wasn't a collection of brand new polishes but previously released polishes in bright colours to commemorate Lilly Pulitzer's designs. We couldn't get that collection here in Canada but nailpolishcanada ended up having it in their Rewards Catalogue and I had enough points, so I happily redeemed them for Forget Me Nots. It has a thin formula but it's easy to apply. It self-levels REALLY nicely but it's still not completely opaque after 2 coats, so it does need 3.

It's the darkest pink out of the ones I have here and it's slightly muted. Essie calls it a strawberry pink milkshake. I'm not sure if it's the pictures or what but it seems to have a slight purple undertone. If I had Splash of Grenadine I'd be curious to see these two side by side.

Lovie Dovie

Lovie Dovie came out in the Summer of 2006 but ended up being added to the permanent collection. I LOVED this polish and wore it a ton last Spring. This polish has a really nice formula. It's a bit thicker with much more pigmentation than Forget Me Nots. It's also nice and self-leveling and is opaque in 2 coats. (full post here)

Boom Boom Room

Boom Boom Room came out in the 2013 Neon Collection. I've made it pretty clear I don't love neons so the only one I own from that collection is Bottle Service (and it doesn't look neon unless it's over a white base). My friend Bailey got this polish that summer it came out and it has become her all-time favourite pink. She's already on her second bottle and it's half gone! I had to borrow this polish from her to do this comparison. I've never liked the formula on this polish.  It's super thick to the point of being goopy. It self-levels okay on the first coat but by the 2nd it doesn't level itself out so I have some polish ridges. It's very opaque but still needs two coats.

Can you see the polish ridges on my pointer and down the side walls of my middle and ring finger?

There it is zoomed in. I really hate when polish applies like that. My thumb is even worse. 

A coat of Essie Good to Go fixed it but not completely on the thumb because that was pretty bad. The rest of my nails were smooth and glossy. Even though I didn't like the initial application, in the end I got a nice result and I'm really liking this shade of ultra-bright bubble gum pink. It's not neon but it's very bright!

Knockout Pout

Knockout Pout was released in the Summer 2010 Collection. I always saw pics online of this VERY BRIGHT saturated pink-coral hue so it went on my wish list long ago. When I found it at nailpolishcanada.com I figured I better order it before it wasn't available anymore but when I opened up the package I was pretty disappointed. In person it's lighter and much less intense of a pink than what photos show (even mine!). It's also got more peachy-coral in there than it's showing. I've since figured out this polish is extremely difficult to photograph accurately. There must be neon pigment in the formula because it dries to a semi-matte finish and I'm thinking it's the neon pigment that messes with the colour settings in the camera too.

Despite my initial disappointment (expectation vs. reality) I actually really like the colour! It also has a very nice formula. It's not too thick or too thin. It's easy to apply and is nice and creamy. It looked like it would be opaque in 2 coats but it was still a bit patchy, so I did 3.

Groove Is In the Heart

Sigh. My new pink polish love. As I said in my Groove Is In The Heart post, this polish is definitely no neon, despite being released in the 2015 Neon Collection. It is much more wearable than I thought it was going to be and this comparison proves it I think! It shows how much lighter it is than the rest. With a bit of a quick nail buff and some base coat you can apply this polish nicely in 2 coats. It does have a bit of a tricky formula and can leave polish ridges like Boom Boom Room but topcoat smooths it out.

As for the availability of these polishes:

Forget Me Nots: Essie has this in the permanent collection so it should be pretty easy to find. I've never seen it in stores, but all my regular online places have it, as do others that I googled.

Lovie Dovie: this is also permanent, so you should be able to do an online search and find it anywhere. Again maybe not in stores, but should be quite easy to find online.

Boom Boom Room: this is a discontinued polish so it's hard to find. I could only find it at sparklecanada (and I didn't think I would, so now I'm definitely thinking I need to order a bottle!) and UK Amazon.

Knockout Pout: look at me being smart and ordering this polish when I saw it at nailpolishcanada in November! It's totally not available there anymore. I found it on head2toebeauty and all Amazons (UK, US and Canada).

Groove Is In the Heart: this should be pretty easy to find since it just came out last summer. I found it at a local drug store in their discounted section and a quick search showed me it's still available online. It probably won't be for long, so find yourself a bottle if you think you like this colour!


My favourite of this bunch is definitely Groove Is In the Heart. I will for sure be wearing this polish no matter the season. But if I'm looking for something brighter and more of that saturated "bubble gum" pink, I loved Boom Boom Room (the colour not the formula, but I could get past it to wear that beautiful pink) and Knockout Pout. Look at me choosing all the "neons"!  Haha. Maybe it's the season we are in where winter has been dragging on and I'm looking for a bright pick me up. What's your favourite from this grouping?