Essie Spring 2017 B'aha Moment Collection : Review, Swatches & Comparisons

It's a road trip down the coast with your bestie with the new Essie Spring collection! This is definitely  the brightest and most colourful Spring collection we've ever seen from Essie. It's a pretty group of colours and there's some REALLY great formulas in here too. If you like brighter polishes, this will be a great collection for you. Let's take a look at the swatches & comparisons. 

Excuse Me Sur

At first I wasn't going to get this entire collection and this was the only polish that grabbed me as a "Kindra" colour so it was the one I was most excited for. The formula was a bit thicker yet a little streaky. It's aaaaaalmost opaque in 2 coats but I still had a couple spots where it wasn't totally opaque, so I did a third coat. It self-leveled pretty good but not perfectly.

I can see why this shade called my name, but I obviously have too many other similar ones! Steal His Name is the most different in this bunch. It is a jelly so it is sheer and is not as saturated in colour. Couture Curator is sooooo close, just a hair lighter. Van D'Go is a complete dupe for Excuse Me Sur. Same application and everything. Van D'Go is one of my all-time favourite Essie's and Couture Curator is one of my fave Gel Coutures so obviously I love this colour, but if you've got either of them, you can totally skip out on Excuse Me Sur.

*Edited to add: I forgot to mention! Even though the colour and formula of Van D'Go and Excuse Me Sur were the same, I did think that the brush on Excuse Me Sur was a little bigger making it easier to apply. I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination but the Van D'Go brush seemed really skinny. Maybe because it's an older polish. Has Essie secretly made their brush a tiny bit bigger over the years? Not sure, but application was a bit easier with Excuse Me Sur.

The closest one in this bunch is Groove Is In the Heart, but it's a bit more pink than Excuse Me Sur.

Backseat Besties

This is a cool-toned Barbie pink. It applies nicely and self-leveled ok and was incredibly close to being opaque in 2 coats. It's only when I looked up close that I could see a bit of unevenness, so I went with 3 coats.

When I saw online that Backseat Besties was a cool-toned light pink, I immediately thought of French Affair so I threw that one into this comparison. From the bottles I could tell they were super different but included it anyways, in case anyone else was curious. Delhi Dance is much more warm toned, as is Lovie Dovie, but it's also a deeper shade of pink. Haute to Trot is completely a dupe though. There's a very slight difference, but on the nail you really can't tell them apart.

B'aha Moment

Woah. This formula is incredible! It applies perfectly in one coat. It's totally opaque and self-leveling. Be careful though, she's a stainer. I had to scrub my cuticles with baking soda and lemon juice before I could keep swatching.

B'aha Moment is a creamy pomegranate colour and I thought for sure I had a dupe for it, but everything I compared it to was different. Bachelorette Bash is much brighter and pinker. Raspberry is definitely close but has a totally different formula and a more red tone. Raspberry is also a jelly polish while B'aha Moment is smooth and creamy. Gala-vanting is much darker and more red toned.

Double-Breasted Jacket is quite a bit more red and Watermelon is a brighter pink shade.

On the Roadie

Oh my gosh I love this one! It's got a great creamy formula, self-levels nicely and opaque in almost one coat, but you'll need two.

When I got this collection in the mail, On the Roadie became the one I was most excited for because Essie makes so few greens, I thought I had nothing like it in my collection. Once I had it on the nail, I was surprised it's kinda similar to Pretty Edgy! I mean they are different, don't get me wrong, I just expected it to be COMPELTELY different.  Pretty Edgy is a bit deeper/darker and the formula is thin and kind of a crelly. On the Roadie definitely has the better creamier formula and is lighter. Mojito Madness is quite a bit lighter and more yellow toned than On the Roadie. Ruffles and Feathers is much more blue toned.

All the Wave

Ooooh! Another creamy polish that is perfectly opaque in one coat! I did not expect to like this one at all but it's a very pretty blue with a hint of purple.

I don't currently have Butler Please since that is a polish I had to borrow from my friend Bailey to do the two posts that I did on that polish. I do have a bottle of original Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and that's basically a dupe for Butler Please, so I put it on just to show you how different Butler Please WOULD be to All the Wave. It's way lighter and brighter. Mezmerised is crazy close but ever so slightly more yellow toned. Both have the same awesome formula as well. Even though Loot the Booty is full of shimmer, I compared it to see how similar the base colour was but it's darker and more royal blue.

Designated DJ

This was probably the one I was least excited about because it looks like a complete dupe for Bahama Mama (and you've seen how many burgundy polishes I have!) But I put it on and of course I love it. The formula isn't quite a creme, it's a little bit crelly but not completely. It's hard to describe. If you put too much polish on your brush you will flood your cuticles, but if not, it applies nicely in 2 self-leveling coats.

Well it's not a dupe for Bahama Mama! It's darker and more purple toned. Both Carry On and Model Clicks are much darker than Designated DJ. I had a request to see Sole Mate next to Designated DJ but I ran out of fingers to swatch on. Since Model Clicks and Sole Mate are dupes for each other, I decided to just show you Model Clicks but you can imagine that Sole Mate is much darker than Designated DJ

No dupes here either. In the Lobby is more red toned. Recessionista is the closest but still Designated DJ has more purple in it. I had requests to see Shearling Darling but it's much more of a reddish brown burgundy. Designated DJ looks straight up purple next to it. Seeing all those purple tones in Designated DJ, I pulled out Kimono Over to see how it compared, but it's way darker and more of a blue-toned purple. I'm kinda shocked you guys! Not one dupe for Designated DJ in my stash and I have TWELVE Essie burgundies! It's overall a more purple-toned burgundy and I really like it.

Overall, this is a pretty collection with some really good formulas, but as a whole this collection is pretty dupe-tastic to past Essie's. I mean, I DO have a pretty extensive Essie collection (over 250) so if you aren't a crazy Essie collector and don't have certain colours, then this collection is worth picking up.

My faves are On the Roadie, B'aha Moment and Designated DJ. On the Roadie is such a pretty shade of kelly green. I don't love greens that lean yellow and this one definitely doesn't, but it's not super blue toned either. It's so great (and I'm not even a person that wears green polish all that often!). B'aha Moment is striking on the nail and it's formula is frickin' incredible. And I'm shocked how much I like Designated DJ! That bit of purple in the formula makes all the difference to me. I would've said Excuse Me Sur was my fave of the collection had I not already owned a couple dupes, but if you don't already have Couture Curator or Van D'Go, pick up Excuse Me Sur. She's a beauty! If you are a fan of blues at all, then All the Wave is a definite must as well.

Which ones are catching your eye from this collection?