Nine Zero Lacquer Thanksgiving Trio + Holiday Bonus

'Tis the Season for holiday polish!

This is my first installation on a series of holiday polish hauls. I've taken the plunge into the realm of indie polish this year. I've been mostly a mainstream gal myself; I guess I've always preferred instant gratification to waiting for polishes in the mail haha.

One of the main brands that I've been interested in is Nine Zero Lacquer by Jess from Jessface90 on Youtube. Her collections have been amazing! I have today to review her Thanksgiving trio and one polish from her Holiday collection. 

First from the Thanksgiving trio is called Turkey Coma. This is a beautiful bronzey almost rose  gold-y linear holographic. It did come out sheer on the first coat, but builds up nicely and is opaque in two coats. My nail line is slightly visible, but I think if the coats were applied more thickly, it would eliminate that.

Photo with flash. Unfortunately in the days I wore this polish it was super rainy, cold and cloudy. :(

Second is called Cranberry Sauced. This is a scattered holographic in a berry jelly base. Formula is really nice, but after a little bit of use got a little bit chunky on the brush. It is super beautiful and wears wonderfully.

Closer up shot in indoor lighting.

Shot with flash. It kind of drowned out the holo though.

Shot with lowlight.

Macro shot of the scattered holographic.

Lastly, in the Thanksgiving trio is Stuffed. This is probably my favorite out of the trio, but it is definitely the hardest to photograph - at least with my cell phone camera. It would focus to the point that it eliminated the shimmer of the holo. I tried my best to capture it though!

This and Cranberry Sauced both dried slightly gritty and the topcoat did smooth it out, yet it settled down in the glitter so it wasn't exactly a smooth finish for me. You'd probably have to apply two coats of topcoat to get the smooth finish, but I'm ok with the slightly textured finish.

Shot with flash.

Shot in lowlight. Definitely looks like stuffing here!

Macro shot of Stuffed. What. Is. Life. This is absolutely stunning!

 I took this picture while at work. The camera had to be out of focus to capture the shimmer.

Shot in my car on a cloudy day. Still can't see the beautiful holo shimmer!

Lastly, and as a little bonus, I have Twinkle Lights. I think this was probably the most popular polish of the holiday collection, which is absolutely stunning. I tried to limit myself, so I just picked up this one. She's a stunner for sure!

It is a silver linear holographic with red, blue, yellow and green see-through hex glitters. Dries pretty smooth and the formula is great. It is pretty sheer, so the pictures below are three coats.

Finally got a picture in sunlight!

Here's a couple with indoor lighting. Although the holo is kind of subtle in the photos, it is pretty prominent in person.

Shot with flash

And finally, the macro shots! These are my favorite!

I know this post is a little late, but I completely forgot about the launch and when I remembered 40 minutes late, Twinkle lights was already sold out! Luckily there was a restock but I didn't get them in time for Thanksgiving. They were delivered the Friday after. Still, these are absolutely stunning, and I'm sure the rest of the collection is just as amazing! They also came with a bag of the most adorable Christmas confetti too! 

Orly Color Blast Disney Villains Collection Haul/Review

Hello Everyone! I finally have gotten around to posting on the Disney Villains nail polish collection from Orly Color Blast. I think I picked these up sometime in the late summer, but the last time I was in Walgreens, the display was still up, so they should still be available!

Orly Color Blast has quickly become a favorite drugstore brand. At first I was a little hesitant due to the price point, but when you have collections like these, they're hard to pass up! There are some polishes that are packaged as duos and then there were some that were on their own. Unfortunately, the polishes in the duos were not available on their own, so if you wanted one you had to fork out the $10.99 for the duo. I ended up stuck with not-so-unique polishes I probably could have done without.

Overall, the formulas on all of these are all excellent and if you're a big Disney fan like I am, you should definitely pick them up for your collection. 

The first polish is called Sinister Sea Witch, part of the Ursula colors. This is a gray-taupe creme with a slight fuchsia flash/shimmer. Super pretty and great for work/school. I was opaque in two coats, but I did three just to see if the pink shimmer would get any stronger. It didn't.

This shot is with no flash and indoor lighting. You can kind of see the shimmer show up on the pointer, but it is still very subtle.

This is a shot with flash. Notice how different the entire polish looks! I guess it's just the flash, but it almost looks like it transforms from a taupe to a cool gray color, and you can really get a good look at the shimmer!

Next is Mistress of All Evil (awesome name) from the Maleficent colors. This is a pinky red to gold duochrome that is super shimmery. I have some similar polishes, but I don't think any are as shimmery as this one. Formula is good, it is not sheer and I was opaque in two coats. It has a darker bluish black base, which probably helps with coverage.

Here is a look at the gold shift. Please forgive the slight smudge on the ring finger! :(

This shot is of the pink shift. You can really see how much shimmer is packed in this baby.

Now on to the colors in the duos. The first duo is called Dragon's Wrath from Maleficent's colors. 

The first color is called Uninvited guest. It is a deep purple creme that dries to a semi-matte look. Totally wasnt expecting that. This one is a little patchy, as you can see from the first picture. I let it slide, because I knew the flaky topper was going over it.

The second polish in the duo is called Cast My Spell! and it is a glowy yellow flaky topper in a clear base. It also surprisingly dries to a matte finish, which is awesome because I prefer the look of matte flakies to shiny ones. It would only take a topcoat to get it shiny again if that's what you preferred!

This is one coat over Uninvited guest.

Next duo from Ursula is called Flotsam and Jetsam after her beloved eels. 

P.S. Why is there only one shown on the package though?!?

The first polish is called Evil Eels. This is pretty much your run-of-the-mill silver foil polish but it is still beautiful. It has decent coverage and it doesn't show as many brush stroks. 

The next polish is probably my absolute favorite and makes having to buy the duo worth it. This is called Power Hungry. It's like Regina George. How do I begin to explain it? It's a light pink to light blue/green duochrome shift with a linear holographic that shows up only in sunlight. In some lights it looks completely sheer, and in others it looks completely opaqe. I am just so fascinated by this polish! I took a million pictures of this polish, because it looks so different in different lights and angles. 

Natural lighting with no flash. Freaking stunning.

Indoor lamp lighting.

More indoor lighting. Can kind of see the holo peeking out.

Indoor with flash.

Direct Sunlight

What a beauty! Hands down the best polish out of this collection!

Top Fall Nail Polish Favorites AKA The Silent Assassins

I finally got around to compiling a list like this! I've been wanting to start a Top 10 series, so I thought it would be good to start with Fall. Basically, I pulled all fall-like polishes out of my collection and whittled them down to 10 or 11, I think. 

Brock even had to help me. We had a tournament of champions with a lot of discussions and coin flipping. It actually was a lot of fun! If we ever have to do it again, I will definitely post about the process.

Let's get started, shall we? The polishes are just listed in the order that I swatched them; I didn't rank them or anything.

First is China Glaze Midtown Magic. This is from the Fall 2011 Metro Collection. I just love how dynamic yet subtle it is. The base is almost brown in some lights, and in others it definitely looks more burgundy. The gold glitter is subtle, giving it a more elegant, classy look. I bought this when I first started collecting polish and I remember how in love with it I was. I still am! It's still one of my favorites. I remember even wanting this to be my car color lol.

Formula is decent. It does tend to get a little goopy after a couple of uses, probably due to the amount of glitter crammed in the polish.

This is a pic of the swatch in indoor lighting.

This is shot in natural lighting, which brings out more of the purple-y burgundy base.

Next is butter LONDON British Racing Green. This is a shimmery, deep forest green. Not quite light enough to call it emerald. 

This is super glossy and super pigmented, as you can probably tell from my stained cuticles. I am a sucker for a good green, and this reminds me of the pine trees here in town. I also feel like this is a good spin on a traditional green fall polish with the shimmer thrown in there. The formula is smooth and opaque in two coats.

Next is China Glaze Rest in Pieces from the 2014 Apocalypse of Color Halloween collection. This glitter is soooo good, it doesn't matter what time of year you use it. It has gold and holographic bar glitter and micro hex glitter with matte black hex glittee in a clear base. 

This is two coats over butter LONDON British Racing Green. Formula is good and glitter payoff is awesome. 

Next is definitely a standout and probably my favorite out of this whole group. Bare with me, because it is a textured polish, but it is amazingggg.

This is Finger Paints Hammered Terra Cotta. It's a coppery rose gold texture polish. The below photo is one coat. One. Coat. And it dries kind of fine, not gritty or rough. It looks exactly like a copper pot or something! I'm just continually impressed by this polish and I'm glad I picked it up!



Polish #5 is Orly What's the Password? from Orly Secret Society Holiday 2013 collection. This is a super shimmery orange with tiny hints of gold. Formula is pretty good, but it is a little thin. You can still see my nail line in the swatch after two coats. I think the shimmer kind of averts the eye though. This is only two coats, so it could be opaque in three or with a darker base.

Next is Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ from OPI's Chicago Collection. I went to google what collection this was from and I was horrified to find out that this is a reference to a legend of the Great Chicago fire. Holy shit. I totally thought this was from like some country-ish collection and a reference to an outdoor cookout. WTF. Story here: http://stupidnailpolishnames.blogspot.com/2009/07/mrs-olearys-bbq.html

Anyway, as gruesome as the name is, this is still an amazing berry-ish creme with a slight hint of brown. It does kind of look like BBQ sauce too. Haha. I had been looking for this polish for a long time and was finally lucky enough to pick it up a year or so ago. Below is two creamy coats.

Next is Jesse's Girl Cauldron, a deep wine color with gold and red shimmer. This is part of their very impressive Satin Finish collection.

Again, this is another deep color with subtle shimmer I just can't get enough of these days. Formula is thick, but doesn't get goopy or clumpy. Pictured is two coats. 

Here is a shot of it with a shiny topcoat over the top. This looks just as amazing and brings out the golden shimmer that's barely visible in the satin version.

Next is the stunning Color Club Beyond. The holo in this is out of this world, as I'm sure everyone knows. Out of all the Color Club holos, I chose this one because the base is a nice gumetal color. In an office setting, it just looks like a normal neutral color, but given the right light, it will come alive! Again, I think the theme of this post is super obvious.

This is two coats with indoor lighting.

This is the swatch taken with flash.

Next up is Deborah Lippmann Dream Weaver. I picked this up for my birthday back in August, and I still find myself reaching for it just to see the colors change. What a weirdo.

This is a blue to purple duochrome, but there are also flashes of gold, pink, and teal.

Very oil slick-esque if you ask me. The color is beautiful, but the formula is painfully thin. Having the thin-ass brush doesn't help matters either. BUT if you are willing, and have no life like me, you can slowly and painfully apply four coats to get what you see in the pictures below. It's worth it to me, because sometimes you need to be distracted by your nails several times a day to get you through the work week. It's also very difficult to photograph the shift on the nail. -.-

We're i the home stretch here with Nine Zero Lacquer S'more Holo. This is part of my first indie polish purchase from Jessface90. This is an amazing taupe holographic. The formula is smooth and opaque. Below is two coats. Again, this is another of what I'll call the silent assassin polishes. Work appropriate, yet still exciting to wear. I've been wearing it on my toes, and it still draws attention in the sunlight! 

With flash. I didn't get a chance to get a shot in natural light, but the holo is a lot stronger than what the pictures show.

And lastly, I had to throw in a wild card due to the BBQ thing. (Not really, but it felt like a good excuse.)

This is China Glaze  Lug Your Designer Baggage, a nod to the always glamorous Louis Vuitton from Fall 2014 All Aboard collection. It is a medium brown base with gold flecks thrown in. 

This is two coats. Not gonna lie, it did get a little trcky to apply, but it may just be because it's sat for a while. It did seem a little thin though. This is a super chic and subtle color for fall and is worth the trouble!

Hope you enjoyed my first compilation of the Silent Assassin polishes. I guess that's really something I look for in polishes, especially during the Fall and Winter. Sometimes you need that brightness to come out in your nail color without being super loud. I think all of these polishes captures that really well.