Hard Candy Returns!

Posted by Stacey

on June 8, 2010

Back in the day, I was all about Hard Candy. I loved their nail polish and their glitter eyeliners and their bright lipglosses. It was a sad day when Sephora stopped carrying the brand and we all had to say goodbye. And then, just recently, they came back! But in an interesting twist, the brand was completely revamped and is sold exclusively at Wal-Mart now. I was super excited about their return, but I hadn’t really gotten a chance to use many of the products, so when I got the opportunity to try a few of their new releases for spring and summer, I jumped at the chance.

My favorite product that I tried is the new Hot Smudge. It’s a cream eyeliner/smudge shadow and comes with two colors in each package. It’s so much fun and totally comparable to Urban Decay’s Ink For Eyes at about a fourth of the price. (Who doesn’t love a good bargain these days?) I tried Misfit, which pairs an olive green with a grey – both basics and both totally wearable. What I really like about it is the formula. It’s super creamy and blendable, so you can use it either as an eyeliner and create a really thin line or you can use it more as a shadow and create a soft, smoky eye. It’s durable too – once you put it on and allow it to set (I usually wait about a minute or so) it stays put all day. I actually like the brush that comes in the package too, which usually doesn’t happen. But it’s perfect for this formula – it has a liner brush on one end and a smudger on the other, so even though if I’m home I usually use my other brushes (just because I’ve gotten used to them), if I throw this in my bag, I don’t have to worry about bringing any other brushes with me. It comes in six shades and as cheap as these are, you know I’m going to own all of them. (I’ve been stalking the only Wal-Mart in driving distance waiting for them to come out and it’s a forty minute drive from me, so that should tell you how serious I am about it).

I also tried out the new Meteor-eyes baked shadows and Hard Candy also nailed it with these. They were always known more for their funky shades than neutrals and these definitely fit the bill. The shadows are baked on a terra-cotta disc to give them even more pigmentation and you can choose to use them either wet or dry. (I find that wet makes them stay on longer, but your mileage may vary. Wet also seems to give me less fallout, which is nice). They remind me a lot of the glittery shadows from MAC’s Style Black collection last year, which was super popular and gone from counters almost before I could blink. Meteor-eyes are available in more shades than the MAC shadows were (from what I can remember) – there are seven shades of them and they range from Asteroid (a bright blue) to Lunar Eclipse (a glitzy gold). Just the the Hot Smudges, I kind of think I need to own all of these. Granted, they’re not the kind of shades you’d probably wear to work, but for the price, how can I not want them all for the nights I’m out with my friends and want my eyes to stand out? I think we all know the answer to that.