Tweet Hard Candy, Is It As Good As It Looks?!?

So i'm pretty sure you have all heard of Hard Candy. This brand has been talked about alot by many bloggers and youtubers. However, we canadians have only just received its products just recently! First things first, the display looked amazing and really caught my eye, if i didnt keep up with their tweets to find out they were finally in canada, i would still be able to spot it out right away!

Anyways, I didnt really know too much about the brand itself, but i definately knew that the packaging of these goodies are absolutely gorgeous! and being a total sucker for packaging, i had to give these a try! So of course, being an avid blush fan, i chose a really pretty looking blush in living doll. I also picked up an eyeshadow duo in peace because it reminded me alot of my too faced eyeshadow duo in totally toasted which i absolutely love love love and would die to find a dupe of.

Anyways, for this post, i will review the eyeshadow duo first! for those of you wanting swatches of the blush, dont worry! they'll be up soon :)

blush in living doll, eyeshadow duo in peace

eyeshadow duo in peace

 and since you cant really see what the shadows look like, i thought some finger swatches might be better!

 

without flash

with flash

Packaging Overview - 4.5/5

I loveee the packaging of this stuff! its super cute and very sturdy! there is a clear opening (very similar to too faced's eyeshadow duos) so you can peek inside and the patterns and designs are also quite nice. it can be a bit bulky since it is a baked shadow, meaning that the shadow is sort of in a mound shape.. but other than that, no complaints about packaging!

Product Overview - 2/5 (dry swatch)

... i was really disappointed.. really disappointed :( i guess its because i had really high expectations and i really wanted this to be a too faced dupe. unfortuantely, it was not.. not even close. First off, when i first swatched these dry, the lighter shade of the duo has no pigmentation whatsoever. the swatches above are done with me furiously swiping the product and it still looks really light and chalky. and even though it seems as if a lot of product gets onto my finger, none transfers onto my arm when swatching. the darker side however, was indeed much better and was much easier to apply.

4/5 (foiled or w/ primer)

Next, i decided to test these both with a primer, and when foiled. The results then, are a hundred thousand times better! Both colors now finally show up and apply with ease! Hooray!

Overall - 4/5

these duo nearly failed when swatched dry, but worked wonders when foiled or applied on top of a primer! If you were to test out this product, i would highly recommend you pick a duo with darker shades, ones that should have better pigmentation even when swatched dry. As for myself, i think i might give "Ab Fab" (a deep pink and purple), or "Rock and Roll" (a pink and mauve combo) a try next time.

Here are the pictures when applied with a primer. This is also the results i get when applied foiled. they pretty much look the same so i didnt bother taking another picture.

left to right

no primer, primer, no primer, primer

left to right

no primer, primer, no primer, primer

and compared to too faced's eyeshadow duo in totally toasted....

another similar shade is "high maintenance" which is quite similar to peace, but high maintenance has a lighter highlight side while peace has more of a light golden highlight. from the website, it sure looks as if peace was the dupe, but now im thinking the other one might be better..

high maintenance, peace

hard candy on left, too faced on right

left to right

hard candy, too face, hard candy, too faced

left to right

hard candy, too face, hard candy, too faced

please note, these above comparisons were all done with dry swatches. As you can see, too faced's shadows are super pigmented even with just one swipe, while hard candy lacks pigmentation. Of course, we are also talking about almost a $10 difference, so it would make sense if too faced's was superior. However, when foiled or applied with a primer, hard candy does indeed catch up quickly. Even though its not as smooth or buttery, the pigmentation is there and it does last all day.

Overall, i would love to try out some of the other colors of the hard candy duos, but it would never ever replace my beloved too faced duo. In fact, maybe during christmas or for my birthday, i will treat myself to another too faced duo! :)

to end off this super long post.. here are the other shades of duos that hard candy offers :)

so let me know! have you tried these before? what shade did you get and how was it? If you're still new to this, are you interested? if so, which shades? :D

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