New 2013 Hard Candy Polish (Pic Heavey)

Hello everyone, happy Wednesday! Today's post is full of sparkly, shiny goodness! Hard Candy has recently reinvented themselves and released a whole slew of new products, including 45 new nail polish colors. While the old vintage Hard Candy bottles with the cool little heart shaped ring are gone, the essence of the bright and fun polish is still there. I stumbled across a display at my local Wal-Mart and promptly snagged a few bottles!

Please Note: All products in this post were purchased by me for my own personal use.

 

Hard Candy - Piece of Papaya (Itzy Glitzy)

 

Piece of Papaya, from the Itzy Glitzy finish, is a bright fuchsia pink and golden glass fleck polish. It is almost a foil, but the particles are smaller than a traditional foil. It is SO shiny and I love it. I am not a pink person, but throw in a golden shimmer, and I am done. Perfect for summer, or any time you want something shiny and sparkly! Formula was spot on. Smooth and flowy, perfect consistency. 2 coats, great dry time. Seriously great.

 

 

 

Hard Candy - Bitty Blue (Itzy Gltizy)

 

Bitty Blue, another one from the Itzy Glitzy finish, is more of what a glass fleck typically looks like. Bright, shiny blue. OMG, hello gorgeous! Same formula as before, and I was just as amazed!

 

 

Hard Candy - Peach Pop (Candy Sprinkles)

 

Peach Pop, from the Candy Sprinkles finish, is a milky peach base with tiny red, pink and silver glitter pieces. The look is identical to the Nails Inc Sprinkles collection from last year, but with quite a few more color options (as well as some dupes). Perfect color, and I do like it a lot more than the Nails Inc ones. Formula was, again, great. Smooth, 2 coats, dried quickly. No issues with all that glitter either.

 

 

Hard Candy - Crush On Lava (Crushed Chrome)

 

Crush on Lava, from the Crushed Chrome finish, is a violet and copper foil. This has the bigger foil pieces, as opposed to the Itzy Glitzy polishes, and is simply brilliant. Once again, great formula. Just as good as the previous ones.

 

 

If you are wondering whether or not Crushed On Lava is a re-promote of the beloved Beetle, it almost is. The overall look is nearly identical, but the base color of the polish is just slightly different.

 

Beetle has a bit of green in the base that gives a duo chrome look, unfortunately Crush On Lava is missing it. The formula is way better in the new version. Beetle is a bit thin, and requires more coats and takes longer to dry. So, that makes up for the color change, at least for me. I do think it is pretty great of Hard Candy to give us one of the best colors they have ever made, in the new line, even if it slightly off.

 

 

I am completely blown away with the polishes I picked up. Great formula, great colors, great price. $4 a bottle, is pretty dang awesome. A lot of the colors are very similar to what other brands have been putting out lately, so nothing is terribly unique, but it is a good thing to have options. Dupes happen, and I'm not complaining!

 

Hard Candy nail polish is sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart.com. Bottles are $4 a piece. Products shown were purchased by me for my personal use. All opinions are my own.

Fashion Friday #1

Hey everyone! I have some exciting news to share! I am teaming up with a friend & fellow Austinite to do a fashion/mani collaboration. Camille, my incredibly stylish pal, has a fashion blog where she puts together outfit posts and I thought it would be fun to do a mani inspired by the looks she creates. This is my first real shot at nail art and creative nail designs, so I hope you all like it! And be sure to check out Pretty and Punk, Camille's blog, so you can see the inspiration behind my creations!

 

Inspiration Look

 

Used:

Sephora by OPI, Betsey Johnson Mini set

- Too Too Turq (base color)

- Alley Cat (rose color)

- Son of a Gun (dot colot)

 

I started with a base coat of Too Too Turq, used Son of a Gun and a dotting tool to make some large dots on my thumb and ring finger nails, then used Alley Cat to make some irregular blobs on the rest of my nails, for the roses. I used a fine point black sharpie to add petal details and give the flowers better shape. This is my first actual "nail art" look and I love it! I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

 

Inspiration Look

 

Used:

Urban Decay Naked Nail set

- Naked

- Sidecar

Hard Candy - Matte-ly in Love

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Black Out

Wing Tip nail stickers

Mini rhinestones

 

For this look, I layered Sidecar over Naked (I really need to swatch this set) and matted it. Once it was dry I used a wing tip nail sticker (similar to french tip stickers) and added a black tip. After that dried, I added a dot of Gelous to each point and added a mini rhinestone to each nail. Despite how much, I like this mani, I don't think I would ever wear it outside of the house. Seems too high-maintenance for me!

 

That's all for this week, but check back next Friday for another post! I am super excited to do more!

Nail of the Day: Nude-ish

On any given day, I will have something bright and sparkly painted on my nails, but some days, a toned down mani feels a bit more stylish. Since I swatched the Nails Inc Neutral Collection, I haven't really felt like wearing any of the shades. Today, I felt a bit mellow and decided to grab a bottle.

 

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Glass Slipper over Nails Inc - Porchester Sq

with Hard Card - Matte-ly in Love

I couldn't resist adding a sparkly top coat, and finally decided to matte the whole thing! I love how it is subtly flashy, but still muted.

Nail of the Day: Happy Jack

The other night, while doing a bit of blog reading, I saw this post on Oooh Shinies and fell head over heels for that bottle of Catrice. Sadly, Catrice isn't sold here in the US (lame), & my search on ebay came up empty. Days later, I still couldn't get that color out of my head, so I did the next best thing - Franken! I used to franken polishes waaaay back in the day, when nail polish was something fun & I wasn't serious (or obsessed) like I am now. But I decided to grab some older polishes and tried my hand at mixing.

 

 

 

Yellow toned Orange w/ shimmer a.k.a. "Happy Jack"

 

I love how it turned out! It's a great orange & the shimmer is really eye catching! I decided to call it Happy Jack, because it looks so much like the perfect pumpkin shade.

 

 

 

Here's my "recipe"

 

1/3 Sally Hansen ( Xtreme Wear) - Sun Kissed

1/3 Sally Hansen (HD Collection) - Lite 

1/3 Maybelline Color Show - Fierce N Tangy

 

 

Since I was going for a copycat look, I added a top coat of Essie Shine of the Times and finished with Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love. I really like how the matte brings out a neon quality!

Hard Candy Beetle (Mattified)

Sometimes you are lucky to find an amazing polish that makes you realize why you love polish in the first place. Hard Candy was one of the brands I fell in love with waaaay back in the day, along with early Urban Decay. Both companies have gone through quite the transformation over the years, but it seems Hard Candy has maintained a tiny bit of it's grungy, rock n roll, Gen X edge. One of my polish loves, is the glorious Beetle. I don't think any other polish really can compare to it. And I didn't think it could get any better. Until...

 

 

 

I put a matte top coat on it. Now some might gasp in shock, but look how gorgeous it is with the matte!

 

It's deep and velvety, and none of the color shift is lost. Perfection.