Hard Candy

Woo! So, the first package from my parents has arrived and it was filled with many goodies. Alaska really loves their wolves, I now have an abundance of wolf memorabilia! But now, onto the makeup!

To be honest, I've never heard of Hard Candy cosmetics before but I sure wish I had! I now have three glitter eyeshadows, a metallic eyeshadow, two glitters, and a lip plumping gloss. I'm so impressed, as you will gather from my reviews below.

Top to Bottom [Artificial vs Natural Light]: Eye-Lac, Smoking Gun, Sprinkles & Midnight Affair.

First up, the Eye Def Eyeshadows. I didn't expect to love these as much as I do. The colours are amazing and they really stay put which surprised me. Seriously, these are essentially a liquid-eyeliner-like eyeshadow. 

• Eye-Lac is a really lovely metallic eyeshadow and it's definitely my second favourite. I really enjoy wearing it under my eyes, it's really light so it's great for a day-look. 
• Next, Smoking Gun which is a really deep, smokey looking purple that is also part of their glitter range. In the photos above, it really looks like a deep brown but it's purple and I am obsessed with it! My favourite, hands down. 
• The pink Sprinkles glitter-shadow looks so amazing in-tube and I expected it to be my favourite but unfortunately, it stays on a little too well. I love the deep colour but when I went to take it off, there was an orange stain left over that required scrubbing. So, just be aware of that before putting it on your eyelids. Maybe if I had used a primer first it wouldn't have happened, I'll have to test that out. 
• Lastly, Midnight Affair. I'm not really one to wear blue eyeshadows but this is really pretty so I might use it as a sort of eyeliner-accent. 

Overally, I'm very impressed and glad that I've been introduced to this brand, based on these eyeshadows alone. You Americans are lucky! I wish I had acces to these in Australia, I could see them working in Target. 

Onto the Plumping Serum in Nude Beach. I love plumping lip products. Obviously it's not going to magically make you look like you've had lip fillers, but good ones do smooth out most lines you have on your lips. This is definitely a good plumper, it's very tingly and my lips look like I haven't skimped on the hydration his week. I really like this colour too, it's perfectly nude for me, perfect amount of shimmer to add to the plumping illusion. 

Here we have the Pure Glitter King Me set of 'Poppin Pigments' glitters which look amazing when in their little bottle-shakers. There are for your eyes I assume but they would be a bit hard to shake on without getting glitter flakes in your eyes I guess. I layered them both over a coat of my Urban Decay eyelid primer so that they would hopefully stay in one place. One glitter is a deep purple and the other is a more silvery, holographic style glitter. I thought the silver would be better but it really pales in comparison to the purple which is a lot more dense. The silver just seemed too sparse but maybe the shaker just wasn't doing it's job properly. I really like these either way, I'd probably just shake them onto my finger or a brush of course but yeah, they're nice.

Overall: Hard Candy has just sky-rocketed to my top ten favourite brands. They don't test on animals either! Plus, looking online, they're highly affordable and for such low prices, their formulas are amazing. The lip plumping gloss & Smoking Gun shadow and the standouts for me. Hopefully I can get my parents to grab a couple more items for me before they come back! I'm hooked. 

What's a brand or makeup product that's really surprised you [for good or bad]? ☆