Flower Beauty Color Play Creme Shadow in Wild Geranium & Comparisons With Hard Candy Cream Shadows

So my parents were recently in the United States and I asked my mom to pick me up one of these cream eyeshadows in either a pale pale pink or a neutral brown. And this is the one she chose to get for me. Now while this is MUCH darker in person than the Walmart website makes it look like, it is probably the one I would have specifically asked for had I been flat out told to choose a shade. Had I chosen a shade, it would have been sold out and my mom would have ended up not getting me one I am sure! So this worked out PERFECTLY.

And I will start to say I really really wanted to hate this product. What good would come of liking it? Stupid Flower Beauty doesn't sell their products in Canada and has no current plans to change that. So I was all prepared to be super super harsh on this product and find a reason to hate it. Then I opened it. And my heart melted. I LOVE THIS!

Now because I did comment on  the disappointment in the plastic packaging of the Hard Candy cream shadow, I should mention here that this one is a nice heavy glass jar. The product may be cheap, but nothing about it FEELS cheap.

I was a little worried something was wrong with the product or that it was tampered with when I opened it since as you can see the top is not on properly and its kind of in an angle.

Now this is not a cream by MY definition of it. Its a mousse. Its so light and airy and I have nothing even HALF as pigmented as this.

This is ONE swipe of the product!

HEAD 2 HEAD 

For packaging I have to give this to Flower Beauty. While I admit that I am not such a fan of white and like the LOOK of the black better, the nice thick glass wins out over the cheap plastic of the Hard Candy. As for the ease of use from the packaging they are both quite similar in functionality of packaging. They both have screw off lids and similar sized openings to the jars.

The Flower Beauty one retails for 7.98 and contains 3.5 grams of product making it cost 2.28/gram. The Hard Candy one costs 4.98 and contains 5.4 grams of product making it cost .92/gram. So if the cost is simply the deciding factor, gotta give it to Hard Candy.

Now for colour pay off it is not even CLOSE. But you have to be very very very careful. Because OH. MY. GOSH. The colour pay off is amazing. BEYOND amazing. But a little goes a very very long way.

Now one big deciding factor may be this: If you are in Canada, Flower Beauty is not available here and they have no current plans to bring the product to our side of the border. But if you want to bombard their facebook wall with demands to stock Canadian Walmarts, I wont stop you! If this is a fair representation of their line, then wow is it a fantastic line!

Now that being said, I personally really really like the Hard Candy product. It is a great budget beauty item that has a nice consistency, colour pay off and texture for a budget brand. I LOVE the Flower Beauty version. PERIOD! I probably still like the Illusion D'ombre from Chanel slightly more, but I think it holds its own against the high end beauty products. Its a great product that just happens to be a budget brand. Not a great product FOR a budget brand if that makes sense?

So all in all (and as much as I beg my mom not to read my blog my daily, I know she does) THANKS MOM!!! I love the shadow, and you picked the perfect colour!

Hard Candy All Lid Up In Quick Sand

Now this review is kind of a two part review. I am going to review this product as I have the rest of my mini Hard Candy haul, and in my next post I am going to compare it to another drugstore product I think is quite similar (the Flower Beauty Color Play Creme Shadow in Wild Geranium). 

Now I recognize that this is a $5 product and that that needs to be taken in to consideration. While I have to say I was kind of bummed that the packaging is plastic. But again, considering the price, what can you really expect?

The product itself is a thick, firmly pressed cream that is very nice and easy to work with.

It swatches very sheer but is very buildable. This is one swipe. Really nice and nothing wrong this this I can think of. But I will hold off saying my final thoughts until the next post where I review the Flower Beauty version and compare the two products.

In the mean time, here is a link to the $1 off coupon for any Hard Candy product. 

And CLICK HERE to check out the comparison with the cream shadow from Flower Beauty! 

Hard Candy Top Ten Eyeshadow Collection In Natrually Gorgeous

Let me start by saying this palette was $5.98. I recognize it was really cheap. But I think that a product should meet expectations regardless of the price. And this product sadly did not. I must say I do not at all recommend purchasing this. Yes, it was cheap. But it was also kind of........ well, it was crap.

Now most of the colours (not the first, third or seventh) swatched fine on the finger. But not great In all of these, this was me rubbing my finger over the very dry pressed powder anywhere from 2-4 times depending on the colour.

That being said, most of these swatched TERRIBLY on the skin. This took a lot of effort to get the below swatches. And while usually I want a super soft and buttery shadow to work with, these were both super super soft, and yet, not at all buttery. They were kind of dry and ended up leaving fall out because of how powdery they are.

And by powdery I mean powdery. They are super dry eyeshadows and without the benefit of a warm finger, you really have to apply pressure to get the colour to pick up. And when you do they almost crumble. This is what the palette looked like when I was done swatching it.

So yes, these are only $5.98. But that is $6 you could spend on many other things. Things that you might use a second time.

Hard Candy All Glossed Up In 607 Mauveous

   

So for those of you who follow me on facebook, you know that this review is very late. I got these items about three weeks ago and have just not had the time to do up a proper review. I debated long and hard and decided that I would review each item individually.

The first item up is the All Glossed Up Hydrating Lip Stain in 607 Mauveous.

I dont know if it shows in the photo, but OMG this is a SOFT product. Not in a way that makes it hard to work with by any means. But its super soft. The best way I can describe the formula is that it is everything I thought the Revlon Kissable Balm Stain would be but wasn't. This product is softer and glides on much more smoothly than the Clinque Chubby Sticks. Its like a buttery soft lip gloss. And the colour STAINS! And by stain, I mean in one swipe it looks like I have on a bright corally pink lipstick on. And it really stains.

One swipe of colour.

Now I have very colourless lips. But this is ONE swipe of the gloss. And the pictures do not do this justice. It is much brighter in real life.

 

And then, after having the gloss on for less than 3 minutes, I wiped it off. Or tried too. It sure did stain my lips.

There is NO drying with this product. It is super moisturizing and has insane colour pay off. I actually will not be using this as it is TOO MUCH colour. Which is a good thing, just not what I wanted. But I can not tell you just how amazed I was with this product. If you want the moisture of a lip butter with the colour of a lipstick, look no further. This is the product for you.

And if you are going to pick one up, don't forget to use the coupon that I posted HERE!

$1 Off ANY Hard Candy Product!

Hey all. I just found this coupon that entitles you to $1 off any Hard Candy product. I know this should probably have been posted AFTER I post my swatches on Tuesday, but here you all go. And just in case you have issues printing off this coupon, here is the link to the PDF so you can download it yourself!

New Releases For Hard Candy Spring 2013

Hard Candy All Lid Up $6 US

10 shades, these are vibrant, long lasting cream eyeshadows with a crease-proof formula.

Hard Candy Poppin Pigments $6 US
8 sets of two, these duos are dense textured loose pigment shimmering eyeshadows available in duos.

Hard Candy Shadow Dancers $6 US
8 shades available, these are a duo of cream eyeshadows that be used together to highlight and contour eyes.

Hard Candy CC Correction Creme $8 US
In 4 shades, this balances, Protects, and Hydrates skin with a sheer wash of color.

Hard Candy All Glossed Up $5 US
In 8 shades, these are a shiny, cushion-y lipgloss pencil that provides long lasting shine, stain, and moisture! They look like the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains. I hope these are more moisturizing! I will have my eyes peeled for these!!

Hard Candy Lip Def $6 US
In 10 shades, these are a super shiny lip color with 3D Pearls that create the illusion of depth and volume.

Hard Candy Shadowaholic $5 US
Coming in 9 shades, 12 hour wearing eye pencils with a vibrant color pay off.

Hard Candy Nail Lacquers $3.97 US
(Now Available in 45 shades and 5 Different Finishes - Candy Sprinkles, Crystal Confetti, Glitteratzi, Itsy Glitzy and Crushed Chromes