Beauty Vixen: Hard Candy

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Years ago, when Hard Candy was just relaunched and a "new" value brand, they had a product that I adored, Fox In A Box. It was a boxed blush, sort of like Benefit's, but much more affordably, with a dinky brush, crusty free and they all had multiple shades inside them. I of course as Mrs. Fox, I ran out and got them all, and honestly still have them today. They were great quality blushes that I know a lot of people really loved.

Sadly, Hard Candy discontinued the blushes quite a few years back and moved towards mineralized bronzers, blushes and eventually their mineralized trios. I really do like the mineralized products, so I wasn't really too upset about the Fox in the Box being gone. That being said when I saw that HC was relaunching Fox in a Box I was super excited, that was until I tried them out.

An Original Fox in the Box, in Smooth Talker

So I guess I should explain that if you are looking for something like the old Fox in a Box, you are going to be very disappointed. The new 'blush' line consist of 2 blushes, 2 bronzers and 1 highlighter. They are all baked mineralized products, so they have minor marbling in them, and range from luminescent-mineral shimmery to full blown shimmer.

They still have brushes inside that don't really do anything, but instead of having an elastic to hold them in place, they have awkwardly placed blob of glue. One of my boxes could not even close until I removed the glue because it was on the edge of the box. Even then the box didn't really close too well (the old versions were like this too though).

The boxes actually are really adorable, with 5 different cartoons of girls with a pop art design on them and all named after each girl's "style" (Uptown Girl, Girl Boss, Girl Next Door, Party Girl, and Glamour Girl). Sadly I have no clue what shade is inside any of them because the colours on the outside aren't remotely related to what is inside, which I never found to be a problem with the old ones or Benefit, but do with these. A all pink box has a bronzer, a green and pink has blush, yellow and pink has bronzer, I just have no clue what is in what until I open them up to use them.

Finally the blushes themselves are now scented, each one different and frankly not something I am overly keen on but not necessarily dinging them for since it is so trendy right now with the PB and Peach scented lines from Too Faced out right now.

The actual blushes are nice, but not amazing. I honestly don't find they have a whole lot of colour pay off. I really find them similar to (but not stellar like) their previous mineralized kaleidoscope bronzers and blushes, which they seemed to have discontinued as well as the trios for this revival.

One of my boxes kind of came unglued inside last week after only using it a few times, now I have a flap moving around scraping up product.

The original Fox in the Box was the thing that got me hooked on blushes back in the day and probably the reason I have all the Benefit Boxes blushes in my collection now, but after forking out $7.98 box I am little disappointed I did. They aren't built that well, the products aren't that pigmented and they sacrificed products I really liked more to launch them. I really didn't think I would buy these and be comparing them so heavily to other products or even the original, but the more I used them, the more I just felt let down. The pigment just isn't there!

So to sum it up, I was super stoked to see a favourite from my past return in a new updated box, only to learn it wasn't really done that well and that other products I liked were sacrificed in the process. *Sigh*

*Products were purchased with my own money.

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Recently all I have been crazing is an amazing glowy highlight. While I do have quite the collection of high end highlighters, I also have a bunch of drug store ones that I absolutely adore.Today I am looking at some of the more affordably options in my collection.

Essence Pure Nude Highlighter ($5.99)

I had heard so many amazing things about this hightlighter I just had to try it. Essence is a pretty darn decent value brand and heck Temptalia even gave it an A-, which is pretty impressive for any highlighter. It took me about 6 months until I found a store that actually had it in stock, but I am so glad I found it. I love it. Not too light or dark, it is almost my skin tone, but gives a gorgeous illuminating glow without the need for sparkles particles. Just pure glow here.

Essence is online, at Shoppers Drug Marts and Lowblaw's stores.

Gosh Contour n Strobe Kit

This strobe kit is my everything right now. Every single time I wear it I get complements on my highlight. Very similar to the Essence in tone and glow, it also comes with some blush that is pretty nude and glowy and two contour shades. Together these shades make an all in one that is just fantastic. I love it so darn much. You can play up or down the glow depending on the look or mood you are going for, making it super versatile.

Gosh can be found at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Hard Candy Just Glow! Baked Illuminating Duo in Candle Lit

This is a duo that attempts to dupe the luminescent look of Hourglass Ambient light powders, but at a much better price point. I have an Ambient powder in Mood Light and honestly cannot get it to work on my skin at all. These come with two shades, one a bit more glowy and one more matte (? more like the Hourglass), but neither are over the top or over pigmented. They work together really well or on their own. Hard Candy makes two version of it, Candle Lit (lighter and less shimmery ) and Twinkle Star (a bit darker and way more shimmery). I really like Candle Lit and don't really like Twinkle Star, it is just too shimmery and gritty in its shimmer. Click here to see some swatches of it and a bit more details.

Hard Candy can be found at Walmart.

Glow All The Way Baked Bronzer

I have been through oh so many of these, not because I used them up (they are massive, that isn't an easy task), because the packaging keeps on breaking. Hard Candy's one downfall is the hinges always break on me. But they are cheap so when I see them in stock (after months of looking) I'll just re-buy it. Tiki is the lightest shade of this technically bronzer, but it matches my skin tone to a tee (mac Nw/Nc 15 by the way). To others with anything but pale skin it will make a great highlight. Since it matches my skin tone it adds the perfect glow.

Hard Candy Glow All The Way Baked Trio

I have this in 3rd wheel, and while I love it there is still that packaging issue that many Hard Candy items have (they break). It has a blush, highlight and bronzer all in one that work pretty well on my skin tone. The price point for the product makes it prety amazing, plus it covers blush and bronzer at the same time giving it extra value. They make other shades too, and while I like them , I can only justify having one in my collection right now or I risk going into complete hoarder territory. Want to see some swatches, click here.

Joe Fresh Highlight Powder in Luster

There isn't a whole lot to be said about this one, it is a powder highlighter that looks fantastic. It is a but more pigmented then others in my collection and runs a tad bit on the orange side. It looks great in the summer or when you want a more bonzy highlighter.

Joe Fresh is found at both Shoppers Drug Marts and Loblaw's/Superstores.

Joe Fresh Highlighter Stick in Pink Pearl

Another fantastic highlighter from Joe Fresh. It is pretty hard to find an amazing drug store cream highlighter, making this one extra exciting. Pink Pearl has somehow become my go to cream highlighter. It has zero chunky bits of glitter to it, and has an amazing light pink colour to it. It blends amazingly well and gives you a gorgeous glow. You can also find it on a few other shades, but this one is my absolute favourite.

Wet n Wild to Reflect

I love these. They used to only be available in the USA under the Fergi line. I picked one up about 4 years ago in Boston and fell in love. When they re-branded the line and launched it here in Canada I went and got all three shades. They are a beautiful baked highlight/blush that has natural swirls of colours in it. If you love Mac's mineralized skin finishes but want to save some money get theses. They are just as good if not better and wayyyyy cheaper. I personally really love all of them, but Boozy Brunch with its gold, bronze and pink makes such a beautiful colour when combined I cant help but feel love towards it. It also has the most gold tones in it, making it so much more of a highlightery shade. I also love the drinky names (I'll have a cosmo, too cute).

Wet n Wild MegaGlo Highlighting Powder

If you want to glow, and I mean glow, this is the highlighter for you. It is practically metallic. You think it is just an overspray, but it isn't, the whole pan is like that. *insert squeal here*). This is by far the most stunning highlight I have seen in a long time, there is a reason it is hard to find.

Do you have a favourite drug store highlighter? I clearly have a few.

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Spring brings many new items to some of my favourite beauty brands; today I take a look at some new items from Hard Candy that I recently picked up.

First up is the new Just Glow! Baked Illuminating Duo. This set has two options, Candle Lit and Twinkle Star. I picked up the Candle Lit set, which has a glow to it versus the gritty shimmer of the Twinkle Star set. Both the colours in Candle Lit are great illuminators, but not shimmery ones, more luminescent ones, similar to HourGlass' Ambient Light. The one is more a pink iridescent while the other is more neutral.

Highlight and Contour Duo on the left and Just Glow on the right.

Next up is the highlight and Contour Face Duo Stick. I picked mine up in the shade Light, but there are at least 2 other shades out there. It comes in the exact same packaging as the Glamoflauge Lite, which made me immediately want to get one. I am a big fan of the creaminess of the Glamofaluge lite so I thought this would be similar. While it is creamy and soft like the congealer stick, it is also crazy pigmented, so a little goes a long way. I personally feel this one, despite being the light shade, is way too dark for me. I also learned they make a strobe stick that is in the same type of packaging, that is definitely going on my list for the next time I go to a Walmart.

Moving on to some pretty lip stuff, I had to get their new Velvet Mousse Matte Lip Colour. The first store I went to only had two shades left, so I picked up the shade Hibiscus, a bold coral shade that some of kind of light on your lips despite its pigmentation.

My second attempt to get some I managed to pick up Wisteria, a deep and dark purple shade.

These come in tins, which is super cute, but they also have a gigantic mirror on the lid, which kind of is really practical when you're not at home. The doe foot is relatively long but narrow and holds lots of the product. The thing is, you don't need lots of product.

The first time I applied Wisteria I just spread it on my lips like any other lip gloss, but I had to take it all off. It is too rich and too darkly pigmented to actually do that with, I needed a lighter way of applying it. I needed up taking a lip brush and putting the smallest dab onto it and spreading it around, creating more of a stain. Below you can see a full swatching, plus a demo of how little is needed to stain up a large area.

Hibiscus, while just as pigmented is a creamier shade, so it I could pull off without staining, but personally like the look of the stain more since it seemed to settle into the lines of my lips a bit.

Any way you work it I think these Lip Colours are worth trying. I really like both shades on me, but use them more sparingly. They dry up on the lips a bit, but not like a liquid lipstick where it dries to a budge proof finish, but defiantly enough that you don't notice you're wearing a lip product anymore.

Here is a tip, you can pop out the little velvet holder thing and put any eyeshadow with a magnetic bottom into it for travel (here is an Altoid example).

Overall, I am liking my new products, they all seem to be really great for their prices and a right on trend for Spring 2016. I would definitely buy a new more items when I see them in the store.

Have you seen some of the new Hard Candy items in your Walmart yet? Have you tried any of them out?

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