Sunday, October 4, 2009

Review: Hard Candy Foiled Again Metallic Shadow Sticks



Obviously, I couldn't wait to crack some of the products open. The thing that caught my eye at the store (other than the pretty baked shadows/blushes) were the shadow sticks. I think it's because MAC's greasepaint sticks have been all over makeupalley and blogs lately. I, of course, gravitated towards the more neutral colors though the line has some crazy colors, including highlighter yellow which I'm sure will be a big hit among MUFE and MAC lovers.

Well, I figured these would be similarly shaped to other brands (pencil-like). Was I ever wrong. I popped off the cap and lo-and-behold what looks like a lipstick is under the cap! This is not necessarily a bad thing but really limits the ability to do anything eyeliner-like with this stick without the help of a brush. Don't they remind you a little of L'Oreal Colour Juice Sticks?


I picked up 3 colors (1 is probably going back - Ecstasy looks a bit too warm for me - the copper one).

From left to right in tube: Celestine, Soiree, Ecstasy
From top swatched on NW10 skin: Celestine (white shimmer), Soiree (neutral brown), Ecstasy (copper)

How's the staying power of these? Well, it's hard to know without doing an eye look (and I always use a base as it is), but after applying a few swipes of this on bare skin, I took it off with a kleenex (rubbed several times) and you can still see remnants of the shadows (granted not anything like your waterproof eyeliners or apparently greasepaints but for $6 not too bad)! So, that bodes well for the product, though as I said, no promises on the eyes!

*edit*

So, after posting this, I applied Soiree (the brown shade) all over my lid (without UDPP) and some Stila eyeshadow to set it. I then went and started organizing my closet and doing some general cleaning. My face is now a sweaty mess but my eyeshadow looks exactly the way I applied it! No creasing. I am thrilled! I wish they made even more neutral colors of these like a taupe and maybe also black (you listening Hard Candy?)! So, so far...

applied at ~3:30pm (no base!)
now it is 5:00pm
(will update in a couple hours after I cook dinner over a hot stove!)

*edit II*

It is now 7:30pm and after cooking pasta with meat(less) sauce here is the status report. We have some very minimal creasing exactly on the crease (you can basically see a brown line where my crease is) but otherwise it doesn't look too bad. My lid is still as vibrant as it was at 3:30pm and unless you literally stretched the lid so you can see the whole thing, it's not very obvious. So that's 5 or so hours without UDPP. I bet the lasting power is even more awesome over it.

*edit III*

This is the last one I promise. So, before I took a shower this evening (wow, I feel like I'm twittering - you guys get to read about my every last move), I used one of my handy make up removing wipes to get off this stuff. Well, it took several strong wipes to get the majority of it off, but there was still remnants of it on my lid and especially around my lash line, which makes me think that this will work awesome as eyeliner! We'll see if it's eyeliner brush friendly.

6 comments:

G. said...

Wow, this is very interested! I totally assumed these were going to be jumbo pencils too! Hum...you're right about them being like the L'Oreal Color Juice Sticks. And now you have me wanting to try one. :)

PS: Thanks so much for the link in your other HC post. I'm going to let my readers know about this shadow stick post. :)

Jeweled Thumb said...

Recessionista: Aw, you're so sweet. I have been a huge fan of your blog for months now but I was always hesitant to post a comment(being as I'm generally a stranger on the www).

You do seriously need to try these. I just updated. It has not budged and I've been cleaning!

G. said...

Thank you so much (for being a fan of my blog)! Please comment whenever you feel the urge--I love hearing what my fellow beauty junkies have to say about my posts! Seriously, I would be insulted if you *didn't* comment. lol! :)

Wow, I am really freaking out about your update on these shadow sticks. No base and still going strong? OK, I definitely need to get one (or 5). lol! Oh, and when you applied it to your lids, was it very metallic-y as promised?

Papaya Bunny said...

Thanks for this review (and to Nouveau Cheap for linking it). These were the one item that I found myself really interested in of the HC line (that I have yet to see in person!) and I know I'd be surprised and a bit dissapointed if I bought one and found it to be more like a lipstick than a pencil!

I do find myself wishing though that the hard candy website was actually up and running right now so those of us who haven't seen the line in person yet could at least have somewhere to look through for all of the shades and descriptions of products to start to figure out what seems interesting.

Jeweled Thumb said...

You know the name is actually relevant to these because when I looked at my eye just now I wouldn't call it metallic but I would call it foiled! I did apply a shimmery (but not OTT) Stila shade on top of it, so that may be helping. I bet matte shades would tone it down. Yes, you should buy 5 (that may be the extent of the color range actually)!

Jeweled Thumb said...

Papaya Bunny: Yeah, it was a bit of a disappointment but then again these are not marketed as pencils or liners.

I kind of have a feeling that HC doesn't quite have their act together with this roll out considering there are a lot of stores that don't even have the display up. I bet it's a lot easier to do this at a store like Sephora which is dedicated to makeup rather than a place like Walmart that carries everything and the cosmetics department isn't it's biggest revenue producer.

Either way, at least there are plenty of pictures online so that you can make an informed decision before you go and purchase. And it's not as though it's an LE line and it'll be gone in a month. =)

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