REVIEW: Hard Candy Natural Eyes palette - Chalk City Blues

As a neutral eyeshadow palette freak, I ran to Walmart to get the last Hard Candy Natural Eyes Neutral Eyeshadow Palette on the shelf and went home. I was so excite! (Intentional misspelling.)  After using it three times on three different primers- Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Lorac Behind the Scenes, and the Hard Candy one that came with the palette- I am so not excite.

Ingredient list. Click to enlarge

Comes with a fold-out card showing day to evening looks and the names of each shadow

 Jumping early to the TL;DR - Use the super cute tin to depot your eyeshadows! 

It will fit 15 MAC or Makeup Geek shadows, though you'll have to add magnets to your MUG shadows. You can also fit some shadows into the plastic part where the info card sits by using double-sided tape or you can go to the craft store and get some peel and stick magnets that come in sheet form.

I pried out the plastic part holding the shadows by sticking an orange stick in one of the corners.

Ended up with this. From left to right starting at top row: MAC Tete-a-Tint (disc), MUG Cocoa Bear, Milani Java Bean (disc), MAC Expensive Pink, MUG Frappe, MAC Satin Taupe, MAC All That Glitters, MAC Texture, MAC Scene, MAC Vex, MAC Soft Brown, MAC Quarry, MAC Ricepaper, MAC Woodwinked, MAC Humid. Shadows on the left are random discontinued Revlon shadows.

Can you tell I didn't like the shadows nor the primer? Lol. To be honest, I wanted to get this for the cute packaging.

SWATCHES & THE BASICS

 THE RUNDOWN:
~$8 and exclusive to Walmart
~9 shadows (11.1 g)- 4 matte & 5 shimmers
~Comes with a primer, a pretty nice double-ended sponge-tip applicator that isn't cheap foam and a black wooden pencil eyeliner (smudge city)
~Includes a look card that I didn't take a picture of (sorry)
~Easy to open metal tin with magnetized closure. You won't lose your fingernails by prying it open.
~Decent-sized mirror

The primer dries to a very powdery feel that I didn't care for.  Those with dry eyelids might not enjoy that.  I have super oily lids and it surprisingly kept my oiliness away and the shadows didn't crease.

Tease, Toying, Minx, Bashful, Girlie, Philander, Chatty, Coy, Frisky (with flash)

Tease, Toying, Minx, Bashful, Girlie, Philander, Chatty, Coy, Frisky (no flash)

SHADOW NAMES, DESCRIPTIONS & REVIEW

 Top row Day:
1. Tease- matte cream, chalky as heck!
2. Toying- matte mid-tone cool brown, pigmented but powdery and also chalky
3. Minx- matte dark cool brown, pigmented but also chalk city

Middle row Drama:
4. Bashful- shimmery pale pinkish champagne; really disappointing color; pigmentation is poor and the finish is a low shine; thought it would be a nice lid color but wasn't
5. Girlie- mid-toned champagne; this was the only shadow I liked out of the bunch; texture was the smoothest and pigmentation was nice, although a little powdery
6. Philander- dark cool-toned brown with gold glitter; doesn't go on smoothly; must be built up and fallout galore

Bottom row Evening:
7. Chatty- matte light cool-toned brown; the transition color in the palette and nice blender color but also chalky as heck like the other mattes; it kind of reminds me of Naked in the first Urban Decay Naked palette but lighter
8. Coy- shimmery copper bronze; really disappointing color; texture is gritty and color doesn't go on smoothly; has to be built up and is fallout prone
9. Frisky- shimmery darker warm brown with gold glitter; gritty and also fallout prone; color must be built on

Chalk city after dipping into Tease

The aftermath. See how chalky and powdery the palette is? So much residue. It required too much work even after tapping off the excess on my brush.  Not worth the effort for me.

Even though I didn't love the Wet n Wild Fergie palette in Milano Collections, I would recommend that palette over this one because the textures are better.  The middle shadow, Girlie, in the Hard Candy palette was my most liked but overall, I only like the tin packaging. Lol!  But $8 for a "Z Palette" isn't bad.

I had seen a couple good reviews about this palette before purchasing but I'm with Tati's opinions about this palette. You can watch her review here.

The last time I tried Hard Candy makeup I was also disappointed. I think I'll just be sticking to their nail polishes. Thanks for stopping by!


 Copyright © 2015, Lady Lostris Beauty 

The EASIEST Depot Ever (Revisited)

After easily depotting Revlon ColorStay Quads- see the original post here- I thought the Revlon Matte shadows probably would require the same method. And yes, they do!

What you'll need is just a PUSH PIN- or anything small enough to fit in a tiny hole, like a safety pin or the back of an earring- and you don't need any alcohol. You might need a paper towel to remove the sticky, gooey glue so that it doesn't get on your hands.

But first of all, the swatches....

They're pretty pigmented over a good base but I sometimes don't like the texture of these matte shadows. See all the chunks leftover when I swatched the blue one? But, at least they're matte.

~HOW TO DEPOT~

1. Peel the sticker off the back to find the hole in the upper left hand corner.
2. Open the case cover and place the push pin into the hole and start pushing gently.
3. That's it! The eyeshadow pan should lift up pretty easily. Remember, you don't need any alcohol to dissolve the glue; this glue is different than on most eyeshadow pans.
4. To remove the excess glue on the back of the pan, use a paper towel to grab most of it off. I tried dissolving it with alcohol but it does not help; it just leaves a sticky, tacky residue.

Then you can just label the pan with a Sharpie. Make a CD palette by placing magnetic sheets you get from the craft store onto the bottom of the CD case (after removing the insert that holds the disk in place). Then, just stick the bare eyeshadow pans onto the magnetic sheets and bam, you got a homemade palette. DO NOT PUT MAGNETS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE EYESHADOW PANS because then it will not stick very well to the magnetic sheets in the CD palette. Yeah, the magnetic sheets don't stick to themselves very well; metal will stick better so leave the pans bare.

Gosh, I just love Revlon for making it so easy to depot something!

If your doing these in bulk, you might not have to peel the sticker off the back anymore. You can just "feel" for the hole.

*************************

The same method applies to Revlon ColorStay Quads. Again, you can see the original post for that if you click here.

See the four holes on the left side? You can just "feel" for them with your push pin and poke through the sticker. Start depotting.....easily.


~The ColorStay Swatches~
(All swatched over Scandalous Eyeshadow Base)

Twelve of my depotted quads. Click to enlarge and see the names for each.

THE NEUTRALS

The 1st, 2nd, & 4th colors in the Coffee Bean quad are matte. All the other colors in every quad are shimmers. Warm tones...
Cool tones...

THE COLORFULS

(I redid this swatch so it's different from the original)

Steel Impressions is available at Walmart, if you can still find it.
I told ya it was the easiest depot ever! =)

Depotted MAC Eyeshadows....What To Do With 'Em

So what do you do with your depotted MAC eyeshadows that you supposedly can't Back-to-MAC anymore without the pans in them? Use them for your headache medicine of course! LOL. These 400 mg Ibuprofens are my saviors. (I guess you can put coins in them also.)
MAC now stands for Migraine Alleviating Caplets. LOL!

The Easiest Depot Ever!...In a Magnetic CD Palette

See my pretty CD palette? YAYE! It's actually the second one I've made because the first one was for some depotted Ulta eyeshadows which I need to make a post on. But I depotted 6 of my 8 Revlon Colorstay quads and they were the easiest things I've ever depotted...easier than Milani singles or Ulta Singles!

So in the picture above the names of the quads starting from the top left corner going clockwise are: Sultry Smoke, Steel Impressions, Spring Moss, Blushed Wines, Lavender Meadow & Priceless Metals. And yes, it's magnetic. I used my peel and stick business card sized magnets that I got in a pack of ten at Joann craft store. I used three but had to trim off one of them to fit the inside of the case perfectly. If you want a straight line, especially when trimming the origami paper, use one of those cutters with a slide blade that's used for photos and other crafts. You can see the excess magnet on the left side of the palette. It's that gray strip.

I brought the edges of the origami paper up both sides so that it has nice decorative edges and on the spine I wrote the name of my palette. I decided to call it "Revlon Colorstay 1" in case I want to depot my other quads, plus I always get more anyway.

Here's the back view. As you can see, I used two different designs of origami paper for the back and for the inside bottom. I decided not to make a front label so that I can see what's in there. I like it that way better. You can also write the names of the eyeshadows on top of the CD case cover with a Sharpie if you wanted to. I just used Scotch Tape to adhere the paper to the CD case and I made sure to use two big strips on the top and bottom since I knew this palette would be heavy. Yup, it's pretty hefty with 24 pans in them. I recommend DOUBLE-SIDED Scotch tape for the best hold and appearance.

I used business sized peel and stick magnets. You need 3 of them but you'll have to trim one of them down a little. (This is a pic of the other palette I made)

And if you decide you want to take some with you for travel, 7 pans will fit perfectly into a depotted NYX trio case. All you have to do is peel and stick another magnetic sheet to the bottom of that and voila, you are ready to go.

This is how I depotted them. All you need is a push pin and nothing else. If you turn it on it's back, there are 4 holes on the left side of each quad. The first two quads I did, I peeled off the stickers and then I realized I didn't need to do that! I just had to find the first hole on top and poke through the sticker. Once you find the first one, then the others are easier to find since they're lined up in a straight line.

Here's the front view of a depotted quad. See the four little holes on the right side?

Here's the push pin I used. You can also try using the back of an earring.

The g00iest, stickiest, creamiest, most annoying glue ever!

Sorry I don't have a pic with the shadows being pushed up the palette (UPDATE: I added a pic). Once I got started, I just did all of them. LOL. But behind each shadow pan is a circle of glue near the middle of the pan. It's a different kind of glue where you don't have to melt or dissolve with alcohol. It's really sticky, creamy, and gooey...kind of like the consistency of peanut butter and if you get it on your hands it's a mess. I used a paper towel to scrape it off the back of each pan. I found that alcohol didn't really help in removing the excess from that back and it just left a tacky mess. And you need only to apply little pressure with the push pin since the pans lift up so easily.

I swear these Revlon Colorstay Quads are the easiest things in the world to depot. It's like Revlon knew we would like the option of depotting since they put those four little holes in the plastic. Now why can't every company do that? Hmm, maybe they do! I'm going to start peeling off the backs of my drugstore eyeshadows to check. LoL =P

If you make this palette, this would be the optimum hold for eyeshadow or blush pans WITHOUT magnets because some magnets do not stick very well to these magnetic sheets. If you want to make one for eyeshadow with magnets on the bottom of them already, try using a metal sheet to glue on the bottom of the CD case like the kind you find at the bottom of an e.l.f. compact.

Have fun depotting your Revlon Colorstay Quads and making you own CD palette!! <3>


*UPDATED PICS*

I made two magnetic CD palettes! Yaye! My pride & joy.

Quad names clockwise from top left: Blushed Wines, Berry Bloom, Lavender Meadow, Sultry Smoke, Steel Impressions (@ Walmart only) & Spring Moss

Quad names clockwise from top left: Priceless Metals, Copper Spice, Coffee Bean (matte except for the 3rd color), Sterling Rose, Nude Elements, Sandstorm
Swatches to come!...
See swatches here.

I made a palette for my first four Ulta eyeshadows which are such good quality! They're huge too. You get about 3.6g or something and they're really creamy and pigmented. I got these on a BOGO. They used to be $6.50 each but now they're $7.00. What's up with that? But it's still worth it. This was the first CD palette I made. You can fit up to 9 Ulta eyeshadows in this baby.

Clockwise from top left: Cashmere, Golden Olive, Plum Smoke & Rose Dusk