Hard Candy Top Ten Eye Shadow Palette Review & Swatches
It’s understandable that the Hard Candy Top Ten Eye Shadow Palette in Neutrals is damn nearly impossible to find. Let’s face it Urban Decay has created such a stir with their Naked Palette that everyone just wants to gather up any and all nude palettes that launch.
Oh wait, maybe that’s only me?
Naaa! You’re all as crazy and as strange as me so you’re probably stock piling nude, natural, naked palettes like no brand will reproduce one in the next twenty years or more.
Now for the budget girls you might love all over Hard Candy’s Top Ten Eye Shadow Palette in Neutrals because it contains ten nude shades of shadow for a mere six bucks.
Do likey the price but how’s the formula?
This comes in a fragile plastic compact with a soft squishy face plate decorated in lace towards the bottom half of the palette. It stores easily thanks to the thinner design however, the plastic will get scratched up and possibly break if you’re traveling roughly with it.
Inside you’ll find ten shades of nude, natural shadows. They aren’t really exactly dupes for Urban Decay’s Naked Palette but some of the colors are similiar. If naturals aren’t your thing no worries Hard Candy has a pink, green, blue, and purple variation of the palette.
So you wanna know about the quality of the shadows eh? Ok, so they aren’t bad. They aren’t amazing, they won’t make you run in circles, hands waving around, and screams of delight coming out of your mouth. They are decent though and at this price I’d even say good.
There’s a trick to applying them though!
On their own I find they are pigmented yet dry and a tad chalky. Sponge tip applicators are key here. Grab a sponge, smooth on your lid, and blend out with a great blending brush. Sponge applicators are your friends! They work great piling color on and giving a smooth appearance. Your other option is use a cream base of some sort. I’d recommend Long Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Vanilla from Bobbi Brown as it creates a nice, smooth, natural almost lid-like color which allows the shadow to adhere well to your lid and blends out smoothly lending just that right amount of moisture to the drier, powdery formula.
The shades all have a rather nice pigmentation to them and almost a semi-metallic finish. They wear decently well on their own however, there is some fading and creasing within a four hour period on my drier eye. With primer I find they wear well into the evening without a hiccup!
Overall, the Hard Candy Top Ten Eye Shadow Palette is a keeper at this price. It isn’t a bad palette at all even though it takes a little extra prepping to get the shadows to look their best. If you’re on a strict budget, sorry to say, it isn’t Urban Decay Naked but it is however, a lovely selection of natural shades that you can definitely create some good looks with. And hey, even if you aren’t on a budget and just love nudes, I’d pick it up. Six dollars doesn’t have my wallet crying any.
Hard Candy is sold exclusively at the evil empire Walmart.