I recently made my semi-annual trip to Wal-Mart in search of new Petites and Hard Candy nail polishes. Sadly, they didn't have either (figures.), but they did have these new Hard Candy gift sets all stacked together, lying down flat in the wrong spot on a random shelf near the Hard Candy display in the cosmetics section. Par for the course, I suppose. But- I have been wanting to try some of the new Hard Candy cosmetics. I have a bunch of their old stuff and I've been curious to see how they compare. I bought most of the sets- they were between $5 and $8, so no big loss if they sucked.
Here are the Bad Girl Next Door and Naturally Naughty sets- basically a brown and black version of each.
Bad Girl Next Door. This set comes with a sample of Ginormous Lash mascara in black, a mini Take Me Out Liner pencil in Abyss, mini Lash Tinsel Glitter Mascara in Spellbound, two mini Kal-Eye-Descope Baked Eyeshadows in Bad Reputation and.... Bad Reputation? (they're both named the same thing, I think they're halves of a duo) and a .25 fl. oz Eyeshadow Primer (that's a pretty big size actually.)
Everything is displayed on a clear plastic tray inside the box.
Bad Reputation Kal-Eye-Descope Baked Shadows, a white frost and a grey frost
Abyss Take Me Out Liner.
Lash Tinsel Glitter Mascara in Spellbound- black and silver glitter in a clear gel
Swatched over the shadow primer. Bad Reputation, Abyss, Spellbound.
That's what Spellbound looks like applied heavily over mascara. I had better results when I applied it over already dry mascara, otherwise it clumps funny. It does look a little like lash dandruff or something... It's prettier at night.
Naturally Naughty contains Ginormous Lash, Take Me Out Liner in Dim Sum, Lash Tinsel in Gold Digger, Kal-Eye-Descope Baked Shadow in High Maintenance and an eyeshadow primer.
Up close.
High Maintenance.
Dim Sum.
Gold Digger.
Swatched over the shadow primer. High Maintenance, Dim Sum, Gold Digger.
This is a look I attempted to do with the Naturally Naughty shadows. They barely showed up at all and I got frustrated so I covered the entire thing in a thick layer of MAC Reflects Transparent Teal glitter and some Fyrinnae Futuristic Glamrock as eyeliner.
In all honesty, I can't say I'm impressed by these. Everything looks great in the package and swatched on my arm, but applying them to my eyes was a different story.
The Ginormous mascara was dried out and didn't do a thing for me. The pencils are hard and they tug, making them difficult to apply. The pencils are also made of wood that has a tendency to splinter when sharpened. The glitter mascara was a little difficult to apply because of the super short bristles, but otherwise it did what it was supposed to. The shadow pigmentation is abysmal, it barely sticks or shows up on my eyelids at all. I had a hell of a time trying to apply it. The colors are also quite different in the pan than they are on the eye. I haven't used the primer yet. I'm afraid to try new primers- a bad primer can ruin your whole look!
Overall, these two kits were a nice way to try a lot of products at once. They're pretty inexpensive at $8 each, but I don't think I would buy it again at that price. I'm wondering if the full-sized versions of these are better quality? I was really looking forward to wearing the pretty shadow colors in these kits.
This would make a nice gift for a younger girl, but not someone who's really a makeup junkie. I think the sheer shadows would be nice for a tween girl and I'm sure they'd love the glitter mascara, but they just weren't smooth and pigmented like I expect my shadows to be.
I have the First Blush and Glamazon Glow kits to post as well- those were much nicer in quality and I rather enjoyed them. And I did also pick up one of the $5 Face Facts kits in bronze shades.... I'll post that soon, too.
I know, I know... I need a haircut. Please don't make fun of my split ends! 
