I found Hard Candy! I found Hard Candy! (Warning: VERY pic heavy)

[Note: for specific product reviews of the Hard Candy products I've purchased from Walmart, click here.]

After calling SEVEN different Walmarts in San Diego today only to receive responses like, "No. Not yet. Click!" and "Huh? Hard WHAT?", I finally found a Walmart that was actually putting the Hard Candy products into the brand new, shiny display when I called them this morning. So I ran down to that location as fast as I could and quickly became a giant nuisance to the woman who was filling the wall display full of goodies. I literally lurked beside her for over an hour, politely asking, "So do you have more eyeliner colors in that box or is this it?" Finally after almost two hours, she was done filling the display and only ONE product was missing (a collection of duo eyeshadows). But as for everything else (and boy is there A LOT) I got to see everything fresh out of the box. A wall of pristine makeup that I know for sure has never been tampered with. My dream come true!

Let me just say that if you like color, you are going to freaking LOVE the new Hard Candy. I"ll stop gabbing now and get to the pics, but I ask that you read my commentaries before and after each pic if you're interested in this line because I mention some interesting things that you can't see in the pics. For instance, what do chopsticks, Magic Eight Balls and Hard Candy makeup have in common? Read on to find out!

(Click all pics to super-size)

(this pic was taken before the Walmart employed had finished stocking the display)

The signs in the display and all of the packaging are done in the Sailor Jerry style of tattoos. So all of you vintage/rockabilly girlies will looooove it. If you're not familiar with the Sailor Jerry style, there are lots of pinup girls, playing cards, horseshoes, anchors, birds, roses, etc. Super cute.

Let's start with the mascaras. There are FOUR different formulas and each has some amazing metallic and glitter colors (as well as basic black and carbon black):

As you can see, "Ginormous" is the volumizing mascara and there are some BEAUTIFUL shades here (metallic copper, purple and vivid blue as well as two blacks, a silver and deep brown). Next to that is "Lash Tinsel" which is glitter mascara and the colors are amazing. Gold, purple, black, taupe and silver. Please note that NONE of these pics really illustrate the vivid colors available in this collection. The colors are sooo much prettier and richer in person.

Next we have "Lash Call" which is a lengthening mascara. As you can see, there are some wild colors here, such as hot pink and teal. Next to that is "Curl Up & Dye" which is a curling lash tint. The colors in this collection are also gorgeous with lots of blacks, browns, blues and purples.

Next we have some SUPER CUTE lip glosses (there are so many lip products it made my head spin). But this one in particular is amazingly cute because of the packaging. At the top of each wand, there is a little tiny MAGIC EIGHT BALL type of thingy!

They're called "Fortune Gloss" and as you can see, there's a little tiny "Magic Eight Ball" type ball floating in pink liquid. You can ask your gloss to tell your fortune! The answers are things like, "Yes", "No" and "Yuk". Too cute for words!

Here are two other types of gloss:

As you can see, there are tubes, jumbo pencils, balms and a few types of wand glosses. The only two lip products I didn't get close-ups of were the longwear lip products and the lipsticks. To tell you the truth, I may have missed another one but there's just SO MUCH here that I can't keep track.

Moving on:

Here are the baked blushes, baked bronzers, foundation primer, tinted moisturizers, concealer kits (the kits with the small pots are all connected together! So cute!) and the highlighter kits (the larger round palettes). Underneath that you can see the jumbo lip pencils (when I took this she hadn't yet filled the display) and the lipsticks (look at those adorable pink ribbons on the ends of each lipstick!).

Here's an interesting product called "Eye Tattoo" which is a press-on eyeshadow.

Here's a great deal: "Eye Candy" glitter eye cream with a glitter eyeliner for only $5 (the colors are so much more vivid in person).

Here are the baked eyeshadows (isn't it cool how they look like they're floating??) and tubes of glitter gel to the left of the Eye Candy (top shelf). I'm not a huge glitter gel person, but the colors of these glitter gels are so unique and gorgeous I almost bought one just because of the color!

Here are some close-ups of the "Kal-Eye-Descope" baked eyeshadow duos. I am regretting not buying that blue and taupe one in the middle top row (above). It was soooo pretty in person and that taupe color is very unique.

A close-up of "Blush Crush", the baked blushes (soo much prettier in person--you can't see the veining in these pics but they all have veining).

Here is one of the eyeliners, "Take-Me-Out" (there is another pencil liner that is a dual-end liner with two different shades in each pencil). Here is why these are called "Take-Me-Out":

These liners are shaped like CHOPSTICKS!! I was freaking out at how cute these are--I mean, you could even wear them in your hair if you were rocking a bun! And the colors! OMG, look at that green, teal, and NEON YELLOW! I have never seen shades like this from a drugstore line. Seriously, these are MUFE or MAC or Illamasqua colors!

Oh and beneath these adorable liners are one of a zillion different body glitters and shimmers that Hard Candy has to offer.

Here are two others (I think that's a total of five body glitters??):

These two products are pretty cool though because one is a flavored body powder and the other is a glitter body SPRAY.

Next we have some very awesome eye pencils:

We have "Foiled Again" which are "heavy metal shadow sticks". I really wanted one of these (silvers, golds, bronzes, browns, etc.) but I literally couldn't make up my mind on a color. Beneath that we have "INTENSIFeye" which are "high drama shadow sticks". If you are a color lover, you have got to check these out. There are two gorgeous shades of blue, neon pinks and greens and a deep purple. Again, colors you'd see from Make Up Forever, not the drugstore! Beneath those, you can sort of the display for "Eye for an Eye" which are double-ended eyeliner pencils. I was tempted by a gorgeous blue/silver pencil and another bronze/gold, but I refrained...for now.

Here are the "Walk the Line" liquid liners. All of the colors are either metallic or glitter and each shade is prettier than the next.

Here are some twist-up jumbo glitter pencils called "Glitz Sticks."

And of course who can forget what Hard Candy is known for: the nail polish!

These look pretty much identical to the Hard Candy nail polish packaging from back in the day! Some of these shades are round-glitters and others are shimmers, with not too many creams.

And here is one of four different types of eyeshadow. Some of these shadows come with a mini black pencil liner while others come with a mini tube of eyeshadow primer.

I think that's it for the pics I took today, but I know I didn't get closeups of everything--sorry about that but it was all just waaaaay too overwhelming!

My initial impressions so far: Lots of innovative new products in unique, adorable, original packaging. The colors in this range are mind-blowing and they even make a neutral, earthtone-loving girl like myself go weak in the knees!

OK, on to what I bought!!

I'm not going to talk about these in detail here--I'll save that for my future reviews. So check back soon because I will definitely review everything that I bought!

WHEW! OK, I have to take a break now. I'll review one or two of these little gems tomorrow. In the meantime, if you've made it this far, tell me what you're interested in! Are you as excited about Hard Candy as I am?