Review: Hard Candy "In the Shadows" eyeshadow palette and Eyeshadow Primer

I apologize if this blog seems to be all about Hard Candy lately, but given the popularity of this newly reformatted line sold exclusively at Walmart, I am feeling compelled to bring you my reviews of the products I purchased last week as quickly as possible. Today I'm going to review the Hard Candy "In the Shadows" eyeshadow palette in "026 Gamble" and the accompanying tube of Eyeshadow Primer (retail: $7).

As you can see, I love how this palette comes with its own little tube of primer that is attached at the top of the palette by a little elastic band:

And I really like how the primer stays in place, even when you open and close the palette (more on the primer in a bit).

As you can see, there's a lovely emboss of the Hard Candy logo on this palette, and the colors in "026 Gamble" are lovely as well. You get two cool shades, two warm shades and neutral. There is very subtle shimmer in the lighter shades while the darker two shades have more shimmer.

For my first look, I used the very first (top) shade all over from lashline to brow, and the 4th shade down (the medium warm golden olive brown) in the crease. Also, I used the primer before I applied these colors.

Here is my eye taken at 9:00am:

And here is my eye taken at 4:00pm:

Not bad, right? I didn't see much creasing or fading. So far so good!

A note about the texture of these shadows: the lighter shades in this palette have a much harder consistency than the darker shades. In other words, the lighter powders themselves are harder and it's more difficult to pick up product with your brush, as opposed to the darker shades which are softer and easier to pick up with your brush.

Here's a swatch of all five shades on my hand:

It was really difficult for me to photograph the lighter shades because they're just so similar to my skintone that they kept blending in with the color of my skin.

Moving on, I next did a look using the 3rd shade down as a wash with the second shade down in the crease. This time I used the primer on my left eye and I did NOT use primer on my right eye.

This is the eye with primer, taken at 10PM at night after a full day of wear:

This is the eye with NO primer, taken at 10PM after a full day of wear:

Now here's the interesting part. I feel like the colors are more intense on the eye that DIDN'T have primer! Could it be possible that the primer eventually dulled the pigmentation of these shadows?

The good thing is that, either way, with primer or without, I didn't experience much creasing at all. And these shadows blended nicely with or without primer as well, although they blended a tad smoother on the eye that had the primer.

Let's talk more about the primer:

They very first thing I noticed was that this reminded of the Hard Candy Face Primer (which I also purchased and will review in the near future). The texture of this eyeshadow primer is very much like your regular silica-based face primer, except that it doesn't contain silica. It does, however, contain dimethicone crosspolymer. Here's the full list of ingredients:

Water, propylene glycol, cyclopentasiloxane, glycerin, dimethicone crosspolimer, polymethyl methacrylate, C13-14 isoparaffin, laureth-7, polyacrylamide, betaine, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, disodium EDTA (sorry if i misspelled anything but the font on this tube is teeny-tiny)

As you can see, this also contains glycerin and aloe. To me, those ingredients mean added moisture, so I'm a little unclear as to how that's supposed to help keep powder eyeshadow on my lids. I was also kind of bummed that this product contains three different types of parabens (the face primer contains no parabens at all).

Since there are no directions on the tube, I wasn't sure how much to use. I went with the less-is-more philosophy and used about the same size on my lid as you see in the pic above. Just a tiny little squirt.

I found that this applied like a face primer, meaning it went on very smoothly and it's got a wet consistency that eventually dries down to make your skin feel very soft (just like a face primer). Also, just like a face primer, it serves to fill in any small wrinkles or dryness on your lids, making the entire surface of your lid very smooth.

What struck me as odd was how it compared to other various eyeshadow primers I've used (BeneFit F.Y. Eye, Lumene, Sally Hansen Carmindy, etc.). Almost all of the primers I've used in the past have a creamy, almost dry and putty-like texture, which helps to grab your eyeshadow and it also helps to intensify the colors. This primer, since the consistency is more like a face primer, doesn't really grab the powder shadow and it definitely does not intensify the color. It made my shadow apply smoother, but overall it didn't do much to enhance the staying powder or color intensity. It's nice that it comes with the shadow palette and maybe if I play around with it a bit more (try using it with different brands of shadow, etc.) I might find a better way to work with it. You know I'll keep you posted if/when I find a better use for it!

That's all for now, but please stay tuned because I've still got plenty of other Hard Candy products that I'll be reviewing in the very near future.

In the meantime, do you plan to purchase any Hard Candy products? I'd love to hear your thoughts.