A closer look at the Hard Candy Limited Edition Nail Color Library

If you caught this post, then you know that Hard Candy recently released a slew of very affordable holiday gift sets which are currently available in the seasonal section of many Walmarts across the nation.

One of the most interesting sets, to me, is the Limited Edition Nail Color Library, which contains four new shades, each with a cute little zipper ring in place of the signature heart ring that's found on other Hard Candy nail polishes:

image credit: Rachel for Nouveau Cheap

Hard Candy Limited Edition Nail Color Library (retail: $10)

I want to make sure you know that these are not full-size bottles. I thought they were, but several of you corrected me and sure enough, these bottles contain  0.27 oz of polish, while a standard, full-size bottle of Hard Candy polish is 0.35 oz. So while these bottles aren't super-small minis, they are smaller than full-size.

image credit: Rachel for Nouveau Cheap 

All of the images in this post, including the descriptions of the polishes, are courtesy of the lovely Rachel, who actually purchased this set and swatched them all for us. Thank you SO much, Rachel--this is so incredibly helpful, considering that there are so many of these gift sets to choose from. I think that every little bit of information we can get about these gift sets is useful in terms of helping narrow down the must-haves!

While none of these polishes have names, Rachel gives us good dupe information as well is her take on the quality of each polish, so please read on for her thoughts!

image credit: Rachel for Nouveau Cheap

According to Rachel, this purple is "nice and glowy" but the formula leaves something to be desired. Lots of visible brushstrokes, which means a slow and careful application is required. It took three coats for Rachel to see opacity and she topped it with Diamont top coat.

 image credit: Rachel for Nouveau Cheap

Here we have a pretty pink glitter. It took Rachel three coats for opacity and it "dried slightly on the matte side" before Rachel topped it with her Diamont top coat.  Oh, and a warning: this one stained Rachel's cuticles pink, so be sure you use a good base coat before you apply this one.

image credit: Rachel for Nouveau Cheap

This orange is the one that Rachel thought looked very similar to Hard Candy Lava in the bottle. In the above pics, Rachel used the limited edition orange on her first three fingers, and Lava on her pinky.  As you can see, they're close, but Lava is definitely darker. Rachel loved the formula on this one (much more than the purple polish above) but here's the kicker: even with a coat of Orly Bonder as a base, this polish stained her nails like crazy. I mean, really crazy. She even tweeted me a pic and it was pretty bad. So a word to the wise: you might want to double up on base coat before you wear this one.

 image credit: Rachel for Nouveau Cheap

And finally we have a black with silver glitter. This one only required two coats for Rachel, and I must say I am loving the look of the sparse glitter. I'm trying to think of a drugstore dupe for this one and I'm drawing a blank. Any ideas? I think this may be the most unique of the bunch, so I'm very happy that Rachel had success with it. 

A few final thoughts from Rachel about this gift set: 

These polishes are made in China, rather than the US, which is where the core collection polishes are made. Also, she experienced issues (slight splaying) with two of the four brushes from this set.

So there you have it! I hope that Rachel's photos and opinions can help you to better decide whether or not you think this set is a must-have for you.

Do you already own any of this year's Hard Candy holiday gift sets? If so, what are your thoughts?