Collection: Hard Candy, Summer 2015, 20th Anniversary
Wal-Mart isn’t someplace I shop at very often. I’m not a fan of their business practices, and anyway, the nearest location is not really easy for me to get to these days. But of course, the nail polish fanatic in me just had to make a trip over to see if I could get my grubby hands on Hard Candy‘s 20th Anniversary Collection. (Hard Candy makeup is available online on Wal-Mart’s US and Canadian websites, but not this limited edition collection.)
Back in the 1990s, Hard Candy was priced like a mid-to-high end brand; for nail polish, it was positively expensive for a college student! I picked up a few of their polishes here and there via sales, eBay, and swapping. They were awesome colors, even if the formula was not actually super fantastic. Plus, they came with cute little color-coordinated rings, and Alicia Silverstone wore it, and Hard Candy was a pretty big deal.
Fast forward to the 10s and Hard Candy is now exclusively sold at Wal-Mart. Whaaaa?
To be fair, I never thought the Hard Candy makeup I tried (some eyeshadows and lip stuff) were especially good quality. It was all funky colors, glitter, cool packaging, and hype. So perhaps they have done well to re-position themselves as a low-end, mass-market brand appealing to teens.
Once they made the move to Wal-Mart, the entire line was revamped. The nail polish is currently packaged in cheap-looking little cylinders. Very boring.
But, earlier this year, Hard Candy celebrated their 20th Anniversary and dutifully released a collection of 8 polishes packaged in their original square bottles! Retailing for $4! WITH the cool little rings! And 5 of the colors are from the original collection! As a 90s girl, I say AAAAAAAAH!
So now I’m kicking myself for waiting until now to get over to Wally World. Luckily, they still had the display up, and the rings, which are (not very well-)sealed to the bottle, were all still attached. I was able to get five colors, but not Sky, which made Hard Candy hugely popular when it was worn by Alicia Silverstone on The Late Show with David Letterman. ๐ฅ
Still, the colors I did get are pretty cool:
From left to right, that’s Mint, Scam, Claws Up!, Coconut, and Zombie (new color). (The three I did not find were Sky and the other two new colors, Girlie and Tangerini.)
Scam and Zombie appear to be strong shimmers, and Mint, Claws Up!, and Coconut have fine, pearly shimmer.
I also picked up one of the cheaply-packaged regular Hard Candy polishes, in Piece of Papaya:
For fun, I rounded up a couple of my old Hard Candy polishes and took a Hard Candy Generations photo. I apologize for not having the rings to my old Hard Candy polishes in the photos. At some point I gathered all the rings and put them into a box for safe-keeping, since they just get in the way when you’re actually trying to use the polish. I still have the box somewhere, but I don’t want to go rummaging around for it right now.
The first bottle (Mermaid) is the original. The second was introduced sometime pre-Wal-Mart. When Hard Candy first started being sold at Wal-Mart, their polishes looked like this (I don’t own one):

The third bottle is the current one sold at Wal-Mart. The last one is the current 20th Anniversary Edition sold at Wal-Mart.
As you can see, the 20th Anniversary bottle is very close to the original, though not entirely identical. The new caps are slightly smaller.
I really hope they’ll wake up and realize the square bottles are way cooler than what they are currently using. I mean, I’d be so much more willing to buy their current polishes if they came in the square bottles. Isn’t that ridiculous? ๐
Hard Candy Nail Color is sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and retails for US$4.00 / CA$3.98 (I don’t understand, but I’m not complaining!). However, the regular cylindrical bottles contain 0.26 fl oz / 7.8 mL, while the 20th Anniversary square bottles contain 0.46 fl oz / 13.5 mL. It is free of toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Hard Candy is cruelty-free and made in the USA.
P.S.
I also hauled a few other things, and I’ll just include their pictures here.
I totally agree with you! !! I don’t like their current packaging it feels so cheap like! great post though! !!๐๐๐ I didn’t even know their bottles used to be like that lol they looked so much better than the current ones!
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This post is such a treat for person like me, who has a serious addiction for nail paints and these gorgeous goodies are tempting me to buy more. https://lifestylebites3.wordpress.com
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LOL yes it’s very hard sometimes! ๐
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OMG I LOVE THIS trip down memory lane!
I wish I wasn’t on a no-buy, I would go scoop up those anniversary bottles – I do like the original bottle shapes the best (um I would probably toss out the rings myself lol)
I like Mint, Scam, and of COURSE Claws Up! ๐
Wheeeee… Walmart haulage! Can’t wait.
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It is totally nostalgic! You can go and pick up Claws Up. It’s $4. NOBODY WILL KNOW ๐
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shifty eyes ๐
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I have never tried Hard Candy’s nail polishes before. Though I have bought some of their other products which I really like. ๐ xo
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Cool, which ones did you like? I picked up an eyeshadow palette and an eyeliner, and can’t wait to try them!
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I recently picked up a baked blush of theirs and it’s so pretty! I also really like the Natural Eyes palette that I got. ๐
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Mint one all the way!
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That one seems popular ๐
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Such great colors, especially love the mint ๐
xxx Anne
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Yes, it’s so nice! ๐
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Awesome post! Love that they brought the old bottles for the 20th anniversary! Wish I still had mine from the 90’s!
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Aww, what happened to your old ones?!
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They were so old and crusty in the early 2000’s that I tossed out what was remaining! Little did I know that 15 years later I’d be wanting to write about them! So sad, but love that I can see them on your blog! โค
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Awwwwww!!! My old HCs are getting dried up, too. Crappy caps! Old school UD is worse…those are totally unusable no matter how much I try to rescue them with thinner.
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Yes totally know what you mean!!!! The caps were terrible back then! Yours will make cool display pieces now!!! It’s like the 90’s summed up in a nail polish!!!
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Totally ๐
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