Thursday, April 2, 2015

Throwback Thursday: Hard Candy Nail Polish

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In the mid 1990s, there was only one nail polish brand that mattered to me. And that brand was Hard Candy. I started seeing advertisements for it in Seventeen when I was about 15 or so (what 90s girl DOESN'T remember the girl with "Hard Candy" on her tongue?), and I was immediately obsessed.

The bottle shape! The colors! The NAMES of the colors! (Pavement, Trailer Trash, Taxi Cab and Vinyl were just some of the names that I loved.) And, most of all, the plastic rings that came wrapped around every bottle! I simply needed to have this nail polish in my collection.

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The famed Hard Candy ad that started my obsession.

However, Hard Candy nail polish was $12 a bottle ... which, for my babysitting, high school going, not making much money self, was pretty spendy. I remember going to the mall on the weekends and gazing longingly at the bottles lined up in the display case at the department store (I'm blanking on which department store carried the brand -- come on, it's been about 20 years -- but I'm thinking it was either Nordstrom or Dillard's). Seriously, I made my friends go with me to stare at the bottles every single time we went to the mall, which was pretty much every weekend.

Finally, I decided it was time to buy a bottle. Then the REALLY agonizing bottle staring started, since I had to decide which bottle would come home with me! On that fateful Saturday, I must have spent at least 20 minutes looking at every single polish (I'm sure the salesgirl was thrilled with me). I needed a color that had the perfect name, the perfect hue and the perfect ring to match. I finally decided on Sky, which was the perfect shade of pale pastel blue. What can I say? Even back then, I was into crazy nail polish colors.

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The original Hard Candy nail polish collection. See why I had such a problem choosing one to call my very own?

As much as I was obsessed, Sky was actually the only bottle of Hard Candy nail polish that I ever owned. And I'm actually glad, because it meant that Sky really found a place in my heart ... and in my permanent collection, since I think the bottle is actually still in my mom's house!

Do you remember the original Hard Candy nail polish? Or was there another beauty brand or product that affected you like Hard Candy did me? Let me know in the comments!

8 comments:

  1. I love the little rings. I remember when they were expensive... at Sephora lol SO glad they're at the drugstore now!

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  2. I wasn't into polish back then but did you hear Hard Candy is bringing back the original bottles with the rings! I bought Sky a few years ago (ring included) when it was re-released but the formula turned me off a bit. I need to be more patient with it I guess.

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  3. I do. I was sad that Hard Candy made the decision to go from prestige to mass, but I assumed that it was for the reason you said: their target market couldn't afford to buy it with their babysitting money! But Nouveau Cheap just showed a very pretty new shadow palette from HC that's worth the drive to Walmart to see

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  4. I love the the bottles with the rings

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  5. I can imagine your staring sprees back in the day! Oh well at least now you can HOARD everything you want, lol

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  6. I love those rings on the bottles. I'd buy the bottles for those rings alone!

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  7. I remember wanting a bottle so bad, but they didn't sell them here.

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  8. oh yes, the hard candy...i have 3 colors in my collection,bought them very long ago in the netherlands,with the rings,in the 90ties.the polishes are still good quality!the colors i have:vegas,violet and frigid.nice greets,yola from netherlands

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