Hard Candy Cosmic Love Affair

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Once upon a time, I sent my partner off on a walmart quest to find some of the Hard Candy anniversary polishes, and while the picked-over selection made for only partial success, he grabbed a handful of these slender test tubes in colors he liked.  I always have a soft spot in my heart for these now.<3 nbsp="" p="">
Hard Candy Cosmic Love Affair
indoor, bright CF lighting
Cosmic Love Affair is a deeply saturated sapphire blue glassfleck in a navy blue base.  The shimmers shift over to purple at angles, with nothing in between and nothing beyond - a true duo- and not multichrome.

Hard Candy Cosmic Love Affair
indoor, bright CF lighting at a long angle to the bottle
While the macro pics make this look like a glitter, nope, these shimmer particles didn't give me any grief during removal, and the formula was utter perfection - a one coat wonder, as long as you paint carefully to avoid the drama of a mess cleanup on a blue this dark is going to be.

Hard Candy Cosmic Love Affair
indirect daylight
To compliment the blue-to-purple midnight, I've stamped using El Corazon Himalayan Peaks, which has the same color shift in a somewhat sheer base.  This one really only shines over dark base colors, and I absolutely loved the tonal effect going on here.  My partner called it "superhero costume nails."

Hard Candy Cosmic Love Affair
indirect daylight
This slightly curved chevron design is from Born Pretty French BP-X20 plate, which has a couple of standard french tip shapes, then is mostly individual lines in curves, zig-zags, or swoops.  The plate was well etched and gave me no trouble, rather impressive since this particular stripe is a broad open zone 3-4mm wide, yet I got no bald spots when scraping.

Hard Candy Cosmic Love Affair
indirect daylight
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars for Cosmic Love Affair.  Cheap polishes can be fantastic, and this $2 test tube was right on the mark.

Where to buy:  unfortunately, Hard Candy is now walmart exclusive, though I have seen some colors pop up now and again on ebay.

~Michelle

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