Hard Candy: Gangsta Booty!

Today I have a vintage Hard Candy circa 1996-1997! It's called Gangsta Booty and it's AMAZING.

Hard Candy was founded in 1995 by two sisters. They're first ever venture into cosmetics was their signature color, Sky, a pastel blue shimmery nail polish. Alicia Silverstone put HC on the map when she wore the color in Clueless, then promoted it on David Letterman. After that, HC blew up and was sold at boutiques and Nordstrom. Known for their edgy colors that were still feminine, HC was incredibly popular in the late 90's. I owned a lot of HC products back then, from their eyeshadow quartets (I still love Techno) to their nail polish with the rubber rings. HC was one of the very first "indie" makeup brands. Along with Urban Decay, they were the only cosmetic brand around that time that pushed the boundaries and came out with colors other brands would never even dream of. All the indie makeup & nail polish brands today should credit Urban Decay and Hard Candy because without them, the indie market wouldn't exist as it is right now.

Unfortunately HC and UD aren't the brands they once were. They've each been sold a few times over and now big chain corporations own them. Hard Candy fell off the map and in 2009 resurfaced, now owned by Falic Fashion group (sold to by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy who had owned HC since 1999) who started a new line exclusively with Walmart. The iconic Sky is still available, obviously reformulated, with a bunch of new products. The new Hard Candy bottle is a cylinder and honestly I'm not crazy about them. Nothing can compare to the original line. I've been collecting vintage (first generation) HC and UD since I started collecting polish in 2010. I have a few of the original colors but they're not easy to find. I never thought I'd be able to own Gangsta Booty and yet here I am posting about it!

Gangsta Booty is a gold micro glitter in a clear base. There are millions of tiny gold metallic glitters, and it's so shiny and sparkly. The ring is a gold, sparkly flower. Gangsta Booty is no longer available, and I found mine on eBay along with a few of the super elusive 1996 Christmas colors. I hope you enjoy these vintage posts, because I absolutely love showing off my old polishes!

All photos are taken indoors with artificial light (lightbox) and I didn't use a top coat with this color. I used 3 coats of Gangsta Booty
by itself for full opacity.

Urban Decay: Mildew!

Today I have a vintage Urban Decay from the original line that came out in 1997. It's called Mildew and it's an olive green color.

I started collecting UD and Hard Candy makeup when I was 14. I owned the entire UD line back then, and a lot of HC stuff. Unfortunately most of it's long gone. I was fortunate enough to find 6 of the original UD polishes by a very kind & generous girl on Facebook. She sold me Mildew, Scream, Live Wire, Gash, Spare Change and Fender Bender. Scream is a black creme, Live Wire is a gray/green/purple multichrome, Gash is a deep red, Spare Change is an off white shimmer/glitter and Fender Bender is a light blue with shimmer. Unfortunately Scream and Spare Change are pretty unsalvageable, but I did get the others to work pretty well and will be showing them all here soon! I also just got my hands on a few very old HC's from the original 1996 Christmas collection - some of the hardest to find HC's ever. I can't wait to show those here as well. This polish is very old and far from perfect looking, hell I was lucky enough to get it to work! I tried my hardest, but it's never going to look as good as newer colors. Please don't mind the fact that it doesn't look absolutely amazing.

I used 2 coats of Mildew alone with no top coat. It took A LOT of thinner to get it to work, but it works well now. I hope everyone enjoys these vintage polishes as much as I do, I know it's very nostalgic for a lot of girls!