The next in my series of the Hard Candy Hide & Glow Cheek Tints is Pillow Talk. Pillow Talk is on the far right on the picture above and contains what look to be two bright pinks, one more of a rosy color with a little shimmer.

As I mentioned in the previous review of In Love, the color of the sticks does not get translated when swatched or worn on the cheeks as they are more sheer and more of a gel.

When swatched, both of the pinks look very similar, though the more fuchsia colored one still looks a tiny bit brighter.

PS I lied, you are going to get pretty swatch collages because they look much better than your random thrown in swatch picture. I hope this doesn't become a habit because they take a lot longer to do than they look!

I reversed the swatches in this one. The more intense color is on the right while the slightly lighter shimmery color is on the left. You can see these pinks are a bit more vibrant than the corals in the In Love shade.

I once again went through my cream blush stash looking for similar colors (which I obviously found since I buy the same freaking colors over and over again).
I excluded the The Body Shop cream blush in the picture above only because it was impossible to hold more than 3 products at a time and have the picture come out decently well!
So here we have:
The Body Shop Cream Blush in Grape reviewed here (that I have been dying to find a dupe of!)
Hard Candy Pillow Talk (shimmery side on left, brighter side on right)
NYC Blushable Creme Stick in Wild Berry (LE)
Models Own Face Paint in Neon Pink reviewed here

Now I did find a dupe of my TBS blush, but I also discovered a dupe I wasn't expecting. You can see that the Hard Candy isn't near a dupe for the NYC stick, however, Models Own Neon Pink is! And the Models Own isn't a limited edition color! So for £5.00 UK-ers can finally get a hold of this color (though I do prefer the stick delivery system) and Americans can get a hold of this product with a CP.


Please read the previous posts in this series for wear, texture, price, etc.

The first Hard Candy Hide & Glow Cheek Color I was excited about, was the very first one in this photograph, In Love. In Love is a coral peach duo and the first I picked up at the store. I thought this might be a good dupe of a couple of my favorite cheek blushes.

It's a dual sided product, one of the sides is more sheer and glowy (right) and the other is more of a cream (though there is a very slight shimmer to the product (left). I would imagine the right shade would be a nice cheek highlight as the shimmer is not over the top.

I compared it to two other cream/gel blushes in my collection: Tarte Tipsy (which as you'll see in the next series of photographs is a pretty good dupe) and NYC Pink Flash (LE) which is much more pigmented than the Hard Candy version.
It's quite hard to swatch cheek products as the color you get on your hand isn't going to be what you see when you blend it into the cheeks but here are my thoughts.

Tarte Tipsy is slightly more orange than either of the In Love (HC) blushes but is a similar texture, more of a gel or sheer formula. NYC Pink Flash (LE) is more of a cream product and far more pigmented, however, when you sheer it out, it will probably look similar to the cream side of the Hard Candy In Love. Both of the Hard Candy sides show up more coral than peach.

I hope I haven't confused anyone! I'd imagine all of these would look similar once blended into the cheek. I also feel this Hard Candy version would be better on lighter skin tones or those looking for a less pigmented blush but a formula that can be layered for increased intensity. Personally, the NYC can be a bit much for me to apply in the morning when I'm not fully awake yet. These are a great alternative as they are very hard to 'mess up'. For those that don't like the tackiness of the Tarte product, these Hard Candy blushes aren't as sticky. I think they are somewhere in between the tacky gel consistency (but with the same sort of color payoff) and the NYC true cream formula. And they manage to feel moist without feeling oily.


The Hard Candy blushes lasted through a work day for me but I tend to have drier cheeks than average and I would recommend that oilier skin types set these with powder blush.

For $6 I'm impressed! If you like the Tarte cheekstains, I would try these if you don't want to pay the $30 for the Tarte version. These are definitely more of a gel formula, and not as pigmented as the NYC variety.

Ingredients: caprylic/capric tryglyceride, trimethylopropane trisosterate, hydroxystearic acid, isostearyl isostearate, disostearyl malate, polybutene, isononyl isonanoate, ozokerite, 1,2-hezanediol, capryl gycol, ricinus communs (castor) seed oil. May Contain: titanium dioxide, mica, iron oxides, carmine, silica

not vegan, made in USA

PS I tried editing the swatches of all of these and it took way longer than I thought it would so don't expect pretty swatch collage thingies in the next series of them!

I was at Walmart earlier this week and happened upon some new products from Hard Candy. If you've been reading Jeweled Thumb with any frequency, you would know I am addicted to cream blush. As someone that suffers from drier skin than most, cream blushes tend to last longer on my face and they keep it a bit more hydrated than blushes that are dry and can look cakey on my skin. The display (including the new Cover Heavy Duty concealer) included 3 different color sets and I picked up all 3 since I am an addict.
The packaging reminded me of the NYC Blushable Creme Sticks and I was intrigued with the duo product. Each stick, named the Hide & Glow Cheek Tint or Duo Cheek Tint comes in 3 different shade combinations: a peachy coral (In Love), a bright pink (Pillow Talk) and a deep cherry (Hot Date). Some of the colors have a little bit of shimmer to them, while others are a matte, gel-type or cream finish. The sticker label has an idea of the color inside the tube, which I think is a nice touch.

Hard Candy describes them as: "Cream Cheek Color Duo delivers a just blushed look. Wear together or alone".

The duos come with 8 grams of product and retail for $6 each. For reference, the NYC Blushable Creme Sticks come with 8 grams of product as well and retail for $3.99 - so these are a bit more expensive but you get 2 colors in one (and quite frankly how often do you use up cream blushes?).

I'll be reviewing each of the sticks (with dupes and the like) individually.