Product review - Hard Candy's Powder Keg in Groupie

Some of you may remember I bought this before Christmas, so I thought I'd give it a quick review.  This is my first Powder Keg shadow from Hard Candy, they have quite a few colors available but I chose 'Groupie', a pale pinkish nude color.

The first thing to note is the packaging, I love it!  This is a loose shadow but there is very little if any mess to these because of the way they are packaged.  The stopper is also the applicator, with a spongy tip on one end.  This fits snugly into the shadow with a rubberized seal, and then the cap screws on top of that.  No messy fallout to deal with when you open them.  


Here are some possibly some of the worst swatches I've ever done; 

Top row: Painterly, Body Shop matte grey #20, Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy palette middle color left row
Bottom row: Top row colors with Groupie over top

Sorry about these swatches...sigh.  I don't have my usual camera this week and I just couldn't get great photos.  What I was trying to show is that you can wear this over top of other matte shadows to add some shimmer & dimension to them.  You can also wear this alone for a pretty neutral look, kind of similar to Nude Beach or Bare Skin from Bare Minerals.  

I used MAC paint pot in Painterly,  a matte nude taupe shadow from the Body Shop (no name just #29) all over the lid and up into the crease, the Body Shop matte grey (as pictured above) to deepen the outer eye and Groupie applied as a highlight just above the middle of my eye 

Again, I apologize for the photo, but this was my attempt to demonstrate how I like to use this shadow the most.  The colors just don't come thru as vividly as they appear in person, I promise.  I love how this bumps up an everyday look.  I used this a lot during the holidays just to add a little drama to my eye, both in the middle of my lid and all over the lid itself.  I thought it looked really pretty and added just the right amount of shimmer and I am NOT an overly shimmer girl at all.

The best way I've found to apply this shadow is to use the applicator to daub it on my eye where I want it, then I pat it in with my finger.  I found that using a brush seems to make it appear more shimmery & causes some fallout.  If I pat it on I don't have these issues and when used with a primer it stays where you put it. 

The verdict:

I love this shadow!  I am definitely going to try more of these, there a good array of colors available that you can check out at Hardcandy.com.  These are available at Walmart & retail in the States for about $6.  I can't remember exactly what I paid for this in Canada but I'm sure it was under $8.  Quite the deal considering I've heard a lot of people compare these to the Urban Decay loose pigments, which are more than 3x the price of these.  

Have you tried any of the Powder Keg shadows?  Are you going to try them?