Vintage Stash Spam Week - Hard Candy and Urban Decay

Happy Sunday everyone!!! Today I am so excited to bring you the first day of my week of vintage bottle spam! I have been wanting to photograph my vintage collection for a long time and I finally am doing it! I know I love seeing bottle spam pics, so I hope you guys don't get too sick of it this week =) I promise I will have swatches of some of these fantastic vintage polishes for you in the upcoming weeks!

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you will know that I have a slight obsession with vintage polish. Any polish that is old and HTF means that I probably want it in my stash. I'm not quite sure when exactly my vintage polish love turned into a full blown obsession, but it was somewhere between the point in time where I started collecting nail polish and the time that I found Kaz's blog Pretty Random. If you are a new reader, and are unsure what I mean by vintage polish, here's a quick reference guide and FAQ about vintage polish I put together a few months ago: Let's Talk About Vintage Nail Polish!

The first bit of spam I wanted to do for you guys was an easy choice: Hard Candy and Urban Decay, of course! These are two of my all-time favorite polish brands because they came out during the 90's (the decade of my adolescence) and helped revolutionize the world of nail polish as we know it today! I had a bunch of Hard Candy and Urban Decay polish growing up, but unfortunately it was all tossed out over the years. If only I had known about thinner and the long shelf life of polish back then!! So, all of these polishes I have acquired in the past two years or so, mostly from eBay, swaps and blog sales. They are very hard to come by these days so if you ever see one pop up somewhere, I highly suggest snatching them up!

For a few little tidbits about the history of Hard Candy and Urban Decay, check out these posts: Vintage Hard Candy Manic, Vintage Urban Decay.

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First up is Hard Candy spam. I have broken it down into chronological order, with the original polishes (beginning in 1997) first and then the second release (beginning in 2001), flat bottle polishes next. For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the 2009 vintage re-release generation (not the Wal-Mart stuff) so I will have to add that pic later today.

Hard Candy

Reds and Pinks, L-R:

Normal, Luscious, Porno, Scorn, Pussy Cat, Bubble Gum

Oranges and Yellows, L-R:

Weenie, Pulp, Tantrum, Dork, Hot Rod, Taxi Cab, Pixie

Greens Part 1, L-R:

Heist, Shag, Pea Soup, Tricky, Chronic, AWOL, Girlie

Greens Part 2, L-R:

Mint, Sushi, Gank, Mermaid

Blues, L-R:

Sky, Cloud, Static, Earth, Frigid, Hick, Manic

Purples, L-R:

Star, Haze, Scam, Fetish, XXXMas (decant)

Black, White, Silver, Gold, and Neutrals, L-R:

Jailbait, Galaxy, Space Boy, Gold Digger, Hype, Love Child, Angel

Minis:

Fiend, Blast, Chump, Trailer Trash, Platinum, Love

2nd Gen. Part 1, L-R:

Erogenous, Ego, Peep Show, Mirage, Solar

2nd Gen. Part 2, L-R:

Glitch, Liquid, Vinyl, Cosmic, Complex

Next up is Urban Decay!! These are almost all second generation ones, as the 1st generation ones are almost impossible to come by these days. I do have one very special 1st gen. Urban Decay polish that will be pictured at the end =) I believe these came out somewhere around 2001 as well. Enjoy!

 Reds, Pink, Orange, L-R:

Kiss, Metropolitan, O, Trip, Hotpants, X, ID

 Green, Blue, Purples, L-R:

Cult, Grafitti, Exhaust, Freakshow, AC DC, Toxin, Bruise

 The Rest, L-R:

Perversion, Flourescent, Strip, Midnight Cowboy, Burnout, Twisted

1st Gen:

DUDE

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Do you remember these brands? Did you have any Hard Candy or Urban Decay polishes back in the day?

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode of vintage bottle spam! Stay tuned all week for much more!

Guest Post on stuff i (s)watched!

Hi everyone!! Sorry I haven't been around in a few weeks, things have been pretty crazy lately. I was slammed with end-of-semester work and then hubby and I finally found a new home so we are getting ready to sell our current home and move! Exciting stuff! I'll be posting a new blog sale very soon to help weed through my stash before we move so stay tuned for that =D

Anyways, the real reason why I'm here today is to let you guys know that I did a guest post for my girl Rach over at stuff i (s)watched that is up today!! Rach's blog is one of my favorites, she always has such awesome swatches and fun anecdotes about her life and things that she loves. I had so much fun doing the post so I hope you all head on over to her blog and check it out!

GUEST POST: Hard Candy Pulp from Jacqui @ The Scholarly Nail

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!!!! I am stupid excited about the season finale of Degrassi tonight and honestly have not been thinking about much else for the past few days. Hope your plans for the weekend are more exciting than mine!

It's Just Another Manic Monday - Vintage Hard Candy Manic

Happy Monday everyone! Today I thought I'd swatch one of my vintage Hard Candy polishes for you guys. Considering it is manic Monday, I figured Manic would be the perfect color for today! Manic Monday (if you don't know - BUT YOU SHOULD) is the famous song that was released by the Bangles on January 27, 1986. While that date isn't especially significant, the next day, on January 28, 1986, the US space shuttle Challenger exploded during launch and killed all seven astronauts on board. It was the first time in NASA manned space flight history that a crew was killed during a mission, and was a very sad day for the United States. 6 days later, on February 3, I was born. How is this significant at all to this polish? It's not, just thought I'd throw out some random trivia for you guys!

Anyways, if you know me, you know that I have a slight obsession with vintage Hard Candy polishes. It all started back in middle school when I began seeing ads for the brand in YM and Teen magazines, and when the lovely little square bottles started popping up at Sephora and other department stores in my area. I was hooked. The brand was revolutionary for its time, as there were not many "fun" nail polish colors on the market. The story begins when the founder of Hard Candy, Dineh Mohajer, mixed up a sky blue polish one day to match her shoes. People flipped out, she created the brand Hard Candy, next thing you know Alicia Silverstone wore Sky polish on Letterman one night and the rest was history. The original Hard Candy line is long discontinued, and although the line has been revived and is being sold in Wal-Mart stores in the US, I still prefer the old stuff =)

Manic is from the original Hard Candy release back in 1996 and has been discontinued for many years. The formula was a bit thick and goopy, so I added a few drops of thinner and it was just right. Manic is a vibrant royal blue/purple shimmer and I am absolutely in love with it! Unfortunately, no matter what lighting source I used, I just couldn't capture the true awesomeness. Imagine these pictures with a hint of a purple flash and you will have the right idea of Manic.

Here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Manic, first outdoors then indoors with diffused flash. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by! I will see you all tomorrow =)

Twitter Swatch Requests: Hard Candy Pea Soup, OPI Two Plums Up & Essie Lollipop

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your weekends so far =)

On Thursday I asked some of my twitter friends to go through my stash spreadsheet and pick out a manicure for me because I was feeling super indecisive and couldn't make up my mind what polish to wear. I got three different answers from three lovely ladies, so I decided to do them all in this post!

First up is Hard Candy Pea Soup, requested Madeline over at Girl Germs. This is vintage Hard Candy (pre-Walmart) and probably came out sometime during the late 90's. I got this decant from a lovely blog sale, as I was in need of some green Hard Candy polishes to round out my collection but wasn't having luck finding any. I figured that a decant was the best I could do! Pea Soup is a yellow-green frosty shimmer, and it is relatively sheer so it took 3 coats to reach the color you see here. The formula was decent, your typical non-3 free texture and smell. It's not my favorite vintage Hard Candy polish by any means, but it is fun! Very evocative of the '90s, being a sheer, frosty light green. It just makes me want to go shop at Limited Too, drink some Clearly Canadian and watch Clueless =)

Anyways, here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Pea Soup, indoors.

Next up is OPI Two Plums Up, requested by Maria over at Nails Made Simple! Two Plums Up is an old black label OPI from the Hollywood collection from fall 1999. I am currently in the process of collecting the polishes from this collection, because as I mentioned before, my husband is a film maker and I am a sucker for anything film-related. Two Plums Up is a plummy-magenta color. It's a bit frosty but not so much as Pea Soup is as it has a nice shimmer to round out the brush strokiness (not even a word, ha) quality. I did 3 coats here, as it was a bit sheer and I wanted it to be nice and vibrant. I quite like this color, and although it's not something I would normally wear, I'm glad I took the time to try it out today =)

OPI Two Plums Up, 3 coats, indoors.

 

Lastly, I have Essie Lollipop as requested by my lovely Jamie on Twitter! Lollipop is from Essie's 2009 holiday collection, which was the collection that also contained Mint Candy Apple - the color that reignited my passion for polish. I had originally thought that Lollipop was a jelly, but it turns out that it is just a wonderfully shiny red creme. It only needed 2 coats to opacity, and the formula was perfection. Lollipop is an orange-leaning red, and I think it would look amazing on all skin tones. It is so vibrant and so squishy, and is definitely one of my favorite reds in my entire stash! I'm glad this was the last one that I swatched because now I can leave it on and admire its awesomeness!

Here's Essie Lollipop, 2 coats, indoors. Enjoy!!

So there we have it! I hope you have enjoyed these swatches. I am always willing to take requests, so feel free to take a look at my collection spreadsheet in the link at the top of the page (I fixed the link so everyone can see it now)! Let me know if there is anything that you would like to see =) I love hearing from you guys, so don't be shy!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday and I will see you all tomorrow!