Hard Candy Fierce Effects Daring Argan Oil Lip Gloss Review and Swatches

A few days ago, I blew up my own Instagram feed while I was at Walmart posting a ton photos all of the new Hard Candy Spring 2015 products that had just hit the shelves. 

The Fierce Effects Daring Argan Oil Lip Glosses, $5 were one item I've been getting a lot of requests for to see swatches, especially the bright blue shade, Skyfall. These glosses aren't on the Hard Candy or Walmart sites yet so I don't have any information about the claims or even a description. So this is going to be more of a first impression post, where I'll just talk about my experience with them so far. 

Black Rose, Skyfall, Knockout Punch, Make Me Blush

The display at Walmart had 12 shades in total...8 of them were described as "intense" while the other 4 were "sheer". I purchased 3 Intense shades, Make Me Blush (Peachy pink), Knockout Punch (a rosy berry shade), Skyfall (bright blue) and 1 sheer shade, Black Rose (sheer black with rosy tones).

They come in skinny tubes that are clear so you can see the shades and the applicator is a little brush. On the one hand, a brush helps you to really detail around your lip line, but it takes more dips back into the tube and more swipes to cover your lips than a sponge-tipped applicator. The intense shades swatched beautifully, laying down a lot of color in one swipe.  The sheer Black Rose shade looked watered down, almost gray...and I wasn't too sure I was going to like it.

Make Me Blush, Knockout Punch, Skyfall, Black Rose

Make Me Blush is such a perfect everyday shade...the right mix of peach and pink with no shimmer. It's not completely opaque, and I can still see my lips through it, but it definitely adds a lot of color and is super shiny!

Make Me Blush

Knockout Punch is the darkest shade I purchased, but there were a few darker shades available in the store including a red, dark purple, and navy blue. This is a really pretty berry shade and was the most pigmented of all the four that I bought.

Skyfall was the biggest disappointment of the bunch.  It never got past sheer, no matter how much I tried to layer it.  This isn't a shade I would wear anyway, but I got a ton of requests to see swatches of this one so I bought it mainly for that reason (and curiosity).  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this one swatched beautifully on my skin, just not on my lips. It has micro-glitter in it also (none of the other shades I tried did) which made it feel just a tiny bit grainy. One thing I'll try to do is put concealer on my lips first to create a base and see if it works better that way.  I'm thinking that since it swatched well on my skin, maybe taking the pink out of my lips will make it look a little better.  I'll post an updated photo once I try that.

Black Rose was the biggest surprise of the bunch (in a good way!). It looks solid black in the tube and I was really afraid to try it.  When I first started to apply it, it looked a little streaky and grayish on my lips, but then I pressed my lips together and rubbed them back and forth to spread it out and after a few minutes, it just morphed into this gorgeous rosy shade!  It reminds me a little of Clinique's Black Honey (at least the way it looks on me).

The argan oil formula of these is wonderful...they feel so comfortable and balm-like, so no worries if your lips are dry or chapped. They look super glossy upon application and then they settle into a stain after an hour or two.  I wore Black Rose today and I was shocked to see that it was still there 6 hours later, for the most part...the shine was gone, but there was a pretty rosy stain left behind that didn't feel dry at all.
I plan to continue wearing these...I want to see how long Make Me Blush lasts compared to the darker shades and also try that concealer trick with Skyfall, so stay tuned for updates!