I really do love when Hard Candy comes out with new products, because there's always something I want to try, and even though I wasn't planning on picking up any makeup on this particular trip to Walmart I had to buy this as soon as I saw it. In truth, I actually picked up every shade but I managed to restrict myself to just one so that I could get a feel for the formula. If you haven't checked out what's new from Hard Candy in the past month, I highly recommend a trip to Walmart to check out the display. Also, there have been some great blog posts from other bloggers about some of the new products recently, so a little Googling could be in order. Anyway, on to the review of this particular product, shall we?

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Hard Candy All Matte Up Hydrating Lip Stain is a matte lip crayon that gives a crushed velvet look and feel while having the hydrating benefits of a balm and the long-wear power of stain. Long-wear color is wrapped in a balm-like base that leaves lips feeling soft and kissable all day. The formula contains tropical butters and oils to moisturize while velvety smooth powders blur and fill in fine lines. The precision tip lines lips and fills them with hydrating color to accentuate your pout. The retractable pencil never has you digging for a sharpener again.

Shall we first discuss the packaging? This product looks pretty much bang on to the Revlon Colorburst Matte Balms and I feel like that was very much intentional. Everything about this product at first glance seems to reference the product. A traditional lip chubby, this product comes in a matte finish tube in a shade to correspond with the colour of the product. With this particular one, I find that the tube is quite a bit more rosy than the product itself, which is a much truer Marsala shade with a lot of warm terracotta tone to it. The grapics on the packaging are pretty gorgeous, in my opinion, and I'd have to say that I think this is one of the nicest looking products I own from Hard Candy. My only complaint would really be that the lid doesn't feel quite that secure and I don't think I would feel confident tossing this product in my purse for fear that the lid would fall off and my purse lining would be stained to hell.

But what about the product, you ask? Okay, first off, I will say that it applies really, really beautifully. It has enough of a creamy texture that it applies smoothly without any tugging on the lips. It has a soft, slippy texture that makes me suspect it has a silicone derivative in it. For me, those are my favorite types of matte lip products lately, so that's a good thing. It does apply matte, so there's no waiting for it to set for it to matte down. 

While this does claim to be hydrating, I really don't find it to be. I find that on my lips, this is actually a little more drying than I might like. It's not to the point of feeling particularly uncomfortable, I just find that after I've removed it I really need a balm to get some moisture back into my lips. On a scale of 1-10 as far as comfort is concerned, I would place it at about a 6. It's not particularly uncomfortable, but it does feel a little bit dry once the creaminess of the initial application fades.

Wear time on this product, for me, isn't as long as I would have liked it to be. I find that within a couple of hours I see significant wearing of the colour and I need to reapply to get the colour even. That said, this does apply quite nicely on top of itself.

The shade is just absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely very on trend right now, especially for fall when warmer, browner toned lip shades are becoming more and more popular. I think that this would suit a lot of skin tones, but it also definitely won't be for everyone. I would be in my glory if it had just a little bit more mauve in it and I would find it a little more wearable for my personal skin tone and style that way.

Overall, I'd say that this is a take it or leave it product. It's very affordable and they have some really interesting looking shades, but the formula is just kinda meh. I would definitely recommend some other matte lip products at the drugstore before this one.

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