NYC Sweet Candy Shimmer Blast

Around this time last year, I was over the moon about NYC Shimmer Blast.  I wound up hoarding it and I think there are probably six bottles of it in my house now.  Might be more.  It's one of those polishes that I don't ever want to be without, even though I haven't used it all that often.  So you can imagine that  I might have made a funny noise and maybe flailed a little when I saw Nouveau Cheap's post about a new Shimmer Blast called Sweet Candy.  Rite Aid isn't the easiest store for me to get to (would it kill them to have even one 24hr store around here?), but I went just a couple of days after I saw G.'s post and snagged a bottle of Sweet Candy, along with Mimosa Bouquet.  Life didn't let me really go full-out and swatch the original Shimmer Blast like I wanted to last year, so I made up for it this time!  There are a lot of photos in this post.  I compared it to the original too, if you're wondering.

Since I wore the first Shimmer Blast over a nude last time, let's take a look at Sweet Candy over one first.

over Revlon Trade Winds and OPI Glints Of Glinda

It's just as subtly magical as the original!  I wore this combo for days and didn't want to take it off.  Ever.  Sweet Candy is awesome and one coat of OPI Glints Of Glinda over two of Revlon Trade Winds matches my skin so perfectly that The Beard was a little creeped out.  All of this soft shimmer comes from just one coat of Sweet Candy and it applies very evenly.

It plays with the light so stunningly!  As simple and SFW as this is, I kept looking at it to see how it changed.  Sometimes you can barely see the shimmer at all...

...but somehow that adds to its beauty when it glows and glistens, especially in direct sunlight.

I couldn't couldn't limit myself to just the nude base though.  Swatching my Sinful Colors Oh My Mod picks gave me the perfect chance to put it over bolder colors too.

over Sinful Colors Beatnick

I had RBL Aqua Lily (or more specifically its dupe, Gap Bright Pool) in mind when I put a coat of Sweet Candy over Sinful Colors Beatnick.  Beatnick is a bit darker than the base color of Aqua Lily and the shimmer is larger and a bit less dense, but the idea is similar.  Since both Aqua Lily and Bright Pool are HTF now, this might be a good lemming soother.

Sweet Candy stands out more over a bolder background, but still has a shy side.

Since enough is never enough, I also wore it over Sinful Colors Go Go Boots.

over Sinful Colors Go Go Boots

It's so versatile, isn't it?  I love shimmers like this because they're a little bit different each time you layer them over something new.  Because Go Go Boots is darker than Beatnick, Sweet Candy is less subtle, but it also pops less because the colors harmonize instead of clashing.  The slight shift to gold in the larger particles is much more visible this way than in the previous two.  There's even a hint of purple that starts to come out over the darker colors.

Because the shimmer stands out more in this combo, this was the one I mattified.  It's better glossy, I think, but nice this way too.

So how does Sweet Candy compare to last year's Shimmer Blast?  It all depends on the base.  Over a light color like my pale girl nudes, they're not all that different.  Over black it becomes much more obvious.

Shimmer Blast * Sweet Candy * Shimmer Blast * Sweet Candy

They've both got a mix of fine and larger shimmer and the amount of shimmer is the same, but the colors are drastically different.  Shimmer Blast has blue, teal, and gold.  Sweet Candy has the same hints of gold, but is dominated by fuchsia and purple.

The complexity and density of both Shimmer Blasts are even more obvious when they're mattified.

Bottom line: Even if you have last year's version, you need Sweet Candy too!  I really hope they do more of these.  I want them in every color...especially green.


If you're still with me after all of that, what did you think of my little collage at the top?  Should I do one for all of my multi-swatch posts?