Hard Candy

I finally bit the bullet and bought a bottle of Hard Candy "blind" from a perfume website, based on what I'd read about it. Well, there's no doubting this perfume is sweet! When I first sprayed it on I was overwhelmed by its sugariness and I felt as if I'd been doused in liquid brown sugar. My initial reaction was that I might hate the perfume and have to return it but I decided to ride out the initial mega-sugary wave and see what happened. After half an hour or so it started to smell so much better and I was glad I'd resisted my initial urge to wash it off. I started to smell some of the fruitiness sneaking up, which offset all that sugariness, and definitely the rhubarb gives it a slight kick to freshen it up. Ultimately it ended up smelling lovely - still sweet but it had morphed from super pure sugariness to a warm, creamy sweetness, like melted fudge or warm caramel. Really quite sexy and yummy!! Also, it was still going strong well over 12 hours after I'd sprayed it on. The packaging Hard Candy comes in is very nice - a metallic silver box with pretty flowers all over it, an unusual front flap opening and, as other reviewers have mentioned, a list on the back of the different notes, which is pretty unique. I've never seen that before on any perfume box and I wish more perfume companies would do that! The bottle is actually quite nice too, and the cap looks like a brightly colored, crystalline UFO! So, now I really love my Hard Candy and am so glad I kept my bottle! Hooray. :-)) UPDATE: Thanks to one of my Fragrantica pals, I got to sample Pink Sugar for the first time and I can say that they are both very similar. On my skin though the difference between the two is that Hard Candy smells more like yummy. creamy warm caramel with a touch of rhubarb / passionfruit fruitiness, whereas Pink Sugar is more flat, powdery, dry sweet (almost like icing sugar!) with zero fruitiness. Hard Candy also lasts longer on my skin, has good sillage, plus it's cheaper than Pink Sugar (oh, and the bottle and packaging are far nicer too!). So, for me Hard Candy definitely wins out over Pink Sugar!

I have reviewed this before , but ive been wearing so much of this recently that Ive realised how lost id be without it :) ( I know its "Only " a perfume , but Id imagine others on here will recognise the feeling of "dread" if they were not be able to get hold of an old favorite any more ) I read online that this is now discontinued , so If your a fan this is a heads up. Still lots online , at very low price. Worth every penny. A lot of my expensive perfumes dont last as long or get me the compliments this one does. This is still in my winter top 5 , Ive not got tired of it at all after 2 years of wear....In fact Ive been itching to break it out since late Sep , waiting for the weather to become cool enough , since thi8s is a frag I can only wear in the coldest months. ( I think it would be pretty unbearable in warm weather - Yuk - Sticky sweet meltdown - Not what you want in the summer!) I have yet to find any other perfume that fuses the uber sweet with the sour ( Rhubarb) , I love sourness in perfume when its done right. Hard Candy does get it right , that sour kick and the white tea just gives it a contrast and lift to stop it been over sickly. I just adore this stuff....Going to start stockpiling/hoarding now as I would not want to do a cold winter without it. . . Its freezing here ATM, and been wrapped in a scent cocoon of this frag really cheers me up. It doesnt smell like any other of the "sweetie" scents out there , very unique. I always test new release perfumes and every other "sweet" perfume out there seems weak , bland and generic in comparison. ( Note - I have yet to test "Pink Sugar" , which is marked as similar) I also like H.C's cute make up line , its a shame they never made any more perfumes , id of liked to have seen what they came up with for a summer scent , or a flanker! ....But its not going to happen ....Shame. Great stuff for bargain price :)

This is such a fun scent, it's a shame I can't find a bottle of this former cheapie anywhere at a reasonable price. Hard Candy mainly smells like super sweet, slightly creamy vanilla, caramel and sugar. The fruit notes of rhubarb and passion fruit are perfect for this, they are juicy and a little tart, so they balance the gourmand notes. I love rhubarb, and while it's not extremely realistic in this, it's clearly recognizable and can't be confused with any other fruit. In the drydown the scent turns even more vanillic, and I can also smell some clean musk and jasmine, so it still smells like real perfume despite all the sweet and edible notes. The base reminds me a bit of Lempicka's Lolitaland, maybe it was the inspiration for that one. This is a very girly scent. If it had a color, it would be hot pink or a bright coral. To wear this, you can't take yourself too seriously. It's ideal for holidays, birthday parties and funfairs, or for rainy days at home where you need something uplifting. Bonus: It lasts all day. If you want to take the name literally, it doesn't quite match, this smells more like a sugary cocktail than a piece of hard candy. But it would fit right in with a manicure with a Hard Candy nail polish and matching plastic ring from the late 90s/early 2000s. Too bad that those are long, too.

Me likes it! Hard Candy is such a great perfume! I was looking to my small perfume collection and I found out that everything was to serious and sometimes I just felt I needed something blatantly sweet. First I thought about Fantasy, then Pink Sugar but the ruhbarb note in Hard Candy was fascinating to me. When I was living in the UK I used to buy every week a ruhbarb pie at the supermarket, everybody in my house hated it so the pie was just for me. Probably you dont know but there are no rhubarbs in Portugal, so that pie was something veeery excentric for me. Well, I'm a ruhbarb fan. Hard Candy's top notes are delicious! Yum! I love (yeah) the ruhbarb, mixed with the pepper and the tea note, in the top notes I already can smell the passiofruit and the candy, but its a very good combination that works really well. Unlike most people here, the drydown is what I like less because its too Pink Sugar for me, BUT until we get there we have a explendid time with this fresh, vibrant, happy and sexy fragrance. I'm loving it, my boyfriend is going to rauuu for it and gosh for this price we should all have one! A pink kitty cat with her paws up! This is that kind of fragrance that can putt you in a good mood! Sillage: Gracefull Longevity: All day 8/10

WOW!! I LOVE this stuff !! I bought it blind as i saw it for a very good price - £10 /100ml , i like the packaging too , it looked interesting but i did check the reviews here first :). So glad i did , this is a GOOD sweet scent . its individual enough to stand out , i don't know anyone else who wears it here in the UK ! I have had compliments off lots of people . A man asked me what i was wearing and he misheard me and thought i had said "Prada Candy". I put him right as i think Prada candy is rubbish TBH. Id much rather have some more Hard Candy and i for one will be stocking up on some more bottles before it disappears off the shelves. Very sparkling bright opening with the pepper/rhubarb combo . It settles into explosion in a sweet shop /caramel scent . Nice and strong with good sillage and it LASTS. That's a strong point for me as im sick of modern perfumes that are gone after 5 mins ( like Pradas crappy effort) 10/10 from me for Hard Candy. PS - Nice bottle , looks n smells much more expensive than it is PPS - I agree with Takheat below , I too have not experienced Rhubarb in a scent before HC. I have now looked up other Rhubarb scents to try :)

I love Hard Candy! All the way around start to finish is great - that is if you like sweet perfumes, if not stay away from this confection. The opening is very candy like for real , tangy, sweet but fresh - the rhubarb which I really have 'nt seen in many perfumes is amazing , I have to say the opening notes made me go "YES!!" right away. Later this turns into a warm soft vanilla & buttery caramelized sugar smell - with hints of the candy smell lingering.Never sickening or cheap smelling for me, Hard Candy is very well balanced in my opinion. For me I just wish it would last a ittle longer on my skin but I do believe as it gets into the cooler months it won't seem to dissipate so soon on me. I found this at Marshalls for $12.99 & I'm thrilled to have picked this one up. This is definately a young & girly fragrance. Good stuff! - the name says it all and delivers.

People who wrinkle their noses when I wear my chypre fragrances and my designer/niche ones always, always ask what sweet wonder I'm wearing when this is my fragrance of the day (or night). What is it with gourmands? Deep down, do we all love cookies, pastries and candy? If the compliments I receive are any indication the answer is a resounding "Yes!". Hard candy is vanilla caramel, rosewater Turkish Delight and cotton candy, with rhubarb adding a splash of something tart and juicy that dispels any notion that this is a mere childish sweet. This is candy for grown-ups who flash back to childhood when they walk into a candy shop and smile and even giggle a little when they walk out with a little paper sack full of goodies. Amazing longevity and powerful sillage - a little goes a long way. Go on, treat yourself!

Blind buy, bought based on the reviews, I was VERY scared it was going to turn nauseatingly sweet on me....but I just adore this perfume. It smells of rhubarb, vanilla and (nearly salted) toffee . And it smells all day. I have a 100ml bottle that I purchased in TKMaxx for 18 EUR so I don't have to use it that sparingly, I probably walk around smelling like rhubarb pie as a result, haha, but since it's cold and rainy and windy where I live right now, I simply don't care! Let them eat PIE! I spritz behind my knees, once at the nape of my neck and on each of my wrists. That's plenty to keep me happy and smelling the frag until the very evening. Projection: Strong and Excellent 5/5 Longevity: 10h+, 5/5 Price: affordable, 5/5 Winner!

Carmel and vanilla is all I smell when I wear this, and I absolutely adore it. I cant get enough of Hard Candy. Bought it recently, but I have a feeling the bottle isn't going to last very long because I cant stop spraying it all over myself. It also never fails to land me some compliments, either. People often say I smell like: sugar, sweets, cotton candy, cookies or bubblegum. This is gourmand to the extreme. If sweet scents is something you like, this is a must have. I thoroughly enjoy it. It lasts long & it mixes very well with my body chemistry. The only downside to this, is that whenever I wear it I start to get hungry from smelling candy the whole day.

Yum! I love this. Sparkly and juicy on the top, I actually get a lot of the tea and the rhubarb and it's such a delcious combination (yes, really! :p). The passionfruit then joins the show and it becomes even juicier. Caramel and Vanilla takes center stage at the end and there it becomes warmer. This fragrance is lovely, when I tried it on my sister mentioned that it smelled just like Pink Sugar but I don't smell this outwright although I can see where the similarities lie with the vanilla and caramel. This is a lot juicier then Pink Sugar though, especially when you first spray. Lasting power on me is around a good 6/ 7 hours with medium sillage.

I was pretty cautious trying this as I expected to be walloped with a load of sugar. Yes, there is lots of sugar on the opening but once the alcohol has gone it calms down to basically a licorice fragrance. I can only imagine it has something to do with the rhubarb/caramel combo and my chemistry. The sour must be off setting the sweetness to some degree. Admittedly this is a pretty basic fragrance but if you have a hankering for something sweet then just put this on and it will pass lol Good longevity and the sillage is good as well. This is a fragrance for leisure wear. Cheerful and yes comforting

This scent is grand. It is sweet but it isn't overly sweet like some have said. When I first sprayed it smelled like a lemon drop and i was a bit worried that I was going to walk around smelling like Candy Land. However, the dry down is great, it is still sweet but the caramel adds a nice buttery smell. The staying power is great but doesn't over power. This scent will never be a classic like Joy or Shalimar, but it is a nice fun scent. It is great for people that are looking for something fun but not overly teen nor smelling like their mother.

My latest blind buy has arrived :D on first spray it's powdery to me and very quickly that changes to the smell of skittles, you almost can taste the rainbow with this perfume! After the skittles scent mellows down the smell of rhubard sneaks up on in there then eventually on the dry down I get a slight caramel/vanilla scent. It's a lovely perfume and definitely a great blind buy, I got the largest bottle for £11.90, really can't complain about that! I gave my younger sister a spray and she said "It smells like a Lush (Cosmetics) bath!"

This is my favourite caramel. It's not suffocating and cloying sweet, but much more complex. On my skin evolves salty caramel and rhubarb(which is becoming my favourite fruit note) gives a sourness. Mixed with vanilla and peppery notes makes it very unique. For gourmand lovers is Quite safe blind buy, maybe you can still buy it affordable. It was a cheapie in EU but now it's available for a triple price on e-bay. Longevity and sillage are above average.

Wearing my last spray out of the bottle in bed now, and sniffing happily away. It's cold wet and depressing outside but I'm all snug as a bug in a rug and happy as Larry while sniffing this. This scent is anti depressant in a bottle for me and I'm not looking forward to a winter without it. I have If anyone wants rid of a bottle then I.pls get in touch as it's becoming impossible to buy online in UK now.

It's a slightly less sweet version of Aquolina's Gold Sugar (the citrus version of Pink Sugar) with a sour opening that passes rather quickly. It's long lasting and has a moderate silage. If you have Pink Sugar, Gold Sugar, or Prada Candy, then I'd say you should pass on this fragrance unless you enjoy smelling like a candy shop.

Sweet, sweet and at last sweet! It ́s so sweet that it ́s just for the ones who are really into sweet fragrances. But it ́s so addictive and that ́s because of the rhubarb in it. It ́s also very strong so 2 sprays will lasts all day. The combination of vanilla and rhubarb is very nice and i love it very much.

Adoro este perfume, me encanta, ha sido el perfume dulce mas exquisiro que he probado, lo malo es que creo que la compañia de cosmeticos Hard Candy ya no lo saca a la venta :'( Si alguien sabe donde puedo comprarlo , diganme por favor, soy de México DF Thanks

Why is it discontinued? I purchased at Ross based on that it has according to box, pink pepper on. Sprayed on in car and I am in love. Don't smell pink peppercorn but smells lovely. Looking forward to dry down.

este perfume es realmente un gourmand, es como oler dentro de una bolsa de caramelos, pero de caramelos de leche. personalmente me gusta mucho, amo los perfumes dulces, si no te gustan dulces ni lo intentes.