What is "hard candy"

n. (context US English) A candy prepared from one or more syrups boiled to a temperature of 160 °C (320 °F), thereafter becoming stiff and brittle at room temperature.

n. candy that is brittle; "you can break a tooth on that hard candy"

Hard Candy is the fourth studio album by Counting Crows, released in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2002 and the following day in the United States.

The album features the hidden track " Big Yellow Taxi", a Joni Mitchell cover. This was one of their biggest radio hits from the album, however, re-releases of the album were revised to mention the song. Originally the song did not include Vanessa Carlton and the standard version caught the ear of a producer who added it to the movie Two Weeks Notice adding Carlton's voice to the track. This version topped the VH-1 charts and American Top 40 for a while. A new version of the song "Holiday in Spain", recorded as a duet in two languages, turning into a "round" before the final choruses with the Dutch band BLØF, became a #1 hit in the Netherlands.

Hard Candy is an American 2005 crime film focusing on the torture of a male sexual predator by a 14-year-old female vigilante. The film was directed by David Slade, written by Brian Nelson, and starred Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson. It was the first feature film for Slade, who had previously mainly directed music videos.

The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and was screened at the Florida Film Festival in April 2006. It had limited release in two theaters in the US. The film made over $7 million at the box office, including almost $6 million from outside the US, on a budget of under $1 million.

Hard Candy won three awards at the 2005 Sitges Film Festival, four awards at the Málaga Film Festival, and was also awarded Overlooked Film of the Year at the 2006 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards. Page won Best Actress at the 2006 Austin Film Critics Association Awards.

Hard Candy is an American cosmetics company, founded in 1995 by Iranian American sisters and Benjamin A. Einstein. Dineh Mohajer and ex-boyfriend Ben Einstein (who now owns Einstein Cosmetics) and several successful sport media companies, Pooneh Mohajer (who now owns tokidoki). The company's first product was nail polish that Dineh mixed herself - a shade of baby blue named "Sky" to match her Charles David sandals. After receiving scores of compliments on the unique shade, Dineh began selling it at Fred Segal in Santa Monica, and Ben began selling to many other top retailers including Nordstroms. In that same year, actress Alicia Silverstone appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and, when asked about her pastel blue fingernails, replied, "It's 'Sky' by Hard Candy," causing an overnight explosion of the brand. Ben and Dineh appeared on segments of MTV House of Style program several times. A mere 18 months later, the brand was quoted as generating $10 million a year in a Forbes advertisement featuring Dineh.

Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), who owns Donna Karan, Givenchy, Sephora, TAG Heuer, and Veuve Clicquot, acquired Hard Candy in 1999 for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition afforded Hard Candy greater distribution and a larger brand to attach itself to. It was later sold to Falic Fashion Group, a Hollywood, Florida based corporation operating on the duty-free market, and a subsidiary of Duty Free America. In 2009, Hard Candy announced a partnership with Wal-Mart to take the brand to mass.

NuWorld Beauty and Wal-Mart have worked together for over a year on the marketing concept, product creation, and package development of Hard Candy. “We at NuWorld beauty were very excited developing this brand. It was a tremendous amount of fun. The sole direction we provided to the product development and marketing team was to create the line as if we were creating a prestige brand for the specialty market. The team exceeded my expectations.” says Stu Dolleck, President of NuWorld Beauty.

Hard Candy's new line, which premiered in the fall of 2009, consists of 261 products. The company kept some of the original Hard Candy products, among them their iconic nail polish, and introduced new products, such as Kaleyedescope Baked Eyeshadow, Eye Tattoo, Press-On Eyeshadow, and Take Me Out Eyeliner, which doubles as a hair stick.

Hard Candy is the second solo album by Ned Doheny. It features his version of "Love of Your Own" (written with Hamish Stuart) which was also recorded with Stuart's Average White Band the same year. It also includes the original version of “Get It Up for Love” which was covered by Táta Vega in 1979. Her version was a Top 20 dance single.

Hard Candy is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was released on April 19, 2008, by Warner Bros. Records. The album was her final studio album with the record company, marking the end of a 25-year recording history. Madonna started working on the album in early 2007, and collaborated with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, The Neptunes and Nate "Danja" Hills. The album has an overall R&B vibe, while remaining a dance-pop record at its core. The Pet Shop Boys were also asked to collaborate with Madonna on the album by Warner Bros., but the record company later changed their mind and withdrew their invitation.

Madonna became interested in collaborating with Timberlake after hearing his 2006 album FutureSex/LoveSounds. Together they developed a number of songs for the album, but the basis of the development was Pharrell Williams' demos. Madonna had a number of songs written down for the album, which amazed Timberlake. They had intensive discussions among themselves before recording a song. Later, Madonna recalled that most of the songs on Hard Candy were autobiographical in many respects. However, according to her this was not intentional and happened while she was in the process of developing the album.

Madonna had initially decided to portray herself as the Black Madonna for the cover art, and call it the same, but later felt the idea may have been seen as controversial. She instead named the album "Hard Candy", which refers to the juxtaposition of toughness and sweetness. Critical reaction to the album were generally favorable, though some reviewers condemned it for its attempt to harness the urban market. On release Hard Candy debuted at number one in 37 countries worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom and became the eleventh best-selling album worldwide of 2008. The album has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.

Three singles were released from the album. The first, " 4 Minutes", was a worldwide success, topping the charts in 21 countries and becoming Madonna's 37th Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hit. Other singles released were " Give It 2 Me" and " Miles Away". To promote the album, Madonna went on a small promotional tour, where she played in three cities in small venues. The album received the majority of its promotion from the 2008–09 Sticky & Sweet Tour, which went on to become the highest grossing tour ever by a solo female artist.

Hard candy is a type of candy made to dissolve slowly in the mouth.

Hard Candy may also refer to:

• Hard Candy (cosmetics), an American cosmetics company
• Hard Candy (film), a 2005 film directed by David Slade
• Hard Candy (Counting Crows album), or the title song, 2002
• Hard Candy (Madonna album), 2008
• Hard Candy (Ned Doheny album), 1976
• Hard Candy: A Book of Stories, a 1954 collection by Tennessee Williams
• Hard Candy, a 1989 novel from the Burke series by Andrew Vachss
• Hard Candy, a play by Jonathan Rand
• "Hard Candy", a song from Blue October's 2013 album Sway

A hard candy, or boiled sweet, is a sugar candy prepared from one or more sugar-based syrups that is boiled to a temperature of 160 °C (320 °F) to make candy. Among the many hard candy varieties are stick candy (such as the candy cane), lollipops, aniseed twists, and bêtises de Cambrai.

Hard candy is nearly 100% sugar by weight; Recipes for hard candy may use syrups of sucrose, glucose, fructose or other sugars. Sugar-free versions have also been created.

Once the syrup blend reaches the target temperature, the candy maker removes it from the heat source and may add citric acid, food dye, and some flavouring, such as a plant extract, essential oil, or flavorant. The syrup concoction, which is now very thick, can be poured into a mold or tray to cool. When the syrup is cool enough to handle, it can be folded, rolled, or molded into the shapes desired. After the boiled syrup cools, it is called hard candy, since it becomes stiff and brittle as it approaches room temperature.