You did, I watched, but you needed a horizontally striped candy into the licorice row as early as possible.
You could have done so earlier by using the vertical striped candy to explode the horizontal striped candy.

This (type of) layer is a puzzle. It is essential to be planning several moves at once to achieve a goal.

Primary goal, get rid of the licorice. (In the image above) bring purples down to clear that purple licorice.

The higher levels are the same, you just have to do them in less moves, or a more intricate pattern.