I couldn't make my mind for a long time - there is so many cushions to choose from. My natural impulse would be to start off with something cheap, just to see if the whole "on the go" conception of the compact will suit me, but MASS blog was tempting me with middle range and higher end products. I was torn between three cushions: Iope Air Cushion - known as a "mother of BB cushions", so it just seems to be the right choice; VDL Beauty Metal Cushion - because MASS blog owner was recommending it as suitable for oily skin and Laneige Pore Control - because if it there is "pore" in products name I automatically feel urge to have it ;) as you can see my "pore" obsession won and I bough Laneige cushion.
Product description: Matte version of Laneige BB cushion offering neat finish, without shine. Contains Pore Purifying Complex™, which purifies pores and helps to control secretion of sebum and Soft Focus Powder, which covers enlarged pores and uneven skin. Long-lasting make up without turning dark or sticky feeling.
In the ingredients list we can find the Neem tree leaf extract, which has antibacterial properties, brightening arbutin and skin-normalising salicylic acid. The full list of ingredients you can find [here].
The cardboard box contains compact, leaflet and air tight packed additional refill for the compact. Single core of the cushion (refill) contains 15g of BB cream, so altogether we got 30g of foundation.
While unboxing my cushion I quickly understood what is that whole "cushion boom" about. The compact is just so damn pretty, so pretty I feel like buying another few and decor my house by just placing them here and there. Seriously, any room with this compact displayed gets +5 points to style.
In the compact I found the applicator sponge, all ready to use, settled on protective flap. Under the flap there is BB soaked-sponge, protected from drying out by special sticker.
The sponge seems very orange and rather dark, but the BB cream itself is very bright. There is four shades to choose from: #13 True Beige, #14 Pink Beige, #21 Natural Beige, #23 Sand Beige. Usually I go for #21, but I've read that Laneige's cushions are quite dark, so I choose #13 in this case. It turned out that I made a good choice, it has nice light beige shade:
as you can see Laneige's #13 is darker than Missha's #13, but still brighter than Missha's #21. It also has different tone, not as grayish as Missha.
Now for the cushion itself. I must admit that I haven't read the description on the Laneige website before I bought the cushion, but I assumed that product offering pore control will be suitable for oily skin, since most oily skins have problems with enlarged pores. After checking the description for this review it turned out that my assumption was correct - product is designed for porous AND oily skin. But only in theory - in my opinion this product description is completely inaccurate.
First of all, this BB cream definitely isn't matte. Not even a little bit! It offers typical for BB creams dewy effect. I must say I'm not that surprised really, I already came across a few BB creams that were supposed to be matte, but they weren't. Normally I just apply a little bit of mattifying powder and life goes on, however with this product it's not that simple - Laneige doesn't like to be mattified. Any attempt to apply even a little bit of powder on top of Laneige ends up in an immediate cakey effect. In general this BB likes to roll up in wrinkles a little bit, but after any attempt of mattifying it my face seem to be consist of pores and wrinkles only. Yuck.
The other issue I got with this product is lasting or I should say a complete lack of lasting. It starts to cake after about 5 hours, after 8 hours what I got on my face is much closer to rice pudding or semolina than to a foundation. Moreover, it tends to slip off some places on my face and build up in others, creating spots and patches. The spots are not such a big deal, all you have to do is rub them with your finger to spread the foundation back again, but at work I don't have time to check myself in the mirror every 15 minutes, so I don't know for how long I've been looking like spotty cow in front of my customers and that annoys me to bit. First thing I thought that the fault of this foundation wearing so badly was my sunscreen - I already got one BB cream (Holika Holika) that is alright applied on bare skin, but turns into disaster applied on the top of the sunscreen, so the second time I skipped my sunscreen before the cushion. Unfortunately result was exactly the same. "What a dumb bitch I am" - I thought to myself, since I haven't done my microdermabrasion treatment for a long time, so my face was a dead skin cell cemetery, no wonder then that the foundation looks cakey. I've done my microdermabrasion and the next day applied my cushion with expectations raised. No luck again - although I do think it caked a little bit less, still my makeup was in unacceptable state after 8 hours. Oh well, I thought, maybe it's one of those BB's that can't be without primer. So on the day four, I applied it on the top of Innisfree No Sebum Primer (review coming soon) - cake, again! I blamed the Innsifree this time, in general this primer is a little bit weird, so I thought that it was the primer that spoiled my makeup this time. On the day 5 I used Laneige Skin Veil base, now this time it has to work... Nope. Cake and spots were laughing at me in the mirror. On the day 6 I finally admitted that I won't make friends with this cushion, no matter how hard I try.
In my opinion, against the manufacturer statements, this cushion is definitely not suitable for oily skin and I got a feeling that on other skin type it could perform better. It looks nice for some time after application, the colour is just lovely. The coverage is just about right, evens out the skin tone and cover some imperfections and blackheads, but looks natural. It's buildable if we need more coverage and lightweight, you won't feel it on your face. The application itself is quick and easy, although some areas are tricky to reach, like the "corner" between your nose and cheek. It has high SPF 50 PA+++, but bear in mind that you don't apply enough of it to achieve true SPF50 protection, so separate sunscreen is advisable.
Price: £23-28 on e-Bay, I bought if for approx. £23 on Tester Korea.
Pros:
+ nice shade
+ coverage is perfect, evens out skin tone, but doesn't create mask-like effect and looks natural
+ gorgeous, pretty, fabulous packaging
+ easy and quick application
+ high SPF50 PA+++
+ compact is suitable for other Amore Pacific cushion refills, like Iope or Hera
Cons:
- rolls up in winkles
- doesn't last for long, gets cakey and patchy
- no promised by manufacturer sebum control
- against manufacturer description it's not matte
- any attempt to mattify it with powder makes it look very cakey and ugly
Summary
There is quite a lot of positive reviews about this product in the Internet and I don't think it's utterly useless, I think it's just nor for me. I regret buying it, mostly because it's not cheap, actually is the most expensive BB I've bought so far. Yes, it is pretty and handy, but I don't fancy paying double or triple the price of normal BB just for the pretty packaging. For comparison, one of my favourite BB - Tony Moly Dear Me Petite Cotton costs only £5 and lasts on my face for the whole day. I don't like wastage, so I'm not gonna throw the cushion away, I will use up the current refill for some quick go outs, when I will be able to get back home before it gets all cakey and patchy. But I won't attempt trying to use the second refill, so I have send it to someone else. We shall see how dry skinned person finds it :)
