I Bought It Affiliate Links

Over on the fab Asian Beauty subreddit, /u/inwazyja inquired if I’d be posting a review of the Lalavesi Skull Cushion that I hauled a few months ago. This got my lazy tail into gear because the cushion that I bought–the Fall Winter (F.W) Queen Skull Akma Cushion–is a seasonal thing and if you’re as intoxicated by the idea of this thing as I am by wearing it, this is a really good time to buy the cold month edition before Spring Summer (S.S) takes over, with French volcanic ash as the star ingredient (French…volcanic…huh). That said, the new spring/fall ice cushions are made out of Italian yogurt and come in both pinked-toned and yellow-toned shades, so…BUY EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER!!! ahaha

My Lalavesi cushion love story

Here’s the truth: I once thought that cushions were kind of cool, especially for travel and on-the-go touchups, but I didn’t see why people made such a big deal out of them. They seemed kind of fussy with all of their dabbing–it struck me as faddish, if pretty good as far as fads go. I tried cushions by Dr Jart, Code Glokolor, Clio, Peripera, and more recently, IOPE (the originator of the trend) and they were nice, but not transformational.

And then I received my 2014 limited edition Lalavesi F.W Queen Skull Akma Cushion in Y2 and OMG the world moved.

Let’s start with the downside of this cushion. Back when I hauled it in February, it arrived with the glorious and rockin’ Queen Skull design intact.

After a few months of living in my purse, the design has completely rubbed off. I’d say it was gone in less than a month. So sad. It was truly rockin’.

The benefits of a thin base formula

So here’s the thing that makes this cushion special: the cushion fluid is super thin to the point of being even thinner than even the runniest foundation. This means that it disperses gorgeously over one’s skin with the help of the applicator puff. That’s pretty standard for cushions.

What’s not standard would be the incredible buildability. You can layer the crap out of this cushion and it just keeps smiling and asking if you’d like to add more. This is especially important for people like me who have grouchy skin with redness and discoloration from past breakouts. Here’s a macro shot of my hand skin with a bunch of layers of the cushion formula plus powder–the application is really smooth and even, which contributes to the airbrushed skin look.

For those who don’t need 100 layers of Y2 Lalavesi base, the ridiculous glow factor one gets from this cushion is the selling point. Kbeauty fans often wonder how to get and keep that dewy, luminous glow throughout the day. Answer: cushions like this on top of great skincare imo. This cushion has so much glow (and I have such naturally oily skin) that I actually set the cushion once I’ve applied it to my whole face with a bit of Benefit’s Agent Zero Shine powder before leaving the house both to keep everything in place, but also to bring my dew down to levels that non-Koreans can understand (to many people I know the look reads as “oily” or “shiny in a bad way” when it’s just great skincare plus great makeup). If I don’t overpowder, my glow still shines through in a more subtle way. If you have hyperpigmentation due to blemishes or past blemishes I think that you’ll probably need a concealer to get full coverage, but the cushion plus powder alone starts to cut the impact of that discoloration.

To me, Lalavesi seems like a hipster brand–everything is small batch, limited run, design-y but not posh–and like the passionate salsa-maker at the Greenpoint weekend market, this over-delivers on amazingness. YES PLEASE, WANT ALL.

Ingredients

The ingredients in this cushion are amazing. 30% of the cushion formula is honey extract. Honey. This cushion smells like delicious honey. The ingredient list, translated and uploaded by Agathblog to CosDNA, demonstrates that this wonder has a total of two potential acne triggers, Dimethicone and Butylene Glycol, both rating only 1 out of 5 in terms of risk. You may never find a more fantastic base makeup, ingredient-wise. In the months I’ve been using this cushion I’ve had zero skin issues that I can attribute to it.

My cushion after 2 months

The Lalavesi cushions contains 20ml of base makeup–as opposed to most cushions that contain 15ml. This cushion lasted me more than two months (I don’t use it exclusively every day, but I end up using it a lot and grabbing it to make my face look ok after other base makeups I’m testing fail to look as good).

I was able to get a few weeks of extra mileage out of my cushion by using metal chopsticks to flip the screen. This seems extra important for this cushion since the fluid is so, well, fluid.

How to switch in your refill

I bought a refill and I decided to unwrap it for this review since my cushion is pretty much at the end of the line and I have no idea what to expect from the refills.

My main point of concern was that the refill wouldn’t come with a new applicator sponge (my original one needs to go because those things get nasty after a bit)–but the refill does! Woo!

Just pop out the original cushion.

Disinfect and scrub the old case to get it looking new.

Pop in the refill.

Peel back the Akma sticker…

Just like new.

Except for the Queen Skull design. sadface I wonder if there’s a way to make another awesome design on the lid…

Where to buy it

Amazon (make sure to check that you’re buying the one you want–the ingredients vary by season; this is a review for the F.W formula) | eBay | Lalavesi.com (either using their flat fee EMS shipping for international orders or Avecko’s proxy shopping service) | Twofacemall (free shipping)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Clicking those links before you shop means that fan-b receives a small commission, which helps to support the blog. Please see my full disclosure for more information.