I’m following up my First Look with Kiko Cushion with a more indepth in store review. Ultimately, I decided not to buy it, but although it isn’t right for me I think it’s a fantastic product that holds it’s own well next to the original.

With my Laneige Cushion in tow, I walked into Kiko Cosmetics to do a comparison and to test the application with a proper puff, not a brush.

The first thing I did was look at the cushions side to side. I will say, at this point the Sales Assistant (a guy this time) was really interested in what I was doing, he actually asked me to give my thoughts, wrote them down and promised to send them to head office. I was a bit surprised by that. Having worked in retail, I seriously doubt that anything is going to come of it, but it was sweet.

Anyway!

The Packaging

The Kiko Cushion is incredibly impressive considering it’s made in Italy. It’s not as sturdy as the Laneige, but it pretty robust in itself. They seem to have copied the Korean design, right down to making it look like it’s refillable, but it absolutely is not. Everything is moulded together in once piece, which I think is a bit of a shame. Though, after reading up on Kiko cosmetic’s business model, it seems like they bring out new collections and once they’re gone, they’re gone. I wonder what that means for this product?

Application

I washed my puff to make sure there was no transfer and I used one half of each puff for each cushion. I couldn’t tell any difference in the consistency using the puff, they both felt the same.

The puff is the way to use a cushion foundation, second best is using a wet beauty blender. If you’re going to buy a cushion but are worried about it being unhygienic, I suggest you invest in a Rubycell replacement puff from any Amore Pacific brand. If you’re going to use a brush to apply it, then there’s no point buying a cushion. You’re not going to get as much product for one (so money is wasted), and the formula if done right is going to be a lot lighter than a regular BB/CC cream.

Colour Match

Even though I’m closer to thirty than twenty, I’m still learning about makeup and I will freely admit I know very little about it. My knowledge is limited to what I know directly applies to me. So for example, MAC have two foundations NW45 & NC 50 which are the same level of brown, however the NW 45 is more red and the NC 50 more yellow. So even though I can (and at times do) wear NC 50, my undertones are more red, so NW 45 is a better match. If you look at the chart (which while useful is not exhaustive) you can see that even though someone can be the same shade as someone, they may be completely a different undertone which makes them look totally different.

Laneige Dark is brown enough for me, but it’s a little too yellow, the Kiko Neutral 90 is brown enough for me, but a little too neutral (or blue).

The line is pretty cool huh? I had to walk outside for a few minutes, then take a bunch of awkward selfies outside of a bank to finally see this!

Clearly the coverage is not the fullest, with this you’re going to get more a natural finish out of this not full coverage. It will not hide your larger dark spots, but it does do away with the smaller ones to give a slightly more even finish.

I found the Kiko was a more matte to the Laneige’s dewy.

I picked the side with no hormonal acne (damn you hormones!) to test out the Kiko so I wouldn’t be biased. It gave me a blue-ish gray dusty finish which is kind of cool. It’s wearable, I wouldn’t wear it, but you could make it work. I think this is because using a cushion forces you to apply in thin layers, so a slightly wrong colour or wrong undertone doesn’t look as off when you apply thick layers. I liked using it, but where I can get away with using the Laneige to give me a more sun kissed look, the Kiko makes me look slightly under the weather. Not great!

Neutral 90 is their darkest shade, their shade range is as follows:

Warm Rose 30

Warm Rose 50

Warm Beige 30

Warm Beige 60

Neutral 70

Neutral 90

so they are aware of the different undertones, I guess they thought that darker skins didn’t have undertones or they didn’t want to develop any other shade and have them not be bought? Ehh who knows!

If you’re looking to try this, it is at a really cheap price (£15.90) point. I’m not going to buy it, maybe later once it’s reduced to see if if I can make it work. But for now, all my hopes are pinned on Wednesday when the Lancome Miracle Cushion is released to see which undertone that favours! I think we’re due for a red undertone cushion now! There will be another comparison review! I think I’m more likely to buy that one (be still my wallet) as all reports (though who knows how accurate they are) say 06 Beige Mocha should fall somewhere between Teint Miracle 11 & 13, my shade is 12 Ambre, so that’s good news!

Know of any other darker cushion foundations? I’d absolutely love to hear about them! If you have this cushion or any experience with any cushion in a darker shade, I’d love to hear about it too in the comments below!