My goodness! It’s arrived, the cushion is here! I planned to buy it at Boots to collect the points, but the nice lady at Debenhams was so charming and helped my mother and I work out some discounts so thought we’d give the sale to her. The power of customer service!

This is the first makeup product that I’ve been super excited about before the release date. I normally don’t know anything about anything! But with Cushion Foundations being my thing, this was something I was definitely going to get on Day 1.

Hold on to your horses, because this is a long one!

What’s in the Box?

The product comes with only the product, no refill. Those are a separate purchase. The good news is that they’re cheaper by about £10 so if you’re unsure you can always buy the refill to use.

Skin Match.

Perfect. Honestly, so perfect. If you’re NW45 in MAC this would be a perfect match.

Here are some swatches of foundations I currently use that are a match for me. I’ve used all of these on my face with varying amounts of success, my favourite out of all of these is the Miracle Cushion. The YSL is my go to special occasion foundation as it has a lot of coverage.

Although I’d been matched with Lancôme Teint Miracle 12 and I liked it, I always felt it was a little bit off somehow. It wasn’t until I let the swatches dry out that I realised why, it’s because when it dries, it dries super dark on my skin which throws off the match.

Because it’s hard to see I took another fresh swatch, here you see out of the packaging they both look pretty close in shade. They aren’t exactly the same but the formulation feels pretty similar.

Application Method

Although the Lancôme Cushion does not come with a Rubycell puff and it’s not a BB/CC but a full foundation, I’ve found that to get the thin layer effect, patting is still the best method of application. Though, because of how similar if not identical the formulation is to their existing Teint Miracle foundation, I don’t think it matters too much.

The instructions mention patting, but I think that it’s still a bit confusing for people to wrap their heads around especially as Lisa Eldridge doesn’t pat in the official tutorial video. Here’s a video that shows the patting motion which is more like a bounce really. You bounce-pat the puff on your face.

Caring for your Cushion Puff

I’ve washed the puff a few times using the Laneige Method and it works fine. I add another step, which is washing the puff with an old face wash a few times between rinses because the foundation really sticks to it. It doesn’t emulsify off, it kind of gloops off, it’s not a pleasant mixture so I wouldn’t pour it down the sink.

My Experience

The first thing I noticed , was that compared to the other cushions the Lancôme has a really porous sponge.

Which means that a lot of product comes off the puff and because it isn’t rubycell, it means a lot of product then stays on the puff which is a huge shame.

That being said, I love my Lancôme Miracle Cushion, I think it’s a wonderful product that has used the cushion technology developed by Amore Pacific to deliver a more Western experience. I am grateful that Lancôme has expanded on the shade ranges so people like me can get in on the cushion foundation party. I am however a little disappointed at the quality of the finished product, compared to the original it is lacking. This is more disappointing to me because Kiko Cosmetics have a really solid product, the sponge is less porous meaning that the product transfers less to the sponge and the price is really reasonable. What lets them down is their minimal shade range.

Despite all this, because of the quality of the foundation product none of that seems to matter when I’m actually using it. On my skin the foundation is beautiful, it applies well, lasts all day and gives me a natural dewy coverage. It’s perfect because I don’t like heavy foundation and I don’t like messing around with brushes. I’m disappointed because I expected more from Lancôme, they’re such a premium brand to me so I expected the quality to match the Laneige, it did not. However, as a stand alone product without any of that prior knowledge it is wonderful.

If you are like me, don’t like brushes and don’t use a lot of makeup then I would strongly recommend this for you.This is now my go to everyday base foundation and I have to stop myself from buying the refills without first hitting pan on this. It’s an absolute dream to use.

Have you tried this product? Thinking about getting it? I’d absolutely love to hear your experiences with it, or if you know of any other cushion foundation that has darker shades let me know!